Entering his fifth year at San Diego State, Joe Spahn was promoted to associate head coach in August 2022.
Since his arrival on The Mesa, Spahn has helped the Scarlet and Black earn 201 all-Mountain West honors over the past four years, including Alex Roberts, who garnered conference Swimmer of the Year accolades for the second straight season in 2024. Along with teammate Christiana Williams, Roberts also punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row.
With Spahn’s assistance, SDSU captured its third consecutive Mountain West championship during the 2024 campaign, representing the program’s fifth league title in the last six years. The Aztecs took home the crown in dominant fashion with 1,487.50 points, easily outdistancing second-place UNLV (1,236.50) for the championship.
SDSU’s historic 2024 season also witnessed an unblemished 15-0 record in dual meets, with the Aztecs extending their unbeaten streak to 65 duals overall. With Spahn’s support, a total of 22 swims were fast enough to enter the school’s career top 10 times last season, while seven swimmers recorded 15 NCAA “B” Cut times.
Spahn relocated to "America's Finest City" in October 2020, after spending the previous two years as head coach of the women’s swimming and diving program at Pepperdine University.
While on the Malibu campus, Spahn sharply elevated the Waves’ fortunes, leading the school to a second-place finish at the 2019 Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference Championships, highlighted by a 498-point increase from the previous year’s league meet.
Individually, Spahn coached 15 qualifiers to the CSCAA National Invitational Championships, marking Pepperdine’s first postseason competitors.
Not to be outdone, the Waves also excelled in the classroom, meriting CSCAA Scholar All-American Team distinction on three occasions while collecting 19 PCSC all-academic certificates during Spahn’s term.
Before relocating to the West Coast, Spahn spent three years as an assistant coach at Notre Dame (2015-18), where he contributed to the Fighting Irish’s impressive success, featuring 47 school records, 11 All-Americans and 42 NCAA Championship qualifiers in his tenure.
In Spahn’s final season at Notre Dame, the Irish men’s team finished fourth at the 2018 ACC Championships and 23rd at the NCAA Championships, while the women’s squad placed fifth at the ACC Championships and 41st at the NCAA Championships.
In addition to his coaching responsibilities on the South Bend campus, Spahn also worked as the director for the University of Notre Dame Swim Camp.
Prior to his appointment at Notre Dame, Spahn served a two-year stint as an assistant coach with the men’s and women’s swimming programs at the University of Hawai’i (2013-15), where he was the lead coach for the middle distance swimmers and oversaw team travel while doubling as the women’s recruiting coordinator.
In 2015, Spahn helped the women’s squad capture its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) title since 2006 and just the second in program history. In addition, the Rainbow Warrior men’s team placed second at the MPSF meet the previous year before finishing 28th at the NCAA Championships.
While at Hawai’i, Spahn worked with the US Masters Program as a local coordinator and assisted with fundraising channels. In this role, he developed and implemented online registrations, increasing the membership base by 20 percent.
Spahn also spent one year as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at UNLV, where he helped guide the Rebel men’s team to the MPSF championship in 2012.
Spahn graduated from Minnesota State Mankato in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. As a distance swimmer for the Mavericks, he was a three-time individual conference champion, receiving all-league recognition on 10 occasions to go with a pair of all-academic plaudits. Spahn later received his master’s degree in kinesiology from Georgia in 2012.
While pursuing his master’s degree, Spahn worked as a volunteer assistant coach at Georgia, helping the Bulldog women’s squad to three consecutive SEC titles to go with runner-up team finishes at the NCAA Championships in 2011 and 2012.
Additionally, Spahn served as an assistant coach of the Athens Bulldogs Swim Club and was the head swim coach and lessons director at Athens Country Club.
A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Spahn and his wife of six years, Mary Kate, welcomed their first child, daughter Reagan, in January 2022. The Spahns reside in San Diego with their two Australian Cattle Dogs, Ranger and Bindi.
Spahn’s father was the long-time head coach of the New Mexico swimming program, Bill Spahn, who tutored multiple Olympians, including former world-record holder and five-time Olympic gold medalist Tom Jager.