Coach, Mentor, Mom: Former Blue Devil Star Gives Back From the Bench

By Luciana Chavez Special to Merced College Merced College alumna Jordan Pierce is running down basketball coaching opportunities like the loud, enthusiastic shooting guard she was for the Blue Devils from 2016-2018. The current assistant coach for the Merced College women’s team also guides the girls varsity program at Stone Ridge Christian High School. Her love for basketball is a big love, so double-dipping with programs on different levels feels right. “You see the sport from a different perspective,” the 25-year old said about coaching. “After I finished playing, I still wanted to be involved, and the best way to do that is coaching. … So far it has been such a great experience.” Playing Pierce learned the game from her father Robert Pierce, principal at Merced Valley Charter School, who coached her at Merced High. She elevated her game at Merced College. The Blue Devils finished second in the state while Pierce earned first-team All-Conference honors as a sophomore in 2017-2018. “I was a confident player,” she said. “I was just encouraging and outgoing and loud. And I think the energy rubbed off on my teammates.” She always came in hot at 5 a.m. practices, bounding in for more running, shooting and vocalizing. Teammates would drag themselves in before sunrise, wanting to be anywhere but there. “No one wanted to be there with me talking trash at that hour!” A typical exchange saw Pierce nailing 3s and backpedaling with three fingers aloft as she screamed to longtime former women’s coach Allen Huddleston Sr. on the sideline, “You can’t stop me!” Her energy and a 31.8 shooting percentage from 3-point range earned her the captain’s “C” and then a basketball scholarship to Westcliff University in Irvine. Coaching Pierce earned her A.A. in Social and Behavioral Sciences and an A.A. in Psychology at Merced College. She got her B.A. in Education at Westcliff, and she completed her M.A. in Communication, with an emphasis in Education, from Grand Canyon University in 2023. Huddleston had already given Pierce a spot on the Merced College bench as an assistant coach starting in 2021-22. She was hired at Stone Ridge to lead the girls program for 2023-2024. Pierce loves having to hustle to get it all done. She loves learning from first-year women’s coach Aniya Baker as Baker forges a new path at the college. Pierce feels motivated to coach as long as possible, even as she eventually segues into becoming an academic counselor or professor. “They reached out to me to coach at Stone Ridge because of my work at Merced College,” she said. “I’m 25 and still a part of the college community. I never thought about it when I was playing here, but I can now see all the opportunities the college has given me.” Learning On a typical day, Pierce drives 3-year-old son Quincy to preschool by 8:30 a.m. and gets to Merced College soon after to prep practices and scouting reports for Baker. She goes back to the preschool at 1 p.m., grabs Quincy and takes him home before rushing to Stone Ridge for the afternoons. Pierce said she’s lucky to be able to leave her son at home with her mother, Priscilla Guevara, or siblings Brittany, Alexis, Donya, Katelynn and Robert Jr. It’s learning to coach while maturing as a mother that makes Pierce’s life so challenging and rewarding right now. “I think it’s all going to pay off in the end, with me being able to influence girls through coaching,” she said. Praying Pierce works hard and prays regularly. She does not hold her spirituality separately from her basketball. “The biggest thing for me is my faith,” said Pierce, who teaches Sunday school at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church in Merced. “I know this life is my calling. … I do mess up, but I can still thank God for his grace and mercy. He’s a forgiving God when we do fall short.” Pierce realizes it’s a significant responsibility for a woman to lead young women. “I have these blessings of coaching at Merced College and Stone Ridge, so I try to stay as positive as I can,” she said. “I advocate for them to continue their education. I tell them they don’t have to choose between being an athlete or a student. Do both. “I tell them that people might look down on you for going to a community college, but for me, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”