Interview by Bob Iacopi
Photography by Don Anderson
Often, it’s hard to remember that Cissy Pierce has been a Stanford basketball player for more than a year. Because of a series of nagging injuries, the Colorado native has not been seen on the Maples Pavilion floor nearly as much as fans had expected when she arrived in September, 2004, as a highly-touted recruit.
Cissy’s progress this year has been curtailed by the latest—and most serious—in the long line of injuries. It was only on Thursday November 3 – just ten days before the scheduled lead-off exhibition game with Love and Basketball -- that she was first able to participate fully in practice sessions. I sat down with her the next day after a short Friday practice to find out how she’s doing.
She broke into a big smile to answer the question. “I feel awesome! It was so much fun yesterday to run up and down that floor.”
You must be tired, right? “Well, yeah, I’m a little bit tired. I’m not used to the continuous practice thing, because I had to spend so much time on the sidelines during the rehab process. I had been doing all the drills for quite a while, but I just couldn’t play, so I have to get adjusted to all that time on the court—and the contact. It’s easy to pass the ball in a drill, but not so easy when there’s a guard bumping you and waving an arm in your face.”
So, let’s get all the details on the injury. “It happened on first day back on campus this fall. We were just playing a little pick-up game at Maples.
I went up to block a shot and rolled over someone’s back. I hit the floor on my upper back, and dislocated my right shoulder and cracked my left elbow. I popped my shoulder back in, and then I realized my elbow was a little bit dislocated so I popped it back in, too.
“I was taken in for x-rays and found out that the elbow actually was broken and a little bit of bone had chipped off. Actually, it wasn’t really the elbow. It was my ulna, one of the two bones that connect the wrist to the elbow. It wasn’t what they called a critical place, so I didn’t have to have surgery or have the bone set in a cast. When the bone broke, it didn’t move very far out of place so it just scarred itself back on.
“The dislocation also caused some ligament damage. The bone itself actually has been healed for about two weeks, but we’ve just been waiting for the ligaments to completely tighten back up around my joint, because they have been really sore and haven’t allowed me a lot of range of motion.”
While we were talking, I noticed that Cissy was not wearing any brace, even though she had recently left a practice session and was about to do some work in the weight room. “Away from basketball, I don’t have to wear any brace or support at all. On the court, I have to wear two big braces for the next 10 days. Then for the rest of the season, I’ll probably have to wear some sort of elastic sleeve.
Do the braces hinder your play? “Actually, no. Considering how bulky they look, they really don’t get into the way of my movement.”
A few Stanford players saw a lot of basketball action during Summer of 2005. But not Cissy. “I was just at home relaxing. I couldn’t get a job, and I wanted to make some money so I came back here for a couple of weeks to work with the basketball camps for the kids. Then I went back to Colorado and trained all summer. I ran, lifted weights, and played some ball with guys and girls in my home town.
“And,” she said with that wonderful Pierce smile, “I cooked dinner every night for the family. It was a great time.”
Do you still see any of your old high school buddies? “Oh yeah, a surprising number of my friends from high school and club teams wound up playing basketball at the college level—Cal, Syracuse, Kansas State, Xavier, UConn, Duke. They’re kind of all over the place, and I expect to run into some of them during the season and at tournaments.”
All right, now let’s find about this year’s Stanford team. “We’re really energetic. We’re going to play a very up-tempo game, and I’m really impressed with how fast our freshmen are improving and learning the offense. We’re very young overall. It’s really a lot different from last year. Then, we had all these great seniors, and we knew they were going to get most of the minutes. Our game in general revolved around them, because they had so much experience.
“But this year, we have a lot of open spots. We just have a couple of seniors, Krista (Rappahahn) and Shelley (Nweke), and Shelley has been hurt a lot. There are just great opportunities for the younger players, especially the freshmen. They have a much better chance of playing and improving quickly than we did last year. And people are stepping up. They want to play!”
So who do you miss most from last year’s seniors? “Actually, I miss all five of them. They were all different players, and they each brought something different to the floor. And the defense—there was T’Nae’s defense, and Seb’s defense, and oh my goodness, Susan’s defense. We relied on them so much. This year, Candice is playing great defense. And Clare—well, she’s just Clare. She’s very physical, and nobody gets off an easy shot against her.
“We also miss Kelley (Suminski) at the point. We just took her for granted. That’s one of the key positions that we’re trying to fill this year.”
There has been a report that you might be ready for next Sunday’s exhibition game and definitely ready for the season opener on November 19. What do you think? “Oh, I’ll be ready to play next week. I don’t know how the coaches will use me, but I’ll definitely be ready to play.”
