New Cal Track & Field coaching staff, including new Cross Country head coach, now complete

The brand new Cal Track & Field coaching staff is finally complete this week, about two months after the official hiring of Robyne Johnson as the new Director of Track & Field and Cross Country after the retirement of Tony Sandoval.

In the staff of Robyne Johnson, who will handle the coaching of the horizontal jumps, Cal will have Dan Lefever for the vertical jumps, pole vault and multis. Charles Ryan will handle sprints, hurdles, and relays. Another newcomer is Bobby Lockhart for distance and mid-distance as the new head coach of Cross Country. Returning to Cal from the previous regime are Mohammad Saatara, who coached a NCAA champ in Camryn Rogers, and Chas Davis as the assistant distance and mid-distance coach.

Both Robyne Johnson and Dan Lefever came from Boston University. Charles Ryan comes from a Division II school in Alabama State. Bobby Lockhart is joining Cal from North Carolina.

All of the new coaches come with great résumés both coaches and as athletes themselves.

Prior to being the head Cross Country coach at UNC, Lockhart was the assistant coach for a decade for the very successful Oklahoma State program that won 3 NCAA team titles. With the success of other Pac-12 Cross Country programs, mainly Colorado but also Stanford and Oregon, there is no reason why Cal can’t also be a perennial championship contender rather than just perennial NCAA championship participants. Lockhart was a standout athlete in Wisconsin during his racing career.

Both Lefever and Ryan had previous ties to the Bay Area with Lefever spending time at The Farm and Ryan being the head coach at Art U across the bay. Ryan attended UCLA before transferring to South Carolina. Lefever, a graduate of Nebraska Weslyan University, has a long coaching track record, compiled mostly at Missouri that includes 26 First-Team All-Americans, 10 Big 12 Conference champions, 37 NCAA Participants, 72 conference scorers, and 17 school records across the jumps, pole vault and multis events.

In recent years, Cal Track and Field has done fairly well in the field events but could improve on the track. Even with the program’s future at Edwards Stadium in doubt (University might repurpose that land), Cal is certainly capable of becoming NCAA championship contenders across various events.

Welcome to Cal to all the new coaches and GO BEARS!