Track and Field / John Ortega : DiMarco’s Able Stable Corrals 2 Major Titles

For someone who calls coaching a “throw-away profession� and who would like to “get the hell out of it,� Charlie DiMarco of Northridge has had a great deal of success recently.

Two of his proteges--Walt Stewart of Cal State Northridge and Crissy Mills of Campbell Hall--have won major high jump titles in the last two weeks.

Stewart, a junior, won the NCAA Division II title with a leap of 7 feet, 1/2 inch at Hampton, Va., on May 26, and Mills, a junior at the private high school in North Hollywood, won her second consecutive state championship with a personal-best jump of 6 feet at Cerritos College in Norwalk a week later.

“The last two weeks have been very satisfying,� DiMarco said. “It’s nice to see your jumpers perform well in the big meets, to see them take what you worked on in practice and put it to use in competition.�

Despite his success, DiMarco has no intention of making coaching, or as he prefers to call it “consulting,� a lifetime occupation.

“I can’t see myself doing this for the rest of my life,� said DiMarco, who has a full-time job at On Track, a track and field equipment manufacturer and distributor in Glendale. “There’s just not enough money involved . . . . But it seems like I say that every year. I thought 1988 was going to be my last season, but then I decided to coach Crissy until the end of high school, which means 1990.�

After that, DiMarco projects that Mills will accept a college scholarship and get a new coach. However, Mills has hinted that she wants to stay in the area after her high school career so that DiMarco can coach her at the collegiate level.

“She’s an incredibly gifted athlete,� he said. “It’s just a matter of her continuing to improve her technique and strength.�

DiMarco, a pole vaulter who posted bests of 13-6 at Marshall High in 1976 and 14-10 at Valley College two years later, was the field events coach at Valley from 1979-83 and at Cal State Northridge from 1984-86.

At Northridge, he coached Dave Stephens, the 1984 NCAA Division II javelin champion and winner of last year’s Olympic Trials.

DiMarco’s success created problems, however.

“A lot of people would come to me and ask for help,� DiMarco said. “And my natural reaction would be to help them. If someone asks me a question and I have knowledge about the subject, I’m going to tell them what I know.�

The problems arose because many of the people seeking DiMarco’s advice were high school athletes, and as a college coach, he would be violating NCAA rules by coaching them.

So he resigned his position at CSUN and formed Advantage Athletics, a Northridge-based club.

The move allowed him to independently coach Northridge jumpers such as Stewart and Ken Burke, while also dealing with high school athletes like Mills.

“It’s been a good move,� DiMarco said. “I don’t have the patience to deal with all the politics of coaching at the collegiate level. The club has given me the chance to form my own little world of track and field. I have it just the way I want it.�

Statwatch: Russell White of Crespi High and Todd Lewis of Burbank failed to win titles in the triple jump and 1,600 meters, respectively, at the state championships last Saturday.

But both athletes turned in top performances nonetheless.

White, who placed third in the triple jump at 48 feet, 7 inches, bounded a Valley-area record of 50-6 in qualifying on Friday. Lewis finished third in the 1,600 Saturday, but clocked a personal best of 4 minutes, 9.02 seconds.

Lewis’ time converts to a 4:10.47 mile, the fastest by a Valley-area runner since Agoura’s Jon Stormo ran 4:10.2 in 1977.

As swift as Lewis’ time is, however, it ranks only second on the all-time Burbank list to John Musich, who ran 4:08.9 in 1974. Don Moses of Crescenta Valley set the Valley-area record of 4:08.5 in 1976.