When a student-athlete suffers a concussion, athletic trainers immediately notify academic support coordinators to arrange testing accommodations. Mental performance coaches reach out proactively. Nutritionists adjust fueling plans for upcoming travel. The 31-person Dartmouth Peak Performance team operates behind the scenes of every Big Green victory.
“There are just so many resources, and it’s very accessible to use at any time, always right at your fingertips,” said women’s hockey player Maura Fiorenza ’26.
Executive associate athletics director Austin Driggers joined Dartmouth in Feb. 2024 to lead the program with a philosophy that emphasizes the student athlete’s overall “well-being.”
“You say human performance, the first word is human,” Driggers said, who holds a Ph.D. in health and human performance from Concordia University Chicago.
Founded in 2011, Dartmouth Peak Performance, also known as DP2, has evolved into a holistic model organized around eight service areas: academic support, career development, leadership and mental performance, sport and counseling psychology, nutrition, medicine, strength and conditioning and sport science and performance technology.
Approximately 80 to 90% of teams engage with the other service areas, according to Driggers.
“Our athletic trainers work with all of our teams, and then our strength and conditioning staff works with all of our teams,” Driggers said. “Among varsity student-athletes, that number is basically 100% because of sports medicine and strength and conditioning.”
Women’s hockey head coach Maura Crowell, now in her second season at Dartmouth after previous experience at the University of Minnesota at Duluth and Harvard University, emphasized the program’s distinctiveness.
“I’ve worked at many other institutions and to have the specific resources that we have in DP2 for athletics is rare,” Crowell said. “Normally, a student-athlete would have to go around campus and find those resources just like other students. To have it housed in athletics and be so accessible to our student athletes is a massive bonus.”
When an injury is sustained that could impact academics, such as a broken foot requiring a boot, a hand in a cast or a concussion, athletic trainers immediately contact assistant athletics director Stacey Bridges.
Bridges “can proactively work with others across campus to let them know and make accommodations,” Driggers said.
Fiorenza said that DP2 has provided essential academic support since her freshman year.
“I’ve met with Bridges to help with major planning and course selection,” she said.
Beyond physical training, DP2 equally emphasizes the mental health side of performance. The sport and counseling psychology service area provides licensed psychologists for both clinical and sports psychology needs. Corrigan Family Assistant Athletics Director for Leadership and Mental Performance, Lorna Harkins, for example, conducts regular sessions with the women’s hockey team.
Harkins “comes and does different team exercises with us to kind of get our team bonded closer and on the same page about working together,” Fiorenza said. “She’s done sessions with our captains, sessions with just our seniors to target specific areas, largely leadership-based.”
Technology has become another pillar of the program’s approach. The women’s hockey team recently began using tracking devices that record movement patterns, workloads, heart rate and recovery metrics.
“I get detailed reports on a daily basis as to outputs on each athlete,” Crowell said. “When I’m creating practice plans, I can reflect back on those numbers and make sure that we’re doing a good job.”
But DP2’s mission extends beyond immediate athletic performance. Driggers emphasized that the program uses sport as a vehicle to develop leaders for life.
“The purpose of athletics at Dartmouth and other Ivy League institutions is to enhance the learning and the growth and development of our student athletes,” he said. “That doesn’t mean winning is not important. Most of those processes are facilitated by the ultimate goal of striving to win and be successful in your sport. It’s the pursuit of those things that really delivers a lot of that value.”
Looking ahead, Driggers identified nutrition and mental performance as priorities, along with continued integration of data across all service areas.
“We want to get one percent better every day,” Driggers said. “Really, we’re trying to cultivate the mindsets, the skills, the habits, behaviors, the attitudes that [athletes] need to do all those things well.”
