Wisconsin Badgers

An Eau Claire, Wisconsin, native, LaPoint is in his 13th year with the Badgers.

In charge of Wisconsin’s equipment needs, LaPoint performs duties from skate sharpening, equipment inventory and purchasing to laundry and travel logistics.

LaPoint spent the four years before coming to Madison as an assistant equipment manager with the University of North Dakota men’s hockey program. While at North Dakota, he performed the regular duties of an equipment manager, while also helping with the program’s video needs on road trips.

In addition to his duties at North Dakota, LaPoint spent seven months at Gerrell’s Sports Center in Grand Forks, where he repaired and sharpened skates and served as a general salesman for sporting goods. He also spent each summer since 2000 as a coach, referee and counselor for Top Dog Hockey Camps.

LaPoint graduated in 2009 from North Dakota with a degree in general studies and a minor in meteorology. Prior to his time at North Dakota, he attended Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, for two years, where he competed as a member of the NCAA Division III program’s hockey team.

In the summers of 2018 and 2019, LaPoint served Team USA at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup including once in Canada and once in Slovakia and Hungary. He also served as an equipment manager for the 2021 U.S. National Junior Team that won gold at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship in Alberta and for the team again at the 2022 event that was halted.

LaPoint and his wife, Callie, reside in Stoughton, Wisconsin, with their daughter, Hazel.