Princeton swimming announced the addition of Joe Acquaviva, the Franklin & Marshall head coach, as an assistant for the 2025-26 season.
Acquaviva will join the coaching staff after three seasons at Franklin & Marshall where he recorded a 35-24 combined dual meet record across the men’s and women’s program and where his athletes totaled 50- All-Centennial Conference honors.
He will be the 2nd new assistant coach for Princeton this season after Emmett Adams was hired in July, following the departure of David Cooper. The other assistant from last season, Kelsey Reott resigned at the end of August to pursue a career outside of swimming, and Acquaviva will take her place on the roster making him the 6th assistant coach in the last three years at Princeton.
This will be head coach Abby Brethauer‘s 3rd year with the program, and she brought in an incredibly strong recruiting class for the 2025-26 school year that features the #16 ranked recruit along with four BOTR recruits.
Brethauer said “I am thrilled to welcome Joe to the Tiger family and can’t wait for him to get started with us. Having had the privilege of working with him at Tufts, I know firsthand the passion, intelligence, and energy he brings to the pool deck and I am excited for our women to have the opportunity to work with him.”
Brethauer and Acquaviva coached together at Tufts during the 2021-22 season that saw the program win its first-ever NESCAC Championship.
Acquaviva was a four-year swimmer and team captain at Johns Hopkins where he was a 10-time All-American, a CSCAA Scholar All-American and an NCAA champion as a member of the 800 freestyle relay in 2014.
Princeton’s first meet of the season is Friday, November 7th (diving) and Saturday, November 8th (swimming) vs Dartmouth and Brown.
Franklin & Marshall still have Acquaviva listed as the head coach on their roster as of publishing, and they will swim their first meet on Saturday, October 25th, against Swarthmore, Ursinus, and Dickinson.
Sounds like a rough deal for the F&M kids to have head coach bail on them so close to season…. Especially an incoming freshman I know that was swayed toward F&M because they liked him and were excited to swim with him.
Definitely a raw deal for the F&M kids. Unfortunately, coaches can’t control when the job is opened (it was late in the cycle) or how slow HR departments are.
I’m sure Joe would have preferred it another way for his swimmers sake (at both schools) but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Very few of us in this profession are paid enough to not have to pay attention to other potential opportunities that may be out there.
This is a dream team. Princeton will thrive.
No one more deserving, congrats Joe!
Welcome, Joe