Nick Cavataro enters his 42nd season as Head Coach of the Iona College men's swimming and diving teams and 23rd season at the helm of the women’s swimming and diving squad.
During his tenure, the men's team has compiled a 198-193 (.506) record highlighted by Metropolitan Collegiate Swim Conference (MCSC) Championships in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991 and a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) title in 1993, 2021 and 20 top-five MAAC placings. Cavataro took over the women’s program in 1990 and has a career mark of 137-133 (.507) including 18 top-five MAAC placings. The 335 combined wins place Cavataro in an elite group of Division 1 coaches with 300 or more career victories.
While at Iona, Cavataro was named Coach of the Year in 1987, 1989, 2020 while guiding Gael swimmers to break every school record at least three times. The team also has qualified over 100 for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Swim Championship Meet qualifiers and six Senior National qualifiers. In 2012, Jamie Manser ’12 became the first Gael swimmer to achieve an NCAA qualification standard with her MAAC Championship and school record in the 100-Breaststroke of 1:01.0.
Cavataro has also made an impact nationally, serving as a successful United States Swimming Coach and a USS Select Camp Coach at Colorado Springs in 1995, 1998 and 2001. He has also served as the director of the Gael Aquatic Club, a successful USS club with 175 members, and as the senior coach with the Greenwich (CT) Dolphins.
Cavataro has had his USA athletes compete at the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2016, 2020 Olympic Trials, as well as 16 consecutive years of coaching swimmers at USS Senior and Junior National Short and Long Course Championships and the recent USS Eastern Sectional Championships.
Cavataro has also been a panel speaker at both the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) and College Swim Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) annual clinics and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Connecticut Swimming, Inc., Metropolitan Swimming, Inc. and the Westchester County Swimming Conference.
Cavataro is an ASCA Level 4 Coach and is a certified American Red Cross Lifeguard Training, Water Safety, First Aid and CPR Instructor.
Coach Cavataro graduated in 1977 from Manhattan College, with a BA in Economics and was a three-time All-Metro selection and an ECAC qualifier. He resides in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife Susan and have six children: Stephanie; Lauren, Matthew, Kristi, Jamey, and Kathryn.
