KU rowing coach retires after 22 years

LAWRENCE, Kan.Rob Catloth, head coach of Kansas rowing since the program was created in 1995, has announced his intention to retire, effective June 30.

Associate Head Coach Carrie Cook-Callen has been named Interim Head Coach.

“After more than two decades I just feel that now is the right time to step away,” Catloth said.  “I have been blessed and privileged to coach many terrific student-athletes; literally hundreds of them have been named to our Athletics Director’s Honor Roll and have received academic all-conference and All-America honors. I thank all of them for their effort and for everything they’ve given to the program and to their university.”

Catloth coached KU to numerous milestones in the program’s history, including an Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship (2000), the team’s first-ever top-20 national ranking (1999), and national rankings in three-consecutive seasons (1999-2001).  He was instrumental in the construction and dedication in 2009 of Kansas Athletics’ first boathouse, located in Lawrence on the banks of the Kansas River.  That led to the creation of the Jayhawk Jamboree, at which thousands of fans each year watch teams compete on the Kansas River.

Catloth’s success at Kansas has been recognized on the national scene as well. In the summer of 2000 he was selected to help lead the U.S. freshmen and pre-elite camp at the ARCO Olympic Training Center; that group then went on that summer to win a gold medal at the Under-23 World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A Lawrence native, Catloth graduated from Kansas in 1985.

“Rob brought our rowing program from its inception to where it is now,” said Sheahon Zenger, KU Athletics Director. “Today the program annually provides more than 70 female student-athletes the opportunity to compete on the Division I level. We thank Rob and wish him all the best.”

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