Grinnell Pioneers | |
---|---|
Position | Head coach |
League | Midwest Conference |
Personal information | |
Born | August 11, 1953 |
Career information | |
College | Colby (1974–1976) |
Position | Guard |
Coaching career | 1982–present |
Career history | |
As player: | |
1976–1977 | UPEI |
1977–1978 | Lakehead |
As coach: | |
1982–1986 | Guelph |
1986–1987 | McMaster |
1987–1989 | Hawthone |
1989–present | Grinnell |
David Michael Arsenault (born August 12, 1953) is the men's college basketball coach of Grinnell College. He invented the Grinnell System, a run-and-gun style employed by the team. He is also an associate professor of physical education on Grinnell's faculty. Arseneault's coaching staff includes his son, David Jr., who also played under his father at Grinnell.
Arseneault played college basketball at Colby College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Administrative Science in 1976. As a senior in 1975–76 at guard, Arseneault played 22 games and averaged 5.3 points. He then went to Canada and received a Master of Education from Brock University in 1985.
After playing at UPEI in the 1976–77 season and Lakehead University in the 1977–78 season, Arseneault coached college basketball in Canada in Ontario Universities Athletics Association, later known as Ontario University Athletics (OAU), for the Guelph Gryphons and McMaster Marauders. He moved to the United States and coached women's basketball in New Hampshire for two years at the now-defunct Hawthorne College, where he was also their athletic director, before coaching the men's team in rural Iowa for the Grinnell Pioneers beginning in 1989. He inherited a Grinnell program, which competed in Division III, that had not had a winning season in 25 years. After a couple years of trying out traditional eight-player rotations, he felt Grinnell needed to change its basketball philosophy to rejuvenate the team and have more fun. Arseneault developed the Grinnell System. Through 2012, Grinnell won five conference championships, advanced to the postseason 11 times, and led the nation in scoring at all levels of college basketball in 17 of the past 19 seasons.