So where will you play? Cissy scratched her head. “You know, I’m not really sure. The coaches have so many combinations at guard. We have six players right now who can play one or the other of the guard spots. Each one of us can do different things. Some are really athletic, some can really shoot it, some can go to the boards. A lot of us are very versatile—Candice of course, and Jillian (Harmon), and Rap, and me. So I don’t who is going to fit in at which spots."
So when Coach Tara calls your name for the first time, what do you want to bring to the floor? “I want to bring a lot of energy, be a defensive stopper, do some scoring. I just want to play a full game for the team. On defense, I have to move my feet all the time. Because of my speed, coach wants to put me on a quick ball-handler, and play good defense and be mentally tough even if my shot isn’t falling.”
What about the scoring? I mentioned that Cissy’s shot really wasn’t going in last year. “No, it wasn’t. I really worked hard on that all summer. The injury has slowed me down quite a bit. It’s really frustrating. I thought my shooting had really improved coming into this year, and now I have to work to get it back again.”
What’s your favorite shot? “I like the pull-up jumper.” Then she thought a minute. “But, I like to drive, too. Maybe even shoot the three. I’ll do anything to get the ball in the basket. I definitely want to improve my three-point percentage. I shot it a lot in high school. It didn’t always go in, but I shot it a lot. Now, I have to get them to go in. I want to improve my consistency all the way around. I’m even shooting 50 to 100 frees throws every day, trying to get that percentage up to 80 per cent.”
I reminded Cissy that all the fans love her ability to get above the rim. “If the opportunity is there to dunk, I’ll definitely do it. Honestly, I’ve only truly dunked it four or five times in my life, but if I get a chance—probably on a fast break--I’ll do it.
“Coach really stresses offensive rebounding, and she wants the shooting guards and small forwards to get up on the boards. My jumping ability really helps me a lot, so I hope to improve my rebounding a lot this year.”
Cissy has been playing competitive basketball since she was in the fifth grade. “Actually, I was on the sixth grade team when I was in fifth grade, and I played for my dad. He was tough—hard on me and hard on the team. But we won almost every game, because he was such a great coach. And he continued coaching me until I went to high school.
“I went to a big public high school, and ran track and field along with playing basketball. Actually, I hope to do some more of that at Stanford. Last year, I applied too late to participate, but this year, I want to get involved. I was a sprinter and long jumper in high school, and I want to do the same here. I love track.”
Ah, but first comes basketball. And we can hardly wait!
Often, it’s hard to remember that Cissy Pierce has been a Stanford basketball player for more than a year. Because of a series of nagging injuries, the Colorado native has not been seen on the Maples Pavilion floor nearly as much as fans had expected when she arrived in September, 2004, as a highly-touted recruit.
Cissy’s progress this year has been curtailed by the latest—and most serious—in the long line of injuries. It was only on Thursday November 3 – just ten days before the scheduled lead-off exhibition game with Love and Basketball -- that she was first able to participate fully in practice sessions. I sat down with her the next day after a short Friday practice to find out how she’s doing.
She broke into a big smile to answer the question. “I feel awesome! It was so much fun yesterday to run up and down that floor.”
You must be tired, right? “Well, yeah, I’m a little bit tired. I’m not used to the continuous practice thing, because I had to spend so much time on the sidelines during the rehab process. I had been doing all the drills for quite a while, but I just couldn’t play, so I have to get adjusted to all that time on the court—and the contact. It’s easy to pass the ball in a drill, but not so easy when there’s a guard bumping you and waving an arm in your face.”
So, let’s get all the details on the injury. “It happened on first day back on campus this fall. We were just playing a little pick-up game at Maples. 
I went up to block a shot and rolled over someone’s back. I hit the floor on my upper back, and dislocated my right shoulder and cracked my left elbow. I popped my shoulder back in, and then I realized my elbow was a little bit dislocated so I popped it back in, too.
“I was taken in for x-rays and found out that the elbow actually was broken and a little bit of bone had chipped off. Actually, it wasn’t really the elbow. It was my ulna, one of the two bones that connect the wrist to the elbow. It wasn’t what they called a critical place, so I didn’t have to have surgery or have the bone set in a cast. When the bone broke, it didn’t move very far out of place so it just scarred itself back on.
“The dislocation also caused some ligament damage. The bone itself actually has been healed for about two weeks, but we’ve just been waiting for the ligaments to completely tighten back up around my joint, because they have been really sore and haven’t allowed me a lot of range of motion.”
While we were talking, I noticed that Cissy was not wearing any brace, even though she had recently left a practice session and was about to do some work in the weight room. “Away from basketball, I don’t have to wear any brace or support at all. On the court, I have to wear two big braces for the next 10 days. Then for the rest of the season, I’ll probably have to wear some sort of elastic sleeve.
