2015 Ivy League champion Princeton University Men’s Swimming and Diving Team announced the hiring of Michael Joyce, a former All-American and Olympic Trials qualifier from the University of Florida. Joyce was named assistant coach and will take over for Mitch Dalton, who left in July to become National Junior Team Program Director at USA Swimming after five years as the Princeton assistant coach.
“I am thrilled to have been given this opportunity to work for Princeton,” Joyce said. “Princeton is one of the most respected universities in the world, with an outstanding swimming and diving program. I look forward to working with Rob Orr, and assisting him to the best of my ability. I’m also looking forward to working with the team and helping them reach their goals both in the pool and in the classroom.”
Joyce spent the last two years as the head age-group coach and the senior assistant coach for the Raleigh Swimming Association. He coached three North Carolina age-group record holders, as well as 19 individual state champions. At the same time, he worked as a volunteer assistant coach and intern at North Carolina State, winners of the 2015 ACC Championships and eighth-place finishers at NCAAs, where learned the NC State philosophy on training/conditioning and recruiting athletes. The Wolfpack traveled north to Princeton for a dual meet in January, 2015.
Joyce began his career at Florida, first as an intern under the Director of Swimming, and then as an assistant coach with the Gator Swim Club Elite program. He had a highly decorated swimming career at Florida, which was punctuated by a sixth-place finish and first-team All-America honors in the 400 IM. A team captain and four-time Academic First-Team honoree, Joyce reached three SEC championship finals and was a NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship Academic Nominee. He also earned the University of Florida Athletic Senior Leadership Award.
Joyce grew up in New Jersey, where he was a standout swimmer at St. Augustine Prep. He was a 16-time high school All-America honoree, and he won both team and individual state championships for St. Augustine.
“I was born and raised in New Jersey and I am fortunate enough to be returning back to my home state while working for Princeton,” Joyce added. “This has always been a dream of mine to work for such an outstanding university. I can’t wait to begin on August 24.”
Modified from a press release by Princeton Athletic Communications, August 10, 2015.
@SwimSwam – Any chance we could get a chart showing all the coaching moves this summer? It would be interesting to see who has new staffs as well as knowing where they came from.
Just a thought, keep up the great work!
Good for Mike. He’s a class act and helped RSA do great things while there. We’ll miss him here in NC. Good Luck!