Mike Joyce

Mike Joyce will be entering his fourth season with Minnesota Swimming and Diving in 2024-25. He was named Associate Head Coach of the men’s and women’s programs in May 2021 and promoted to Head Men's Swimming Coach in June of 2023.

He primarily works with the backstroke, butterfly and 200 IM. In 2022-23, Desmon Sachtjen broke his own school record in the 200 back, while Kaiser Neverman qualified for NCAAs and set school marks in the 100 and 200 fly events, and set a school record in the 200 IM. In the 2024 season, freshman Davide Harabagiu edged teammate Kaiser Neverman to set a new school record in the 100 fly. Gophers from the 2023-24 team now hold the top three times in school history in the 100 fly. In 2023-24, Neverman broke his own school records in both the 200 fly and 200 IM. 

Joyce joined the Maroon and Gold after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at Auburn University. In his time there, Joyce helped coach the Tigers to a 12th place team finish at the women’s 2019 NCAA Championships, as well as helping 12 student-athletes to 36 total All-American honors. Among those 12 were three who claimed at least six AA honors each, as Erin Falconer and Claire Fisch nabbed six apiece and Aly Tetzloff garnered an outstanding seven at the 2019 national championships.

At the conference level, Joyce and the Tigers were able to tally a pair of top-six finishes at the women’s SEC Conference Championships over his three years with the program, with three individual SEC titles coming as a result.

Before his time at Auburn, Joyce spent the 2017-18 season with the Arizona State University Sun Devils, helping coach them to 20th and 23rd place finishes at the 2018 men’s and women’s NCAA Championships, respectively.

Prior to his one year stint at ASU, Joyce spent time coaching in the Ivy League with the Princeton Tigers. With the Tigers, Joyce served as the lead Sprint & Middle-Distance Coach, helping them claim the 2016 Ivy League conference championship and dual-meet titles as well as assisting 2016 Ivy League Men’s Coach of the Year Rob Orr. He also helped coach four individual Ivy League conference champions, three conference relay champions, seven Scholar All-Americans and seven Olympic Trials qualifiers.

Joyce has also spent time as a volunteer assistant coach at NC State, as well as having experience with the Raleigh Swimming Association, Gator Swim Club Elite and the University of Florida.

Over his career, he has also coached a number of World University Games, European Championship and Olympic Trials qualifiers.

An All-American and two-time Olympic Trials qualifier, Joyce graduated from the University of Florida with his B.S. in Event and Recreation Management in 2011 before obtaining his Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration in 2015. In his time as a student-athlete with the Gators, Joyce earned a perfect four consecutive NCAA Scholar All-America and SEC Academic First Team honors.

Joyce currently resides in Eden Prairie, Minn. His wife Kirsten, who was also an All-American swimmer at Florida, is a neonatal nurse. They have three boys together, Hayes, and identical twins Graham and William.
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