When former Community Viqueen basketball standout Sarah Pierce signed her letter of intent to continue her basketball career at the Air Force Academy four years ago, little did she know that her path would deviate and take her off the court from the game she loved to new horizons in serving her country.

Pierce finished her hallowed career at Community with 2,080 points. Along the way, she led her teams to three District 9A titles, two Region 5A titles, and two consecutive TSSAA Class A state tournament appearances, including a trip to the 2016 state semifinals.

Pierce was able to stay injury-free during her stellar high school career as a Viqueen. However, it wasn’t long before she would be sidelined at the college level.

Already a starter as a freshman, Pierce tore the ACL in her left knee during her third game. The injury required season-ending surgery.

After recuperating during the offseason, Pierce was back in the normal rotation and was the first substitute off the bench during her sophomore season when a tear to the same ACL in the eighth game took her once again from the basketball court to the operating table.

It might be enough for some players to call it quits with basketball.

“After my first ACL tear it was never a question of whether or not I would continue playing,” Pierce said. “This injury would just make my story more interesting.”

“But after my second ACL tear I knew I had to have a different approach because I knew there would be a chance that I could do everything right and get through all of my recovery stuff and still never be the same,” Pierce added. “I knew there was a chance my knees just wouldn’t be capable of playing basketball at this level. But even with that in my mind, I also knew that my work ethic would never be the reason why I couldn’t live out my dream.”

After a long recovery time because of two consecutive ACL tears to the same knee, Pierce returned to action in February of her junior season and played in three games.

With one basketball year left on the horizon, Pierce set her sights on a complete senior season.

“I worked harder than I had ever worked and after a spring and summer of giving everything I had to my strength and fitness, I knew my body was ready,” Pierce said. “My coaches and teammates will tell you that nobody was in better shape than me coming into my senior year.”

“So after getting on the court, I felt kind of like myself again, and I decided that I could do it,” Pierce added.

“Before we started our preseason, our coaches announced me as one of the team captains which meant a lot after how hard I had to work to get to that point. I killed our preseason conditioning and made it into our team’s ‘Flight Club,’ which consisted of the people who make every time, touch every line, and never hit a cone or have to be told to step up to the line,” Pierce said.

“But just a week before our first game, I tore my other ACL in an intra squad scrimmage.”

Pierce saw the positives from her injuries.

“I learned a lot about myself through all the injuries. I learned no matter how hard you work you aren’t guaranteed anything,” Pierce said.

“I learned how to lead a basketball team without hardly ever playing a minute,” Pierce added. “I have a newfound love for the game of basketball because even though I didn’t get what I had always dreamed of on the court, I got things I could have never even imagined off the court.”

Pierce does not regret the decision to try to get back on the court.

“While this led me to have my third knee surgery in just four years, I don’t and never will regret my decision to keep trying,” Pierce said. “I found lifelong friends in my teammates and coaches, and learned how to find more happiness in the success of others than in my own personal success.”

“With that realization I know that in the future I will be a Division I college basketball coach, and I will be able to recruit kids like me who really have the work ethic to play at that level, but just need someone to take a chance on them,” Pierce added. “My coaches never gave up on me, and always supported my decision to keep trying. I was fortunate enough to be a part of possibly one of the greatest coaching staffs in the country led by an absolute legend in the world of coaching in Coach (Chris) Gobrecht.”

With her time diminished on the basketball court, Pierce began to think about her career off the court.

“When I was in my third year at the Academy, I explored all of my career options. I discovered the career field of Space Operations and thought it sounded cool,” Pierce said.

“I talked to some people who work in that career field and decided that I wanted to do that. I was honestly just lucky that the Space Force was established a few months before my graduation,” Pierce added.

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act establishing the United States Space Force as its own separate service of the military.

“Most people think the Space Force is still an ongoing joke, but it is in fact very real,” Pierce said. “The Air Force already had the Space Operations career field, so the jobs aren’t new, but with it being its own service now they get their own funding which will allow us to grow our space operation capabilities.”

“But the Space Force is not NASA. Space exploration is not our mission. GPS satellites, communications, missile detection, and collecting data about weather are just a few big things space operators do. By becoming its own service, the Space Force will be able to improve all of these things in order to be sure we remain ahead of our adversaries,” Pierce added.

With the concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic, Pierce’s graduation from the Air Force was moved up six weeks. On April 18, in front of Vice President Pence but without her family in attendance, Pierce graduated and was one of the first 87 officers to be commissioned directly into the United States Space Force.

“It was very disappointing not having my family there,” Pierce said. “Graduation week is something we look forward to from day one, and for three years, you watch your friends and teammates get their moment, and it was very hard to walk away without all of the big events.”

“But at the same time, the world is in a pandemic, and people have it a lot worse off than we did. I am very thankful that our leadership worked hard to at least give us a ceremony which is really a lot more than what most college grads are getting this year,” Pierce added.

After spending some time at home, Pierce will head to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in early June.

“I will go there for my job training to become a space operator for the next 6 to 10 months,” Pierce said.

“I will be there doing paperwork and miscellaneous things until I begin training to become a space operator which will take six months from the day I start,” Pierce added.

While Pierce is set to work in the space field, she looks forward to someday returning to her first love.

“My minimum commitment right now is five years,” Pierce said. “I really want to coach Division I basketball so unless I absolutely fall in love with my job as a space operator, I plan to get out at five years and begin my coaching career.”

Through it all, Pierce saw the positive side of her life at the Air Force.

“It was the hardest yet most rewarding experience of my life,” Pierce said. “I think everyone’s college experience is hard. Having a roommate is hard, being away from home is hard, Division I sports are hard, but when you throw in military training and possibly the toughest academic school in the country, things are even harder.”

“You learn how to prioritize and choose between getting a B on a test or a B on a paper,” Pierce added. “You learn to ask for help, which is actually a really hard thing to learn. And most importantly you learn that you cannot get through this alone.”

“Everyone always chooses to attend the Academy for different reasons like sports, free school, or just a desire to serve their country, but every single one of us stay because of the people,” Pierce said. “You find a new family in the people around you because we all have a common experience that bonds us together.”