In the latest installment of our Nova Notebook series on the Wildcats, we collected recollections of Head Athletic Trainer Jeff Pierce, who this week officially retired from the University after a distinguished 32-year career.
 
Allan Ray, now retired after a 13-year professional career mostly spent in Europe, still hears the question today while living in Atlanta.
 
 "How's your eye?"
 
The inquiries come from those who recall one of the more frightening on-court moments in the annals of Villanova Basketball. While diving for a loose ball near the 'Cats bench during a BIG EAST Tournament semifinal game against Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden in 2006, Ray's right eye was poked by the finger of a Panthers' player. The impact pushed Ray's eye behind the eyelid in a scene that was captured by an over the basket camera for a national television audience.
 
Those in a suddenly silent Garden could see Ray laid out on the floor in front of the scorer's table in apparent pain. The first person to reach him was Head Athletic Trainer Jeff Pierce, whose face remained the picture of calm as concerned coaches, teammates and family members looked on.
 
Pierce accompanied Ray into the tunnel near midcourt (basketball historians may know it as the 'Willis Reed Tunnel' as it was the area from which the injured New York Knicks' star emerged prior to Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals). In the hallway the scene was chaotic as Ray was placed on a gurney while television reporters looked for an update.
 
Through it all, Pierce was with the patient, by his side in the ambulance and in the emergency room, where doctors were able to see that the eyeball was back in its proper place. A short while later, head coach Jay Wright returned to the media room at MSG to provide an update that Ray was resting comfortably and that it appeared no further damage had been suffered. Indeed, Ray would return to practice the following week and was back in the lineup when the Wildcats opened NCAA Tournament play against Monmouth six days later. There have been no lingering issues in the years since.
 
 "Jeff was amazing," Ray recalls. "It was a scary situation for me and my family. But Jeff stayed calm and I got great care every step of the way."
 
 A few years later, Maalik Wayns made the short ride from his Philadelphia home to enroll for the summer session ahead of his freshman year of 2009-10. The energy around the Wildcats was brimming – Villanova had advanced to the NCAA Final Four a few months before and would have a solid core of veterans led by All-American Scottie Reynolds to lead it into the new campaign. Plus, its recruiting class, headlined by Wayns, was listed among the best groups in the nation.
 
Yet the former Roman Catholic High School had a surgically repaired knee to deal with. Before he could begin learning the ins and outs of college basketball, Wayns would spend long hours inside the Davis Center training room, working to rehab the knee alongside Pierce.
 
"I had surgery on my knee and it felt like I spent that whole summer before my freshman year with Jeff," recalls Wayns. "We were together so much I started calling him Uncle Jeff."
 
The nickname stuck. Pretty much every Wildcat in the years since has used that moniker when entering the training room.
 
"Uncle Jeff is the guy you saw every day," says current Wildcats assistant coach Mike Nardi, a Villanova guard from 2003-07. "You could talk to him about anything happening in your life and you knew he'd point you in the right direction. As a player, you knew he had your best interests at heart."
 
Like Wayns, current Nova sophomore Bryan Antoine spent much of his introductory summer at Villanova in the training room. In Antoine's case a shoulder repaired surgically was the issue and it kept him away from full basketball activity until November.
 
"I was in his office every day and Uncle Jeff was great," Antoine states. "He let you know what you could do and what you couldn't do in the rehab but that was only part of it. His life stories were even better."
 
Michael Bradley came to Villanova as a transfer from the University of Kentucky in 1999. NCAA rules mandated that he sit out the '99-00 season before earning second team All-American honors while connecting on .699 of his field goal attempts in 2000-01. He was selected in the first round of the National Basketball Association Draft by the Toronto Raptors later that spring.
 
"Jeff was more than just a trainer for me during my two years at Villanova," wrote Bradley, recently named the head coach of the Costa Rican U24 team, in an email. "Yes, he helped heal all my bumps and bruises quickly and made sure I was always equipped with what I needed before, during and after practices and games. But what I will remember most about Jeff was the quality time we spent together and all the advice and conversations we had during our treatment sessions.
 
"We clicked instantly upon my arrival from the University of Kentucky, and Jeff helped me navigate through some difficult times I experienced off the court during my sit out year. Jeff equipped me for the real world I was about to enter, attended my wedding back in 2002 and we will remain friends for life because of the connection we made at VU."
 
Curtis Sumpter's life changed in the winter of 2005 just as he was establishing himself as one of the BIG EAST's elite performers as a junior. A sprained right knee suffered in January at a practice at Notre Dame became a lingering issue. Then, in the first half of a NCAA Tournament second round game against Florida, Sumpter tore the ACL in his left knee.
 
"After that injury, it was let's do this, whatever I need to do to get back," Sumpter recalls. "Even though rehab was something new to me, Jeff brought this amazing level of experience. He was so seasoned."
 
Sumpter and Pierce were together often in the warm months of 2005, often toiling in the stifling heat of Jake Nevin Field House. The goal was to heal in time for the start of the 2005-06 campaign, the senior season for Sumpter and classmates Randy Foye, Jason Fraser and Ray. Recovery was on track until a dark day in October when Sumpter felt his left knee buckle in a practice session. Not long after he learned the ligament had torn a second time and he would miss all of '05-06.
 
"The second one was tough emotionally," Sumpter states now. "I can't even tell you exactly the way I felt. I just wasn't myself and everyone knew it – my teammates, coaches, my family. Jeff understood that. We grew stronger in our relationship."
 
The grief was understandable at several levels. Not only would Sumpter miss the chance to play alongside his classmates as a senior, but in the span of just more than seven months, he had gone from a potential early entrant into the 2005 NBA Draft to an athlete with two ACL tears on his bio.  
 
Sumpter accepted a medical redshirt and returned in 2006-07 alongside Nardi and Will Sheridan, helping steer the next generation of Wildcats – including future pillars of a Final Four team – to an NCAA Tournament berth.
 
"I've learned a lot from Jeff and I like to think I'm now in the best shape of my life because of things he taught me," states the Brooklyn, N.Y. native.
 
It should also be noted that there was no expiration date on the care Pierce offered. That was especially helpful to Wildcat alums playing overseas, who much preferred to be in the U.S. while rehabilitating long-term injuries. Ray, Nardi, Wayns and JayVaughn Pinkston are just a few of the family members who have spent long hours working with Pierce and Strength Coach John Shackleton to recover from significant – and in some cases, career-threatening – setbacks.  
 
Wildcats' head coach Jay Wright once played an integral role in bringing Pierce to Villanova. During his five-year stint as a Nova assistant coach (1987-92) then head coach Rollie Massimino tapped Wright to lead the search for a new athletic trainer in 1988. Pierce got the job.
 
 "Jeff is a true Villanova institution," says Wright. "He worked under Coach Mass, Coach (Steve) Lappas and me and was revered by each of us. His care for players, honesty with coaches, and respect by all made him invaluable.
 
"He is going to be missed by all of us in the Villanova Basketball family. We wish Jeff, Rhonda and the Pierce family great years of well-deserved retirement."