Maverick Coach Gives Proteges the Advantage : Track: Charlie DiMarco formed his own club to ensure that the individual needs of athletes would be met.

The promise of a vaulting pole of his choice lured Charlie DiMarco into becoming a track coach 11 years ago, but it is the promise of young athletes that is keeping him in his chosen profession.

Four years ago, disenchanted with what he claimed were numerous restrictions at the college coaching level, especially his inability to work with high school athletes because of NCAA regulations, DiMarco, 31, resigned as the field events coach at Cal State Northridge and started the Advantage Athletics track club.

“It’s not enjoyable when you have to fight the political battles of satisfying someone’s ego,” said DiMarco, who lives in Northridge and still works independently with several CSUN athletes.

“What motivates me is to see athletes have the opportunity to reach their potential, but that’s not always the No. 1 priority with athletic directors.

“All they understand is if the team wins or loses. They don’t understand if a kid sets a personal best or a school record.

“In track, the bottom line is personal achievement.”

DiMarco, a full-time employee at On Track, a track and field equipment distributor and manufacturer in Glendale, donates his time year-round after work and on weekends to help athletes fulfill their potential. In addition, he says he provides insurance liability for the club out of his own pocket. There are no membership dues and schools for which the athletes compete underwrite travel expenses. In rare instances, the athlete himself will pay.

“I don’t do it for money because I don’t want to put up with the politics of being on a high school or college staff,” said DiMarco, who likens Advantage Athletics to gymnastics and swimming clubs in that the emphasis is placed on individual development. “I want to do it for the enjoyment.

“I get satisfaction as long as someone is improving. I don’t have to have the top athletes or Olympians.”

Nevertheless, several athletes have left their mark, literally, under the tutelage of DiMarco. Crissy Mills of USC and Campbell Hall High, Walt Stewart of CSUN and Melanie Clarke of Valley College all have won significant championships.

Mills won the girls’ high jump in the 1988 and ’89 state high school championships, prevailing with marks of 5 feet 10 inches and 6-0. Stewart won the 1989 NCAA Division II title in the men’s high jump (7-0 1/2).

Clarke, who also trains with Valley Coach James Harvey, won the heptathlon in the state junior college championships in May and in The Athletics Congress junior nationals in June (5,034 points and 5,080).

Stewart, who graduated from Notre Dame High, heard about DiMarco’s individualized training methods and chose to attend Northridge on a partial scholarship in 1985 despite the offer of a full ride from Cal Lutheran.

“I was primarily self-coached in high school,” said Stewart, who has a personal best of 7-2 1/2 and is still training with DiMarco. “I jumped 6-8 in high school, but I still needed help. I really liked the idea of a coach to work one to one. I improved four inches in my first year and that’s a lot at my level.”

Clarke, who threw 71 feet in the javelin in her first heptathlon in April improved to 121-1 in her third heptathlon, in the TAC Junior meet.

“He’s really helped me, not only with my technique but (with) what I need to focus on before the throw,” said Clarke, the woman athlete of the year in field events in the Western State Conference. “He’s a generous man and loves track. He’s out there every day and (he is) a great motivator.”

Dave Stephens, winner of the javelin in the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials, was another DiMarco protege at CSUN. Stephens found DiMarco’s methods to be sound, so much so that in 1984 he won the NCAA Division II championship.

“He’ll take you step by step and show you what to do. . . . That makes things a lot easier to understand. He knows the dynamics of throws . . . and how to use the stronger muscles to avoid injury.”

As much as DiMarco wants to help the athletes who solicit his help, the demands placed on his time could eventually limit his effectiveness as a coach.

“I have a tendency to take on more than I can handle. I’m just about maxed out,” said DiMarco, who works daily with nine athletes individually and has 16 in the club. “If I take any more, it doesn’t allow me time to give 100%. I can’t add people indiscriminately and build my club so big that it can’t be a hands-on club.

“It’s not in my personality to turn people away empty-handed, either. I try to give them advice or steer them toward an age-group club or a masters club.”

DiMarco said Advantage Athletics would not have been possible without the assistance and support of CSUN track Coach Don Strametz, who allows the club to use the Northridge track and weight room facilities. In exchange, DiMarco renders his services to the CSUN track program.

“We definitely wouldn’t be here without him. Strametz pushed through the paperwork with the school and got us going,” DiMarco said. “He has made the facilities available to us and gives us the run of the place every evening.”

DiMarco, a pole vaulter at Marshall High and Valley College, became disillusioned with collegiate track after attending San Jose State for a quarter in 1978.

“I wasn’t very good and I was looking for help and nobody wanted to (help),” said DiMarco, who set a personal best of 14-10 in 1980 while serving as an assistant coach at Valley College.

“They were only interested in the big top guns. I felt that I could be decent, but I didn’t find a coaching staff that was willing to work with me.”

He decided to drop intercollegiate track and complete his degree in television broadcasting at Cal State Los Angeles. He got his degree but missed the sport and wanted to get back into it.

DiMarco started coaching in 1979 at Valley College as an assistant to Mark Covert, currently the track and cross-country coach at Antelope Valley Junior College. Covert, the NCAA Division II cross-country champion at Cal State Fullerton in 1970, was unable to put DiMarco on salary for his first season but dangled another enticement.

“(Covert) was a distance runner and he didn’t know anything about vaulting,” DiMarco said. “He was honest about it and said that if I helped him out that he’d get me any pole I wanted.”

DiMarco got the pole of his choice.

Ironically, DiMarco’s first coaching breakthrough came not in the pole vault but in the high jump. Sue Patterson, who jumped 4-10 at St. Genevieve High and has since improved to 6-1, placed second in the state junior college meet while competing for Valley College in 1983.

Both coach and athlete apparently took their relationship and accomplishments to heart. DiMarco and Patterson, 27, were married in April.

At CSUN, Patterson was a three-time NCAA Division II All-American, twice in the high jump (1985 and ‘86) and once in the heptathlon (‘85).

“By coaching good athletes, I’ve learned a lot,” said DiMarco, who coached at Valley and CSUN during the 1984 season, then solely at Northridge the next two seasons.

“It’s a two-way exchange, an equal partnership. I don’t teach down to athletes. I’m at an even level. I learn from them and what they get out (of it) is what they give. If they give 100%, they get 100% back. If they give me anything less, they get shown to the gate.”

Said Stewart: “He’s looking for the serious athlete that wants help. He’s very committed to what he does and expects the same in return.”

Leaning on his experiences, DiMarco has designed and marketed several products, including a foam rubber practice bar for the high jump and pole vault and an elastic cord that is tied to one end of the javelin and the other to a post for working on technique.

“I don’t plan on coaching forever,” said DiMarco, who eventually would like to handle the club’s administrative duties and relinquish the coaching chores to some of his athletes.

“At the end of every season, I tell myself that this will be the year that I get out and do something else. But every year the athletes get better and better and keep going higher, and I tell myself one more year. This year I didn’t feel that way.

“The kids are still tired from the season, but right now I’m revved up and ready to go.”