COACHING STAFF Robert Cannon (Long Jump & Triple Jump)
Tony Ciarelli (Shot, Discus, Javelin)
Tony started his track & field coaching career in 1979 at Damien High School in Hawaii. He moved to Edison H.S. in Huntington Beach, CA in 1982, where he also coached football and weightlifting. He moved to Newport Harbor High School in 1989, then to Huntington Beach H.S. in 1997, then back to Newport Harbor in 2005—where he continues to coach the throws, football, and weightlifting. High school champions Tony has produced include seven (7) 60-ft shot putters, six (6) 180-ft discus throwers, including Scott Moser (213' 11") and Bo Taylor (213' 8")—the #1 and #2 prep discus throwers in California history. In total, he has coached 34 State Meet finalists, 3 State Champions, 5 National Scholastic Meet Champions, 2 Golden West Meet Champions, and 5 High School All America performers. In weightlifting, he has coached 35 qualifiers for the U.S. Junior Championships, seven (7) National Junior Champions, and two (2) National Junior record holders—plus his daughter, Maryn, the 2006 National Collegiate Champion. Nick Garcia (Throws)
Cedric Hill (Sprints & Hurdles)
Damian Jelks (Special Assistant to the Executive Director)
Jan Johnson (Pole Vault)
Hank Kraychir (Hammer Throw)
Todd Riech pronounced “Reech” (Javelin)
Dave Rodda (Jumps & Multi-Events)
Skip Stolley (Middle & Long Distances) Brian Yokoyama (Pole Vault)
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A 7-time Big Ten Conference Champion in the long jump and triple jump while at Indiana University—where he improved his triple jump PR more than 10-feet(!) and held Indiana’s indoor/outdoor school records in the triple jump for 25-years. Was a 5-time NCAA All-America performer en route to winning the 1979 NCAA Triple Jump crown and the prestigious Balfour Award. As a post-collegian, Robert won the 1982 U.S. triple jump title and was a member of numerous USA Teams, including the 1981 World University Games Team, 1988 U.S. Olympic Team, and 1991 Pan American Games Team. With PRs of 25’ 10” (7.87m) and 57’ 10¼” (17.63), he ranked among America’s top-10 triple jumpers for 18-years (1978-1996)—an incredible accomplishment for a field event specialist. Robert lives in Long Beach and has worked for Toyota since 1990 where he is a Systems Planning Administrator. 
A Level-II USATF certified Sprints/Hurdles coach and assistant at coach Cal State Dominguez Hills. A former All-Army sprinter and World Football League player, he has worked with 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist Derrick Adkins and 2000 Olympic Semi-Finalist Louise Ayetotche (Ivory Coast). At the NCAA level, he has coached 22 All-Americas and 6 NCAA Div-II Champions, including 2002 Honda Award Winner, Nicole Duncan, and the 2002-03 Div-II Female Athlete of the Year.
A 1:52 800m runner as a collegian and a former junior college coach, Damian is serving as Special Assistant to Executive Director Skip Stolley while training with the VS Athletics Track Club. “Damian is making a valuable behind the scenes contribution by promoting our Club throughout Southern California to collegiate coaches and their most promising seniors and post-collegiate athletes.” Damian received an AA degree from Long Beach City College, a B.A. from Cal State Fullerton, and is currently enrolled in a Masters degree program at Long Beach State. From 2002-06, he was an assistant coach at Cerritos College. After a 13-year hiatus from competition, in 2007 he began running with the VSA middle distance training group. “Our VS coaches are so busy with coaching and other professional activities, Damian is helping us fulfill the critical need to promote the VS Athletics Track Club and its mission to the collegiate track & field community, notes Skip, and is a great addition to our team.” 
Jan Johnson may be America’s preeminent Pole Vault Coach. He was the first Illinois prep pole vaulter to scale 15-feet while attending Bloom High School in Chicago Heights and is a member of the Illinois High School, University of Kansas, University of Alabama, and National Pole Vault Halls-of-Fame. While at Kansas, he set a pole vault world indoor record of 17’7” and was the 1971 Pan American Games Champion. While attending Alabama, he won 3 NCAA Championships, 2 U.S. titles, and was a bronze medalist at the 1972 Olympic Games. After retiring as an athlete, Jan coached at LSU, Southern Illinois, and Cal Poly SLO before founding the Sky Jumpers Vertical Sports Club based in Atascadero. As a pole vault coach and producer of pole vault camps, coaching clinics, and instructional videos, Jan has no peer. More than 30,000 coaches and vaulters have attended his Sky Jumpers camps since 1973, and he has produced and sold more than 50,000 pole vault instructional videos. Perhaps even more important, no one has done more to enhance the safety of the pole vault. Jan was the first person to develop product performance standards for manufacturing pole vault equipment, and he created, and continues to chair, the USATF Pole Vault Safety Task Force. In 2002, he developed a national on-line curriculum for the education, testing, and certification of pole vault coaches. In 2005, he received the Southern California Track & Field Lifetime Achievement Award. Jan’s daughter, Chelsea, is a 2-time PAC-10 Conference and NCAA Champion and record-holder at 15’ 1”.
The four Kraychir hammer throwers, Casey, Katie, Trent, and Trevor, are coached by their father, Hank Kraychir, who has 32 years of experience in the throws. After winning the California State High School title in the Discus in 1979, by 1981 he had improved his personal best in the Shot Put to 65'4" en route to winning the California State Junior College Shot and Discus titles. After receiving a scholarship to USC, Hank went on to be a 4-time All-America performer in the shot put and discus and still ranks #2 on the Trojans’ shot/discus All-Time Performance Lists. He has also recorded the furthest ambidextrous shot put and discus throws of all time…throwing the shot 67'5-right handed and 59'2"-left handed (total 126'7"), and the discus 203'8"-right handed and 172'-left handed (total 375'8"). As a coach, Hank helped Long Beach City College win three State team Championships with athletes who won three State Discus titles. Later, in a 4-year stint at Mt. SAC, he helped the Mounties win three state team titles. In total, he produced 10 State JC Champions in the throws. Now retired, Hank recently received his third Masters degree—this time in Military History. He has been married to his wife Debbie for 22-years. His four children, Trevor 18, Trent 17, Casey 15, and Katie 14 (above right), live in Twenty-nine Palms, California. 
