Kameron Pearce hired as Northeastern Junior College men’s coach

Kameron Pearce has been named Northeastern Junior College’s new head men’s basketball coach, giving the Plainsmen a familiar face to steer the program into the 2026-27 season. The move had not yet been wrapped in a formal school release, but Pearce updated his X profile to reflect the job.

The hire lands at a pivotal moment for a program that already changed leadership once this spring. Eddie Trenkle was promoted to athletic director in May after running the Northeastern men’s basketball program since 2006, and his departure closed a long chapter that included a Region IX championship and a seventh-place finish at the national tournament in his first season. Northeastern’s athletics pages still list Justin Cellars as an assistant coach, giving Pearce at least one current staff piece to work with as he begins sorting out retention and the roster going forward.

Pearce arrives with a resume built in the same junior-college lane Northeastern wants to keep winning in. St. Mary’s University lists him as its assistant men’s basketball coach beginning in 2024-25, along with duties as recreation and intramural coordinator. Before that, he spent five seasons at Western Wyoming Community College, where St. Mary’s says the program went 102-44, won its first-ever Region IX North Conference title and captured a conference tournament championship. Western Wyoming was ranked in the national polls in each of Pearce’s final four seasons there, a detail that should matter to a Northeastern staff looking for continuity and credibility in recruiting.

That background points to the practical work ahead in Sterling, Colorado. Northeastern is an NJCAA member in Region 9 and sponsors 11 NJCAA Division I varsity sports, with men’s basketball one of the school’s signature programs. The college says it serves about 900 full-time students and more than 2,000 part-time students, while housing more than 575 students in residence halls, a setup that gives the basketball program the kind of on-campus base junior-college coaches lean on when building a roster quickly.

Pearce’s return also carries a built-in connection to the job. He played at Northeastern for Trenkle before later transferring to St. Mary’s, which makes this more than a standard coaching change. It is a homecoming hire, and one that suggests Northeastern wanted someone who already understands the school’s standards, the Region IX grind and the timing required to hold together a roster while the 2026-27 season approaches.