Do the braces hinder your play? “Actually, no. Considering how bulky they look, they really don’t get into the way of my movement.”
A few Stanford players saw a lot of basketball action during Summer of 2005. But not Cissy. “I was just at home relaxing. I couldn’t get a job, and I wanted to make some money so I came back here for a couple of weeks to work with the basketball camps for the kids. Then I went back to Colorado and trained all summer. I ran, lifted weights, and played some ball with guys and girls in my home town.
“And,” she said with that wonderful Pierce smile, “I cooked dinner every night for the family. It was a great time.”
Do you still see any of your old high school buddies? “Oh yeah, a surprising number of my friends from high school and club teams wound up playing basketball at the college level—Cal, Syracuse, Kansas State, Xavier, UConn, Duke. They’re kind of all over the place, and I expect to run into some of them during the season and at tournaments.”
All right, now let’s find about this year’s Stanford team. “We’re really energetic. We’re going to play a very up-tempo game, and I’m really impressed with how fast our freshmen are improving and learning the offense. We’re very young overall. It’s really a lot different from last year. Then, we had all these great seniors, and we knew they were going to get most of the minutes. Our game in general revolved around them, because they had so much experience.
“But this year, we have a lot of open spots. We just have a couple of seniors, Krista (Rappahahn) and Shelley (Nweke), and Shelley has been hurt a lot. There are just great opportunities for the younger players, especially the freshmen. They have a much better chance of playing and improving quickly than we did last year. And people are stepping up. They want to play!”
So who do you miss most from last year’s seniors? “Actually, I miss all five of them. They were all different players, and they each brought something different to the floor. And the defense—there was T’Nae’s defense, and Seb’s defense, and oh my goodness, Susan’s defense. We relied on them so much. This year, Candice is playing great defense. And Clare—well, she’s just Clare. She’s very physical, and nobody gets off an easy shot against her.
“We also miss Kelley (Suminski) at the point. We just took her for granted. That’s one of the key positions that we’re trying to fill this year.”
There has been a report that you might be ready for next Sunday’s exhibition game and definitely ready for the season opener on November 19. What do you think? “Oh, I’ll be ready to play next week. I don’t know how the coaches will use me, but I’ll definitely be ready to play.”
So where will you play? Cissy scratched her head. “You know, I’m not really sure. The coaches have so many combinations at guard. We have six players right now who can play one or the other of the guard spots. Each one of us can do different things. Some are really athletic, some can really shoot it, some can go to the boards. A lot of us are very versatile—Candice of course, and Jillian (Harmon), and Rap, and me. So I don’t who is going to fit in at which spots."
So when Coach Tara calls your name for the first time, what do you want to bring to the floor? “I want to bring a lot of energy, be a defensive stopper, do some scoring. I just want to play a full game for the team. On defense, I have to move my feet all the time. Because of my speed, coach wants to put me on a quick ball-handler, and play good defense and be mentally tough even if my shot isn’t falling.”
What about the scoring? I mentioned that Cissy’s shot really wasn’t going in last year. “No, it wasn’t. I really worked hard on that all summer. The injury has slowed me down quite a bit. It’s really frustrating. I thought my shooting had really improved coming into this year, and now I have to work to get it back again.”
What’s your favorite shot? “I like the pull-up jumper.” Then she thought a minute. “But, I like to drive, too. Maybe even shoot the three. I’ll do anything to get the ball in the basket. I definitely want to improve my three-point percentage. I shot it a lot in high school. It didn’t always go in, but I shot it a lot. Now, I have to get them to go in. I want to improve my consistency all the way around. I’m even shooting 50 to 100 frees throws every day, trying to get that percentage up to 80 per cent.”
I reminded Cissy that all the fans love her ability to get above the rim. “If the opportunity is there to dunk, I’ll definitely do it. Honestly, I’ve only truly dunked it four or five times in my life, but if I get a chance—probably on a fast break--I’ll do it.
“Coach really stresses offensive rebounding, and she wants the shooting guards and small forwards to get up on the boards. My jumping ability really helps me a lot, so I hope to improve my rebounding a lot this year.”
Cissy has been playing competitive basketball since she was in the fifth grade. “Actually, I was on the sixth grade team when I was in fifth grade, and I played for my dad. He was tough—hard on me and hard on the team. But we won almost every game, because he was such a great coach. And he continued coaching me until I went to high school.
“I went to a big public high school, and ran track and field along with playing basketball. Actually, I hope to do some more of that at Stanford. Last year, I applied too late to participate, but this year, I want to get involved. I was a sprinter and long jumper in high school, and I want to do the same here. I love track.”
Ah, but first comes basketball. And we can hardly wait!
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