Rocky Ciarelli was a multi-time CIF championship coach during his 37 years in Orange County volleyball. He passed away from a heart attack at age 66 in 2023.

He spent 24 years at Huntington Beach HS (1985-2008) where he graduated in 1974. He came back to coach the Newport Harbor boys’ team in 2015 and concluded his coaching career in 2019 capturing the CIF Division 1 and the CIF State Division I boys’ volleyball championships to finish with 630 lifetime wins.

At Huntington Beach (he also coached at Edison), Ciarelli won back-to-back CIF Southern Section Division I boys’ volleyball championships in 1993 and 1994. He then led the Huntington Beach girls’ volleyball team to the CIF Division IIAA and the CIF State Division II titles in 1996, co-coaching with his wife, Cammy, who was a standout college player at UCLA and then a top AVP beach player. Ciarelli was a strong college player at Long Beach State from 1977-79, then an assistant coach as the program became one of the best. He assisted SCIVBHOFer Alan Knipe from 2008-2012 for the USA Olympic Team in London. Long Beach State has named its annual alumni match in his honor. Ciarelli was inducted into the CIF Hall of Fame in 2024. His son Tony (one of two children) was the 2012 College Player of the Year for USC. Rocky and his brother Tony, one of the top high school track & field throws coaches in the nation (now at UC Irvine), were both inducted into the CIF Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.