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When Nick Acquaviva transferred to New England College (New Hampshire) in 2008, one of his first tasks was taking a two-page exam on lacrosse terminology and team strategy. As a freshman at Onondaga Community College, Acquaviva was buried on the depth chart as a goalie, so he transferred to NEC.

But before stepping into the net, head coach Curtis Gilbert assigned him the test. Attackmen were only assigned one page focused on offensive tactics, while defenders were only tested on defensive schemes. Only three players aced both sections. Acquaviva was one of them.

“I knew pretty early that he (Acquaviva) had a great mind for the game,” Gilbert said.

Acquaviva proved Gilbert’s early inclination right, starring at NEC before becoming a coach. The Cicero-North Syracuse product landed a “dream job” as an assistant coach for Syracuse, first joining the program as a volunteer assistant ahead of the 2023 season.

“We need him if we want to put it all together this year and compete for national championships,” SU head coach Gary Gait said of Acquaviva.

Acquaviva’s peripatetic coaching journey took him to five schools — Lycoming, Pfeiffer, SUNY Cortland, Colgate and Cleveland State — in eight years. He worked his way up the college divisions, coaching whatever position group necessary, taking up administrative tasks and working side jobs to make a living.

A year after SU hired him, he was promoted to assistant coach with the NCAA rule change allowing three full-time assistants. This season, Acquaviva is using shot categorizations to help goalie Jimmy McCool adapt and analyze his first season as the starting goalie. Additionally, he’s sharpening faceoff specialist John Mullen’s game through timing drills, fueling Mullen’s 28-of-31 showing at X against Harvard on Feb. 22.

“As a player, I had a dream of playing at the Division I level, and I didn’t make that dream come true,” Acquaviva said. “But I knew as a coach … I did know the game of lacrosse well enough, and if I worked hard enough that I could get to the Division I level.”

Acquaviva’s journey wasn’t easy. In 2021, after two seasons as an assistant coach at Cleveland State, he lost his job to COVID-19 cost-cutting. He moved back to Syracuse but didn’t have a job for the 2022 season.

So, he worked as an Amazon delivery driver for six months before working six months as a customer service representative at Impel, a tech company in Downtown Syracuse. Then, Acquaviva saw that SU had a men’s lacrosse director of operations opening and applied. Gait called Acquaviva to inform him he’d hired someone else for the role. However, he wanted Acquaviva to become a volunteer assistant.

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Acquaviva’s coaching aspirations began when he was a junior at NEC. He was selected for an NCAA Career in Sports Forum in Indianapolis. At the forum, Acquaviva, then a physical education major, learned he could make a career out of coaching.

But to get his foot in the door, he started at the bottom. During his first summer out of college, in 2012, Acquaviva applied for “anything and everything,” leading him to D-III Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Head coach Todd Hodgson had recruited Acquaviva out of high school at CNS.

After a year, Acquaviva moved to Pfeiffer University in Masenheimer, North Carolina, from 2014-16 as its defensive coordinator and goalie coach. But he also was tasked with anything the program needed, from overseeing fundraising efforts to mowing the field.

“I just definitely jumped at any opportunity I could to help the program,” Acquaviva said.

Acquaviva returned to upstate New York for his next job, joining SUNY Cortland as a recruiting coordinator and defensive coordinator in 2017. Acquaviva said the job helped him in future coaching stops, as he built connections in the Syracuse and Long Island recruiting hotbeds.

On top of his coaching responsibilities, Acquaviva spent the mornings from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at Graph-Tex, embroidering lacrosse and other sports equipment as a side job.

After awakening early to work at Graph-Tex, Acquaviva mentioned Cortland’s practices would sometimes be pushed until 8 or 9 p.m. due to field availability. He helped athletes conduct lifting and strength exercises once practices were over. He then drove 45 minutes back to Syracuse and did it all again the next day.

“I don’t think I would have put myself through working multiple jobs and crazy hours and travel if I didn’t really want to pursue coaching,” Acquaviva said.

