Pieroni transforms from tennis to basketball standout

Nansemond-Suffolk Academy senior Jessica Pieroni has been working on her metamorphosis from a tennis player to a basketball player for the last five years.

Her play this year on the hardwood for the Lady Saints has simply reinforced the fact of her successful transition.

“Everything that she has gained, it’s been through hard work,” NSA girls’ basketball coach Kim Aston said. She recalled Pieroni as an eighth grader in her first year on varsity and said, “I never would have imagined that she would reach the point where she’s at now.”

She is frequently her team’s top scoring threat, and in three games spanning from Jan. 7 to 11, she led her team in scoring each time en route to three wins and the title of Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.

She put up 19 points in a 54-39 road win against Hampton Roads Academy, and then she posted consecutive double-doubles. She recorded 18 points and 10 rebounds in a 54-27 road win over Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School and 20 points and 10 boards in a 54-52 victory over visiting Collegiate School, the current No. 3 Division I private school team in Virginia.

Pieroni said she felt good about the games from both team and individual standpoints.

“Individually, I thought I rebounded the ball a lot better than I have been in any time I ever remember, honestly, so that was really a big factor,” she said.

Aston agreed, noting Pieroni has begun to develop her game beyond just scoring and has pushed herself to become more aggressive.

“That’s just not her personality, but I think that she’s really worked hard at it, and it’s made a big difference in her game,” Aston said.

Pieroni’s father, Brian Pieroni, played in high school and college. He grew up with Aston and now serves as her assistant coach at NSA.

The two of them helped Jessica Pieroni get her first significant exposure to basketball via Aston’s summer basketball camp.

“I was about 4 years old the first time I went to her camp,” she recalled.

She later played recreationally in Chesapeake and followed the NSA junior varsity team as one of its managers in sixth grade, but basketball was still not her main focus.

“I played tennis up until 10th grade, but I started shifting my focus to basketball about seventh grade,” Pieroni said.

But she was not an automatic star.

Her father said he made a point not to push her into his primary sport, but he was excited when she decided she wanted to become good at it.

“The switch flipped on, and then I (could) go back to all the things I worked on,” he said. “Kim and I grew up together playing, so all the old drills we used to do, I put (Jessica) through them, and she wanted to do them the next day. So, then, we just kept going, and so it’s exciting and very satisfying to see her progress.”

He has been able to relate to the personal sacrifices she has made to improve. “It’s an every day commitment,” he said.

In the most recent off-season, Jessica Pieroni played Amateur Athletic Union basketball, which included two practices a week. Two or three days a week, she had hour-long strength and conditioning sessions with Brian Tapp, a trainer at Speed by Rick Cox, the all-sport training center in Chesapeake.

She also had grueling sessions with basketball trainer Anthony Chappelle and would go to the gym two to four times a week with her father.

“That kid works so hard,” Brian Pieroni said.

And the recognition is starting to arrive, as colleges have shown interest. She has a preferred walk-on spot at Old Dominion University.

For now, she is playing the college search by ear.