Jim DeMarco - PV Official & Friend

When Jim DeMarco first officiated the vault at Cerritos College he was not exactly what we considered vault friendly. He had all of these cones and was always reading the rules and was just way too anal about everything. In fact, to make sure he was tormented, Borya Celentano and I would steal his little cones he put on the runway when measuring each and every height. We left that day with eight of Jim's cones and had quite the laugh at his expense. In his defense, Jim is a statistics guy for Nissan so he comes by some of these traits honestly. But somewhere along the line he became one of us. He was still very authoritaive but he would consider all things in the interest of the vaulters wheter it be a run through after sitting forever or breaking a large group into three divisions, or making sure that anyone who neeeded a qualifying mark would get their shot no matter how strange the progression. Jim volunteers his time to come out and officiate our annual Halloween Vault and even comes dressed in costume. In short, Jim is what is RIGHT about officiating and I am truly honored to consider him a friend of all vaulters.

PHOTOS BELOW FOLLOWED BY HIS BIO

At the Halloween Vault with Borya's mom, Olga.

Jim at the Beach Vault to the right.

Jim in High School

Jim's Bio

I started track at Boston College High School as a distance runner
(cross-country, mile, two mile, 880, 1000). My best mile time was a blazing
5:14. I was also the team's track manager (more like a player coach). At
the end of my junior year, I organized a decathlon for the team by rescoring
the tables basing them on our school records. We did not have the pole
vault, so I substituted the triple jump instead and doubled the long jump
distances for the triple jump points. Senior year, I was assistant meet
director/announcer for the New England Catholic High School Championships.

After high school, I officiated for The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Track
and Field Officials. They worked all high school and college meets, and The
Boston Marathon. I was mostly a timer, but did some high jump, shot, long
jump, and triple jump (back in the days when dragging your trail leg was a
foul). I only officiated between semester breaks as I was going to school in
the Midwest (University of Dayton for my Bachelors, University of Iowa for my Masters). In 1985, I moved to Michigan to work for General Motors.

In 1988, I moved to California to work for Nissan. In 1991, I felt settled
in enough to get back into officiating. I was mostly on the throws until
about 1994 when I started to officiate more pole vault. The main reason was
our association was short pole vault officials. The more I worked the event,
the more I liked it. However, I was only assigned the pole vault south of the
105 freeway; north of the 105, I was a throws official. I have worked a
variety of events from a five year old long jumper to a ninety year old shot
putter and mostly everything in between.

Why do I officiate? Because it's fun!