The new baseball coach at Damonte Ranch should be a familiar name to many area baseball fans.
Joe Tierney grew up in Carson City and played baseball for Ron McNutt at Carson High, where he also played football and basketball. He then went on to serve as an assistant baseball coach at Damonte Ranch for most of the past 20 years.
Tierney, who turned 48 on Oct. 12, is just the second baseball coach in Damonte Ranch history. He replaces Jon Polson who stepped down after last season.
"There were seven or eight of us who were prodigies of McNutt. It's such a great game," Tierney said about his love of baseball.
Polson is still teaching at Damonte and will help Tierney make the transition over to the head coach role. The two meet twice a week to help Tierney prepare for his new job.
Tierney helped Polson get the baseball field established at Damonte Ranch, saying he and Polson planted the grass seed there when the field was new in 2003.
"I just want to carry on the tradition and create other little ways of success," Tierney said. "The dedication of my time to the kids is pretty much unmatched. Just like (Bishop Manogue coach) Charles (Oppio) and (Reno coach) Pete (Savage). It's a three-season job."
Love of the game
He was a sophomore on the Carson team that won the state baseball title in 1992 with his older brother Jim Tierney. Joe Tierney played college baseball at City College of San Francisco, then at Sacramento State before ending his playing days.
"I loved the game, but I just ran out of gas," Tierney said.
He finished his degree at UNR and met Polson when they both worked at Western Nevada Supply. He asked Polson to keep him in mind for future baseball coaching positions.
Tierney has started preparing for the high school season next spring by getting the "fall ball" team underway for its second season at Damonte Ranch.
Damonte Ranch will lose 10 seniors from last year's team that finished 12-5 in league, 16-15-1 overall. Tierney expects some solid returners to bolster the Mustangs in spring 2024, including Wes Meyer, Danny Hurlbert and Jesse Isensee.
Kevin Taylor, Damonte Ranch athletic administrator, wrote to the RGJ: "We anticipate the tradition of excellence within the Mustang baseball program to continue seamlessly under his leadership."
Joe Tierney is also a teacher at Damonte Ranch, in the social studies department, teaching U.S. history and world history.
Athletic family
Joe Tierney's son Eddie is a Damonte Ranch graduate (2022) and is now playing baseball for the Nevada Wolf Pack.
Eddie Tierney is recovering from Tommy John surgery to repair and replace an elbow ligament, but should be able to return to the field for the upcoming season as a relief pitcher. Joe said Eddie is up to 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, much bigger than when he was at Damonte Ranch.
His wife, Jamie, teaches at DePoali Middle School. His daughter Emily played basketball at Damonte last year and is playing at Feather River College now. His other daughter Josie plays tennis and basketball at Damonte Ranch.
His son Finnegan is an eighth grader who will be at Damonte next year.