Nick Cavataro enters 42nd year as swimming and diving head coach at Iona College
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – Nick Cavataro has been at Iona College as their swimming and diving head coach for the past 41 years, and he doesn’t look to step down any time soon.
The veteran head coach has overseen the men’s side since he came to the college in September 1980 and took charge of the women’s side in 1990. He started his coaching career straight out of Manhattan College with his bachelor’s degree in economics at the YWCA of Greenwich in 1977, coaching the Dolphins Swim Team. He’s been their head coach ever since. Just three years later, in September 1980, Cavataro took on the job of overseeing the men’s side.
Cavataro also had experience at the national level. He was a United States Swimming Select Camp Coach at Colorado Springs in 1995, 1998 and 2001. The athletes he has coached have gone on to compete at the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials.
It took Cavataro seven years to get his first championship and award as a head coach, when he led the men’s team to win the Metropolitan Collegiate Swim Conference. The victory led him to be chosen as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. He would go on to win the MCSC Championship twice more in a row in 1988 and 1989, with another coach of the year award in 1989.
In Cavataro’s time with the Gaels, the men’s team has a record of 217 wins, 199 losses and one draw. He has won three MCSC Championships, two MAAC Championships in 1991 and 1993, and one MAAC Invitational in 2021, in which he led both the men and women to victory. He’s also led the team to finish top five in the MAAC 23 times. His record with the women’s team is 147 wins and 146 losses. With a combined 364 wins in his career, he’s one of a few Division I coaches with 300 or more career wins.
His most recent accolade was his third MAAC Coach of the Year award in 2020, where the women took second place at the MAAC Championship while the men took fourth. The second-place finish was the best finish in program history, hopping four spots up from their 2019 sixth-place finish.
While the 2020 season was a short one, Cavataro aims to improve from it going into the 2021 season. The Gaels start off their season on Oct. 9 against Holy Cross.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.
