Daughter-Father Coaching Duo Leading UCI Throwers to New Heights
2/27/2025
The Ciarelli family is prominent in the Southern California sports community, and UC Irvine track & field is fortunate to have two of them leading their throws squad.
Katelyn Ciarelli-Drootin is in her 16th year with the Anteaters and 11th as associate head coach. Her father, Tony, a longtime and decorated high school coach, joined her as an assistant in 2021. The rare daughter-father coaching duo are just two members in a family of highly accomplished athletes and coaches across multiple sports.
Katelyn’s mother, Stephanie, was a weightlifting coach at the high school, junior national and Olympic levels. Her aunt was a professional beach volleyball player, and her uncle was a renowned volleyball coach. Her sisters, Allison and Maryn, were standout athletes in volleyball and weightlifting, respectively. Her cousin was also an NCAA Men’s Volleyball Player of the Year at USC.
Sports have always been a family affair for Katelyn. During her time at Huntington Beach High School, she was coached by her father in track & field, her mother in weightlifting and her aunt and uncle in volleyball.
Katelyn initially thought she would pursue volleyball like her sister, Allison, who was the Orange County Player of the Year at HBHS and an all-state selection at Golden West College. But, as she continued to improve in the throws, her focus shifted, and she credits her father with influencing her decision to continue a career in throwing.
“We started having talks about doing track in college and in one of our conversations he asked me if I was ready to gain 20 pounds and do track 11 months out of the year,” Katelyn said. “He gave me the first sense of reality of what post high school was going to be about because people who play multiple sports don’t really have that understanding.”
Katelyn accepted the challenge, taking her talents to Long Beach State where she was a two-time Big West champion and 2008 NCAA qualifier in the discus. After her time at LBSU came to an end, Katelyn made the move to Portland where she was a graduate assistant under the legendary Mac Wilkins at Concordia University. Wilkins, a four-time Olympian, who won gold in 1976 and silver in 1984 in the discus, also coached her while she continued to throw post-collegiately.
After one year helping run the team at Concordia, Katelyn received a call from another legendary coach in Vince O’Boyle, who offered her a position as an assistant at UC Irvine. She considered staying in Oregon to compete another year, but couldn’t turn down the opportunity to come back home, and she has been an Anteater ever since.
In her 15 years at UCI, Katelyn has built the throws squad into a conference and regional powerhouse with 37 NCAA West Preliminary qualifying marks, 52 All-Big West honors and 15 conference champions.
Tony competed in both football and track & field at Huntington Beach High School and Orange Coast College. While at OCC, he picked up the javelin, throwing there for two years before heading to the University of Hawai‘i where he was a national qualifier in the event.
Tony stayed on the island for a couple of years, starting his coaching career at Damien High School in Honolulu. In 1982, he returned to Orange County to teach and coach at Edison High School. He went on to make two stops at Newport Harbor High School and one at his alma mater (HBHS). During his time as a throws coach, Tony mentored 52 state qualifiers who brought home 33 medals, including six state champions. In addition, his athletes combined for 32 Southern Section Divisional and Masters Meet titles. In 2023, Tony was inducted into the CIF-Southern Section Hall of Fame.
Tony retired from teaching in 2006, but stayed on with the football and track & field teams at Newport Harbor. Once he was ready to step away from his storied high school coaching career in 2020, Katelyn reached out to him about coming over to help her at UC Irvine, and he agreed, making them a rare father-daughter coaching duo at the NCAA Division I level.
“I feel like I got the best situation out of this,” Katelyn said. “At first, I was nervous because I had been here so long and wanted to put my own name on the program. I essentially wanted to build the resume he had. But the more we got going and the more years we have together, I realize how easy and fun it is to have someone like him around. Obviously, we are very family-oriented so being able to have him here and have my kids come to practice and get to see grandpa is pretty awesome.”
Since Tony joined Katelyn in 2021, the two have elevated the program even further. Last year was a banner season for the UC Irvine men, winning three of the four throwing events and scoring 48 of the team’s 89 points at the Big West Championships. They also established three school records in 2024. On the women’s side, Deandra Tyler earned her third career All-Big West award in the shot put while winning the event at the MPSF Indoor Championships. In addition, the Anteater throwers accounted for seven of the program’s 11 NCAA West First Round qualifying marks.
“It’s been great and I really enjoy coaching with her,” Tony said. “She is a hard worker and has had a great career as a coach. Katelyn had a very good program before I got here, and I think the two of us together have pushed it up a little bit.”
While staying competitive and raising the bar every year for the program, the two have also been able to have some fun together over the last four seasons.
“Our running joke is he gets fired every postseason,” Katelyn laughed. “During the season we’re always just kind of crossing paths. Then we start to travel for regionals, and sometimes conference, and we’re together for every meal, every practice, so I usually end up firing him around mid-May. Last year he didn’t get fired; we were both very happy after conference and then Liam (Miksic) did great at regionals, so it was a nice season.”
With a strong core group of returners, and the addition of a few highly-touted newcomers in 2025, there is a good chance Katelyn won’t be firing Tony again as the Ciarellis are primed to continue to put UC Irvine throws on the map.
