Coaches

Nicholas Raya, Head Coach

Nicholas Raya is a career educator with 13 years experience teaching special education and eight years experience as a high school softball coach. He earned his bachelor's degree in history with a minor in English from the University of Texas at Arlington, and is certified to teach general special education in the state of Texas.

Raya has taught and coached in a variety of environments and gained experience and perspective about inner-city schools as well as rural and suburban schools. He has guided and mentored disabled students in life-skills as well as in mainstream classes, and was grateful in 2000 to be recognized as Rowlett Special Education Teacher of the Year.

As a softball coach, Raya has led teams to the playoffs in five out of eight seasons. He has maintained an overall coaching record of 138-74, and he has had the privilege of sending five girls to play college softball.

Raya has founded and maintained high school softball programs as well as rebuilt and strengthened struggling programs. In 1994 he started the fast-pitch program at St. John's High school in Ennis and led the team to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools' 2A regional finals in the program's first year.

From 1996 to 1999, Raya rebuilt and re-energized Highland Park High School's 4A fast-pitch softball team. In 2002, he coached softball for one year at Ursuline High School, a TAPPS 5A school. From there, he moved to Warren Travis White High School in Dallas, where he rebuilt and strengthened a struggling softball program and guided the team to its first 5A district title.

In addition to his high school coaching experience, Raya has coached summer select softball clubs. He also organized and led the Special Olympic program at Rowlett High School from 2000-2003. This served as a wonderful source of satisfaction for him as a teacher and coach.

Raya married his wife, Rachel in April 2006. He began work as a special ed teacher and softball coach at J.J. Pearce High School in August 2006.

Krista Lara, Assistant Coach

Coach Lara grew up in Mission Viejo, California, where she played softball since the age of 6. She attended Mission Viejo High School where she started on varsity all 4 years as a 3rd baseman. During those years, she led her team in batting average, and RBIs. She also was named 2nd Team All-League twice and Scholar Athlete 3 out of the 4 years. During the summer she played travel ball for California Lobos Gold. The team competed in the 1999 ASA Nationals Gold in Chattanooga Tennessee, placing 25th out of 64 teams. She continued her softball career for one short fall season with Saddleback Community College before she had to retire due to injury. Coach Lara has a great passion for softball. She wants her players to share the same passion. She expects her players to work hard and strive to be the best. She expects the players to learn from her experiences and in turn learn from the players. Parents play a huge role in the success of the player and should be supportive and understanding. Coach Lara is looking forward to her first season with Pearce and expects to leave the season with a winning record and with experiences and memories that will further help her future coaching career.

Jonathan Short, JV Coach

Coach Jonathan Short is originally form Houston, Texas where he graduated from Cy-Fair High School. While at Cy-Fair he was a three year letterman on the varsity football team and also lettered in track. After his senior season he received a football scholarship to play at Ouachita Baptist University, where he lettered for four years playing tight end, offensive line, and also deep snapping for the Tigers. He is currently in his first year at Pearce, which has been highlighted by a successful football campaign which saw the Mustangs go to the first round of the state playoffs. He is looking foreword to a great softball season and hopes to contribute to the winning Pearce tradition.