David Norman Arseneault (born July 18, 1986), also known as David Arseneault Jr., is an American–Canadian

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach who is the head coach for the

Grinnell Pioneers The Grinnell College varsity sports teams are named the Pioneers. They participate in eighteen intercollegiate sports at the NCAA Division III level and in the Midwest Conference. Grinnell was previously in the Missouri Valley Conference. Nearly ...

. He previously played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the Pioneers under his father, David Sr., and later served as an associate head coach under him at Grinnell. Arseneault was later the head coach of the

Reno Bighorns Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

in the

NBA Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

for two seasons (2014–2016) before returning to Grinnell. He became the Pioneers' head coach after his father retired in 2018.

Early life and education

Arseneault was born in Toronto, and is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. He played basketball at Grinnell High School before attending Grinnell College. As a player under his dad's fast-paced

Grinnell System The Grinnell System, sometimes referred to as The System, is a fast-tempo style of basketball developed by coach David Arseneault at Grinnell College. It is a variation of the run-and-gun system popularized by coach Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymo ...

, Arseneault was named a three-time finalist for the Bob Cousy Award, which is given annually to the nation's top

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

. In 2008, he set an NCAA record with 34 assists in a 151–112 victory over North Central University. He finished his college career at Grinnell as the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

leader in career assists average (9.4).

Coaching career

Upon graduating in 2009, Arseneault started as an assistant coach under his dad at Grinnell in the fall of the same year. He also played one year in a semi-professional league in Germany with TV Hohenlimburg. Arseneault was named the interim coach starting in the second semester of the 2011–12 season while the elder Arseneault was on

sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work. The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...

leave. He was named an associate head coach in the 2012–13 season. '' The Express-Times'' that season wrote that Arseneault "essentially runs the program." In 2013–14, Rick Reilly of

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

wrote that Arseneault "does the coaching" while his father "watches three feet from the far end of the bench, sometimes with his granddaughter on his lap." Arseneault was also an assistant coach for women's and men's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

at Grinnell, as well as an assistant

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. On October 17, 2014, Arseneault was named the head coach for the

. He planned to run a modified version of the Grinnell System, and called the upcoming season an "experiment". Limited to a 10-man roster and subject to the D-League's high roster turnover, Arseneault adjusted the system, abandoning its hockey-style substitutions and full-court press. He coached two years with Reno, leading the league in scoring in both seasons while compiling a 55–47 overall record. The team was 33–17 in 2015–16, which was one win short of the franchise record. After the season, Arsenault's contract was not renewed. Arsenault returned to Grinnell as their interim head coach for 2016–17, when his father was scheduled to be on another sabbatical leave. He became the Pioneers' head coach after the elder Areseneault retired in June 2018.

References

External links

Grinnell Pioneers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arseneault Jr., David 1986 births Living people American men's basketball players Canadian expatriate basketball people in the United States Canadian expatriate basketball people in Germany Canadian men's basketball coaches Canadian men's basketball players Grinnell Pioneers men's basketball coaches Grinnell Pioneers men's basketball players Point guards Reno Bighorns coaches Basketball players from Toronto