JP Daigneault Hired as Head Coach of Men’s Alpine At Dartmouth

Dartmouth Interim Director of Athletics and Recreation Peter Roby '79 has announced the hiring of JP Daigneault (day-NO), a 1997 graduate of the college and four-time All-American for the Big Green, as the head coach of the men's alpine team. He takes over the position that was held by his former Big Green coach, Peter Dodge '78, who is retiring after 33 years at the helm of the squad.

"I'm excited to welcome JP back to Hanover," Roby stated. "His knowledge of, and love for Dartmouth, combined with his experiences as an accomplished racer and coach, will be tremendous for our program and students."

Daigneault's career has allowed him to coach skiers of all levels, most recently at Green Mountain Valley School, one of the nation's leading ski-racing and academic development programs for promising young skiers. For the past two years at the school in Waitsfield, Vermont, he has headed up the youth ski program, helping the athletes excel at skill acquisition and perform to the best of their ability on race days.

From 2017-20, Daigneault served as the FIS head coach of the men at Burke Mountain Academy in Burke, Vermont. In his first season, his team won 18 of 24 available medals at the Eastern Championships held at Attitash, including five of the eight golds with three podium sweeps. During his time at BMA, several of his skiers represented their countries at the Youth Olympic Games and FIS World Junior Championships. By his third and final season, his FIS boys were scoring Continental (Nor-Am) Cup points.

As the program director and head coach of Northwood Skiing in Lake Placid, New York, from 2014-17, Daigneault developed skiers from U14-U21 age groups. Concurrently, he spent June through September in 2014-15 as the athletics director and FIS head coach for the Mount Hotham Racing Squad in Australia during its ski season.

Daigneault also spent two years as the head coach of the Québec Ski Team from 2010-12, mentoring four skiers who were named to the Canadian National Ski Team's Development group, one of whom went on to be the runner-up in the men's slalom at the 2017 NCAA Championship. He then worked for the British Columbia Ski Team as a coach on the men's alpine team for a year before becoming the team's head coach of women's alpine for another year.  Four of his skiers earned spots on the Canadian National Ski Team and, last season, two of those skiers combined for a World Cup podium and top-10 results in World Cup and the Olympic Games.

Daigneault's coaching career began where he is currently, coming full circle with Green Mountain Valley School. He spent seven years (2003-10) as an alpine coach.

An economics major at Dartmouth, Daigneault found great success skiing for the Big Green with Dodge as his coach. He arrived in Hanover after participating in the 1993 FIS Junior World Championships for his native Canada, then went on to earn All-America accolades four times in alpine events at the NCAA Championship and served as captain of the team as a senior.

Daigneault has 12 years of competitive racing under his belt as well, from NCAA to nationals to Nor-Am Cup and European FIS racing. He achieved a top-100 world ranking in giant slalom while at Dartmouth and helped the team win 20 consecutive EISA carnivals.

Certified at Performance Level with the Canadian Ski Coaching Federation, Daigneault has also completed his Level 400 with U.S. Ski & Snowboard (final project pending review).

Daigneault is married to Stephanie Davis, and the couple have two dogs, a Newfoundland named Alta and a Pointing Griffon named Minerva. Outside of skiing, they enjoy mountain biking, golf and snowshoeing with their pups.