John Pearce

John Pearce is the Director of Sport Development for US Sailing. He joined US Sailing in 2016.

Pearce was the first-ever head coach of the George Washington sailing program, which was elevated from club to varsity status beginning in 2012-13. In just his third year at the helm of the new varsity program in 2014-15, he guided the Colonials to a historic season of firsts – including the team’s first-ever appearances in the national coed and women’s rankings, as well as the team’s first-ever berth to women’s nationals, where the women’s team finished 13th in the country.

In 2015-16, George Washington surpassed those marks, capturing the first titles in program history with the MAISA Women’s Fall and MAISA Women’s Spring Championships. The Colonials went on to earn berths in both the women’s nationals, finishing 10th, and coed nationals, finishing 17th.

Prior to coming to George Washington, Pearce spent three seasons from 2007-10 as co-head coach of the Dartmouth College varsity sailing team. In his three years at Dartmouth, Pearce led the Big Green to two appearances at the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championships, including an eighth place finish at the 2009 Women’s National Championship.

A 2004 graduate of Hobart College, Pearce stayed on as an assistant coach for Hobart and William Smith Colleges for the 2004-05 season and helped the Statesmen and Herons claim the National Championship at both the ICSA Team Racing and ICSA Coed National Championships that year.

Pearce moved on to spend a year as assistant coach at Stanford University in 2005-06. He then spent 2006-07 as head high school and race team coach at the San Francisco Yacht Club.

A native of Ithaca, N.Y., Pearce was a two-time All-American at Hobart, earning First Team Coed Skipper accolades as a senior and Honorable Mention Coed Skipper recognition as a junior.

Pearce was also a member of the 2005 and 2006 US Sailing Teams, and placed fifth out of 33 sailors at the 2007 US Sailing Olympic Team Trials in the Laser Class.