Acquaviva finally broke into the D-I level when he was hired by first-year head coach Matt Karweck at Colgate in 2019. Karweck said Acquaviva helped him build a culture of a now-nationally-ranked program during his first year at the helm. The tone was set right off the bat, as Colgate defeated then-No. 10 Syracuse 12-9 in its season-opener.

“So (instilling a culture) … was quite difficult, and Nick was a great partner in that,” Karweck said.

In September 2019, seeking a full-time role with better pay, Acquaviva landed at Cleveland State, where head coach Andy German cited his “big personality” as a key factor in the hire. His responsibilities piled up: implementing the Vikings’ ride and clear package, running the substitution box, assisting with the offense, breaking down film, coordinating travel and helping plan daily practices. Acquaviva did all of this while working as a bartender on the side.

German noted after each practice or game, Acquaviva looked like he had just played. He would be running goalies through drills in practice and was constantly vocal during games. Sweat collected on his face. His hair was disheveled. But his voice never wavered, German said.

“He just coaches with a ton of passion,” German said. “When guys can see that kind of passion and care and they know that it’s to help them succeed, I think that goes a long way.”

Syracuse assistant coach Nick Acquaviva fires a shot on goal in practice. Acquaviva’s responsibilities at SU include working with the faceoff and goalie units, helping John Mullen and Jimmy McCool adjust as starters this season. Courtesy of SU Athletics

German remembers Acquaviva navigating the numerous COVID-19 restrictions at the time while facilitating travel for Cleveland State. On a bus back to Cleveland after a game at Mercer in Macon, Georgia, German got a call from Bucknell head coach Frank Fedorjaka notifying him its game versus Navy was being canceled.

So, he inquired if the Vikings wanted to travel to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to play the Bison on CSU’s free weekend. German stressed Acquaviva never questioned or hesitated, taking care of all the logistics: transportation, food, lodging and equipment.

“I turned to Nick and was like, ‘Hey, man, we’re going to Lewisburg, and we got five days to figure it out,’” German said. “We got there with no issues.”

In 2022, Acquaviva’s travels took him back to Syracuse. At SU, he’s pulled from his previous coaching stops aiming to boost SU’s faceoff and goalie units.

For the goalies, he’s implemented a system of categorizing the shots they face to analyze their performance, which he took from Karweck at Colgate. The three types of shots are: “shouldas,” “couldas” and “stole’ems.”

“Shouldas” are anything outside of 10-to-12 yards you should definitely save, Acquaviva said. The “couldas” range from 5-to-12 yards from the net. The “stole’ems” are any efforts within five yards. Acquaviva noted he wants SU’s goalies to notch a couple of “stole’ems” per game. He doesn’t expect them to make those close-range saves but when they do, it’s a “bonus.”

McCool, who is thrust into starting this season after backing up star goalie Will Mark for the last two years, appreciates Acquaviva’s approach. McCool said he loses track of all the shots he faces in a season, but shot categorization allows him to break down each one more easily.

“He’s a players coach, which I love,” McCool said of Acquaviva. “There’s always an open dialogue back and forth, kind of what he’s seeing when you’re in drill or in the game, and kind of what you’re feeling, what you’re seeing, too.”

Mullen, SU’s faceoff man, concurs, stressing Acquaviva’s approachability. Mullen said Acquaviva has strengthened his timing through drills where he must wait for Acquaviva to whistle, pushing him to maintain intensity and composure on each faceoff.

It’s that type of individual development that drove Acquaviva to break into coaching in the first place. He never thought he’d get to train players at the highest level of college lacrosse, though.

“I had a conversation with someone six or seven years ago,” Acquaviva said, “and they’re like, ‘So what’s your dream job?’ And I remember saying, ‘My dream job would be an assistant coach at Syracuse, but that job is never going to be open.’”

The job did open. And now, it’s his.

Published on February 25, 2025 at 11:42 pm

Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal