St. Mary’s College of Maryland has hired Easley Pierson as an assistant athletic trainer, adding a staff member with experience across college, high school and professional sports to its sports medicine team.
Head Athletic Trainer DJ Hayes announced the hire Wednesday, effective the same day. Pierson will care for four of the college’s varsity programs — women’s volleyball, women’s basketball, men’s lacrosse and sailing — as part of the Seahawks sports medicine staff. “Throughout the hiring process, he demonstrated a strong commitment to student-athlete care, collaboration, and professional growth,” Hayes said. “I am confident Easley will be a tremendous asset to our sports medicine team and will have a positive impact on the health, performance, and overall experience of our student-athletes.”
Pierson, a Smyrna, Delaware, native, arrives with a resume built almost entirely around hands-on clinical experience rather than a single long-term posting. Most recently, he spent February through May of this year working as an athletic training student with the Louisville Kings, an expansion franchise in the United Football League that played its inaugural season in 2026 out of Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. Before that, he held athletic training student positions with Lebanon Valley College’s football program in 2024 and its women’s ice hockey program in 2025, along with stints at Wyomissing Area High School and North Lebanon Secondary School, both in Pennsylvania. He also completed clinical internships at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health and Penn State Family Medicine between May and June 2025, and worked as an athletic training student at the Spooky Nook Sports Complex from August through December 2024.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join St. Mary’s College of Maryland and excited to build meaningful relationships while contributing to a culture of excellence that helps our student-athletes succeed both on and off the field,” Pierson said.
Pierson’s own athletic background is in lacrosse. He was a four-year letterwinner at NCAA Division III Lebanon Valley College in the Middle Atlantic Conference’s Freedom Conference, playing defender in 65 career games. He scooped up 79 ground balls and caused 37 turnovers over his career, adding four points on three goals and an assist. As a senior, he earned a spot on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team and made both the MAC Academic Honor Roll and the EAST-COMM Academic Honor Roll. Pierson graduated from Lebanon Valley in May 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science, then completed a master’s in athletic training at the same school in May 2026.
Pierson’s arrival continues a recent pattern of St. Mary’s College staffing decisions drawing from Lebanon Valley College. The Seahawks’ field hockey program hired Lebanon Valley graduate Jenna Angstadt as an assistant coach and communications staffer in July, giving the athletic department a second recent addition with ties to the same Pennsylvania school.
The hire comes as St. Mary’s College works to maintain momentum built over a strong stretch for Seahawks athletics. The college captured 13 conference championships across its sports programs during the 2025-26 season, with every eligible program advancing to postseason play for a second consecutive year, building on three straight United East Conference Presidents’ Cup titles the school won between 2022-23 and 2024-25. That stretch of success came under former Director of Athletics and Recreation Crystal Gibson, who left the college in the spring to take an athletics leadership role at Widener University after 12 years at St. Mary’s, including six as head women’s basketball coach.
Athletic training staff play a central role in that kind of sustained success, handling injury prevention, treatment and return-to-play decisions for the roughly 21 varsity programs the college fields as a Division III member of the United East Conference. With Pierson’s addition, the sports medicine department adds a staffer with recent exposure to both amateur and professional-level athletic training environments, from Pennsylvania high schools to a first-year professional football franchise.
