James Sica

Biography

James Sica, who was instrumental in the success of the MIT swimming & diving programs, was named the head swimming & diving coach at Boston University on May 25, 2023. In his first season at BU, Sica led the women's team to a third-place finish at the Patriot League Championship, which was their highest showing in eight years. The men's team placed fifth and had the eighth-highest GPA among Division I programs at 3.66. Sica served as the Engineers' associate head coach for two seasons, including a semester as acting head coach, after joining the staff in 2017. In his six years, the Engineers won every men's and women's team conference championship contested and never finished outside of the top 10 at the NCAA Championships. Prior to MIT, Sica was an assistant at Carnegie Mellon, Harvard and his alma mater, Ithaca College. While serving as acting head coach for the second half of the 2021-22 season, Sica led the Engineers to men's and women's NEWMAC titles, two top-10 NCAA finishes and four NCAA champions, the most MIT has won in a single season in program history. He went on to earn NEWMAC Men's Swimming & Diving Coach of the Year honors for his efforts. In 2022-23, the MIT men had the highest team GPA in the country in the fall (3.82) and went on to earn their highest finish at NCAAs (fifth) since the 2017-18 season. The women finished eighth in the nation and had their highest point total in program history at both the NCAA Championships (222 points) and NEWMAC Championship