Cliff Rovelto - Track & Field
Cliff Rovelto
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- crovelto@kstatesport.com
- Phone:
- (785) 532-7071
The Rovelto File
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Hometown: Ancon, Panama
Education: Kansas '78
COACHING HISTORY
1992-2024: Director of Track & Field and Cross Country
1988-1992: K-State Assistant Coach
1987-1988: University of Kansas Interim Head Coach
1983-1987: University of Kansas Assistant Coach
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Four-time Big 12 Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Big 12 Champions (2001, 2002, 2017, 2018)
Big 12 Women's Cross Country Champions (1998)
Five-time Big 12 Women's Outdoor Coach of the Year (2001, 2002, 2017, 2018, 2019)
Team USA Assistant Coach at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics
Has personally coached 17 Olympians, 3 medalists, who have made a combined 22 Olympic appearances
Has coached 17 student-athletes to 21 NCAA Championships
Drake Relays Coaches Hall of Fame (2002)
Has coached 9 individuals to compete at World Indoor Championships, combining for 14 Championships
Has coached 23 individuals to compete at World Outdoor Championships, combined for 35 total Championships
Has personally coached student-athletes to 222 All-American Certificates, including 152 First-Team All-Americans
Has coached 95 students-athletes to 186 individual Big 12 conference Championships
Has coached 42 USA National Champions, including 27 in the high jump
Since 1993, Coach Rovelto has coached 10 athletes who have ranked among the top-10 in the World in their respective events by Track and Field News on 33 occasions.
Cliff Rovelto retired as Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Cliff Rovelto after 32 years at the helm of the K-State’s program, a total of 36 years at the school. Rovelto ended his career as the second-most tenured coach in K-State history, just behind 34 years by Hall of Fame track coach Ward Haylett (1929-63).
Rovelto oversaw 17 athletes to 21 NCAA Titles, most recently, Tejaswin Shankar (high jump; 2022, 2018) and Shardia Lawrence (triple jump; 2019). Another 25 athletes earned national runner-up finishes while 21 placed third.
Along with Shankars two titles, Christoff Bryan (2017), Scott Sellers (2007, 2009), Erik Kynard Jr. (2011, 2012) and Nathan Leeper (1998) combine for the second-most men's high jump outdoor national championships in the country, behind USC (11).
As a world renowned coach in the high jump, Rovelto helped K-State achieve the moniker, 'HighJumpU.' From 1989-2024, K-State produced at least one All-American in the high jump in 30 of those 35 years, earning 76 All-American honors in the event. The school had 37 top-3 placings at the NCAA Championships in that span, including 12 NCAA champions, 16 national runners-up and nine third-place finishes.
During the 2021 outdoor season, Rovelto coached Tejaswin Shankar to his second Big 12 Championship title in the high jump. He led the Wildcats to a women's second place team finish and men's fourth place team finished while hosting at R.V. Christian Track.
During the 2019 outdoor season, Rovelto led the Wildcat women to a program-record 156.5 points scored at the Big 12 Championship, which is the most by a Big 12 runner-up in the meet's history. The success of the women's team led to Rovelto's fifth Big 12 Outdoor Coach of the Year honor and his third straight, which was the most of any active coach in the Big 12 Conference and tied for second most all-time.
In 2018, the women’s track and field team won their fourth Big 12 Outdoor Conference Championship in program history and their second in as many years.
Rovelto's teams were named Big 12 runners-up on eight occasions, women's cross country (1999, 2000), men's indoor (2004), women's indoor (2001, 2015) and women's outdoor championships (2015, 2019, 2021).
His teams earned 33 top-20 team finishes at the NCAA Championships, including 10 top-10 finishes. The fifth place finishes at the 1999 NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships and the 2002 NCAA Women's Outdoor Championships previously tied for the best-ever by a Wildcat men's and/or women's team in the program's history, equaling the 1966 men's indoor and 1984 women's indoor teams.
Coach Rovelto has also received numerous awards and recognitions for his successes on the track.
In 2001, he was recognized as the Women’s Outdoor National Coach of the Year after a 16th-place finish including Austra Skujyte as the heptathlon national champion. He is a nine-time USTFCCCA Women’s Midwest Region Coach of the Year, his latest one in 2019. He was named Outdoor Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2001, 2002, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and the Indoor Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2015.
Rovelto’s success at Kansas State has also earned him recognition on an international scale. Over his career, he has coached a total of 17 individuals, who have represented their countries at the Olympic Games 22 times, including gold medalist Erik Kynard (2012) and silver medalists Austra Skujyte (2004) and Matt Hemingway (2004). He has also coached 23 individuals to compete in 35 Outdoor World Championships, while coaching 42 USA National Champions.
He was named the head coach at Kansas State in November of 1992. Since then, Rovelto has personally coached 17 NCAA individual champions and has personally coached 195 All-Americans, including 133 first-team All-Americans, as well as 104 individual conference championships. In 1998, the women’s cross country team won its only title in program history. In the high jump alone, Kansas State has produced at least one All-American in 27 of the last 31 years, earning 69 All-American honors in the event during this time frame.
During the summer of 2016, Rovelto served as an assistant coach for the USA’s men’s track and field team at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Rovelto began his coaching career in 1979, coaching track and field at McLouth High School in Kansas. In his two years with the Bulldogs, he coached six state champions, five state record-holders and one high school All-American.
After two seasons with McLouth, he spent seven seasons at his alma mater, the University of Kansas. He served as a graduate assistant on the men’s team from 1981-83 before being named a full-time assistant and cross country coach for the women’s team in 1983.
In 1987, he was named interim head coach of the Kansas women’s team. He would go on to coach eight All-Americans and seven Big Eight champions during his time with the Jayhawks. He also saw 24 school records broken during his tenure. Rovelto came to K-State in 1988-89, as the assistant coach for the jumps and combined events.
Rovelto served as the head coach of the U.S. Decathlon Team in dual meets with Germany in 1997 and 2003. He was also part of the Team USA staff at the 2002 IAAF World Cup in Madrid and was named to the U.S. coaching staff as a women’s assistant for the 2003 World Outdoor Championships in Paris. Rovelto also served as an assistant coach at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
In 2005, he was assigned as women’s assistant for Team USA at the Outdoor World Championship in Helsinki, Finland. He served on the men’s staff for Team USA at the 2007 World Track & Field Championships in Osaka, Japan.
In 2010, he served as an assistant coach for the America’s team in Split, Croatia, for the IAAF Continental Cup. He was the USA head men’s coach at the Pan-America Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011. In 2014 he served as an assistant coach for the Americas Team at the IAAF Continental Cup in Morocco.
Rovelto assisted in writing the USATF coaching education curriculum for the combined events, as well as authoring numerous articles for professional journals. He has also authored videos on high jump, combined events, hurdles sprints and horizontal jumps.
He is a USA Coaching Education Level II and Level III instructor for the jumps and combined events and a USA Junior and Senior Development Clinician for the jumps and combined events. Rovelto has served as an IAAF Coaching School Clinician for the Combined Events and High Jump and has served as clinician/lecturer at numerous clinics/coaching schools throughout the world.
Rovelto is married to his wife Karol Rovelto, who served as the director of operations and assistant track and field coach for the track and field and cross country teams. She was a professional high jumper and competed at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Wednesday, June 17
Monday, June 15
Thursday, June 11
Wednesday, June 10
