Meet the Head Coach
Shelly Pierson is in her 14th year as DVC’s head men’s and women’s cross-country coach with the objective to bring out the best and get the most from her athletes while giving them a realistic perceptive on what it takes to be a student-athlete at the college level. Shelly has developed one of the top men’s and women’s cross-country programs in the Big 8 conference and coached several athletes, both male and female, to individual conference championships, individual NorCal championships and a men’s team conference championship in 2017.
Her passion for competitive running has led to a lifelong journey and experience as an athlete that started in middle school. As a product of community college athletics, she has a clear view of the process required to successfully develop and achieve a higher level of athleticism at the next level.
While attending community college (Allan Hancock College), Shelly was a state finalist in both XC/TF, Coast Valley Conference individual champion in XC, All-Northern California 1st team n XC (3rd pace) as well as a Division II NCAA XC/TF All-American while completing her B.S. in Kinesiology at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo. These experiences helped pave the road for her opportunity to run competitively for New Balance at the national level through 2009.
In addition to head men’s and women’s cross-country coach, Shelly is also a Professor of Kinesiology and program director of the Fitness Instruction/Personal Training Degree/Certificate programs at DVC. She has been teaching at Diablo Valley College since January1999.
Previously, Pierson was also the head men’s and women’s track and field coach at DVC until 2015 and associate cross-country and track and field coach in 2000 and 2001.
Prior to her tenure at DVC, she was the Head Men’s and Women’s XC and Track and Field coach (1996-2000) at Clayton Valley Charter High School in Concord, where she led her Lady eagles to 5 consecutive NCS titles and runner up at the CIF state XC meet in 1996.
Shelly holds a Master of Science degree from California State University–East Bay in Kinesiology, and has also completed additional graduate work at Cal Poly- SLO in Exercise Physiology.
If you're interested in joining the program, contact Shelly Pierson at SPierson@dvc.edu