Updated August 2022
James Sica enters his sixth year with the MIT men's and women's swimming and diving program and his second year as the program's Associate Head Coach during the 2022-23 season. He primarily directs the sprint training group while collaborating with Head Coach Meg French on the season plan for all training groups. Sica also directs the team’s dryland program and has served as the Recruiting Coordinator since the 2019-20 season for the Engineers.
Sica served as the Acting Head Coach for the men's and women's teams during Coach French's maternity leave from January through May of 2022. That season marked the return of the Engineers to competition after not competing during the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19. During the second half of the 21-22 season, Sica led both the men's and women's teams to NEWMAC Championships, which was the 11th consecutive title for the women's team and the 13th consecutive title for the men. At the conclusion of the meet, first-year Kate Augustyn was named NEWMAC Rookie of the Year and sophomore Tobe Obochi was named NEWMAC Swimmer of the Year, while Sica was named the 2021-22 NEWMAC Men's Swimming Coach of the Year.
The Engineers continued their success at the 2022 NCAA Championships, with Edenna Chen winning the 100 breaststroke, Tobe Obochi winning the 100 freestyle, and the men's 200 and 400 free relay teams each winning NCAA titles. That was the most NCAA Titles won at a single NCAA Championships in program history, and the first time MIT has had individual NCAA Champions on both the men's and women's teams at the same NCAA Championship. Overall, the men's team finished in 6th place while the women finished in 8th place. In total, the Engineers broke 20 varsity school records (11 men's, 10 women's) and recorded 57 NCAA All-America honors during the 2021-22 season.Â
In his first four seasons with the Engineers prior to being named Associate Head Coach, Sica helped the men’s and women’s teams to three consecutive NEWMAC Swimming and Diving Championships titles, multiple top-10 NCAA finishes, and helped bring the largest group of MIT swimmers in program history to the U.S. Olympic Trials.
While MIT did not compete during the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19, MIT had a program-record three student-athletes (Edenna Chen ‘23, James Richardson ‘23, and Sam Ubellacker ‘20) qualify for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. The meet was subsequently moved to 2021 following the postponement of the Olympic Games, and all three MIT student-athletes were able to compete the following summer.Â
During the 2019-20 season, the men’s and women’s teams extended their NEWMAC Conference Championships streaks to 12 and 10 consecutive titles, respectively. While the team was not able to compete at the 2020 NCAA Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Engineers had 27 qualifiers for the 2020 Championships and would have been the fourth-largest team represented at the meet.
During the 2018-19 season, the men’s team finished 6th and the women’s team finished 9th at the 2019 NCAA Championships. The men’s team also posted the #1 GPA in the country for both the fall (3.78) and spring (3.76) semesters, and also had 17 individuals named to the Scholar All-America team in the spring, tying for #1 in the country among all schools across Division I, II, and III.
In his first season with the Engineers both teams captured NEWMAC Conference Championships, with the men’s team finishing 5th at the NCAA Championship with 252.50 points and the women finishing 6th with 211 points for their highest-ever point total at NCAA’s.
Sica came to MIT from Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.), where he served as an assistant coach at from 2015-17. Prior to his time with the Tartans, Sica was a Volunteer Assistant Coach at nearby Harvard University for the 2014-15 season, as well as the Associate Head Coach of the Cambridge Master's Swim Club. Sica also worked as an assistant coach at Ithaca College (N.Y.) from 2012-2014 while completing a Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Science with a concentration in Sport Psychology.
A 2012 undergraduate from Ithaca as a double major in Writing and English, he was also a member of the Bombers swimming and diving team that captured back-to-back UNYSSCA Championships in 2011 and 2012 and was voted as the team captain as a senior.
