Dean Starkey Article!!

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo ... 58678.html

Pole vaulting's old man

Starkey makes one more effort to reach Olympics at age 37


BY KEN KEENAN
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

An alternate on the U.S. Team for the 1992 Summer Olympics, Dean Starkey hopes to pack his bags for Athens, Greece, this summer.

Dean Starkey didn't necessarily harbor a childhood dream to become a world-class pole vaulter, let alone to make a career out of it. But once he got a taste of the sport as a freshman in high school, there was no turning back.

Born in Park Ridge and raised in Chicago and the northwest suburbs (Palatine, Hoffman Estates and Des Plaines), the 37-year-old Starkey spent two years at Palatine HS before taking second in the state in the pole vault (15-feet-6) his senior year at Maine West in 1985.

While attending the University of Illinois, Starkey earned a bronze medal in the 1997 World Championships with a career-high 19-5. He qualified for the NCAA championships every indoor and outdoor season, in the process winning indoor titles his junior and senior seasons.

As a senior, Starkey set a NCAA indoor record (18-6 1/2) and placed fourth outdoors (18-8), one year after setting a Big Ten indoor mark (18-1 1/2, breaking teammate Lane Lohr's previous record of 18-1).

These days, he resides in Atascadero, Calif., and is trying to become one of the oldest pole vaulters to qualify for the Olympics -- in this case the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

Starkey, who competed professionally in Europe until being sidelined by an Achilles injury in 1999, also runs his own Web design business and is involved with other pole vaulting Web sites.

"Like surfing, for example, pole vaulting is a lifestyle," Starkey said. "It's different than any other sport -- you're competing against guys, but they're also your best friends. And being a world-class athlete at something, you become like a guru. You want to help those interested in the sport and give the athlete every advantage to be better."

But it wasn't always this way for Starkey. Initially, he had little interest in track and field as a freshman at Palatine, circa 1981-82.

"I didn't want to go out for track -- it didn't seem like any fun," Starkey said. "I was a BMX racer as a youth and I didn't want to do all the work of running distances. I did like the high jump but I wasn't very good at it. I was weak and skinny (130 pounds), but I was tall (6-foot) and I did have pretty decent speed.

"Then, a couple of guys who were experienced from the year before showed me the basics of pole vaulting, and I could feel something right about it."

One of those guys was senior teammate Matt Pancamo, who took Starkey under his wing and became a mentor.

"I really looked up to Matt -- a lot of things he shared stuck with me and stayed with me," Starkey said. "For one, I was into riding motorcycles ... dirt bikes, and Matt said, 'You can't do that if you want to be a pole vaulter.'

"So I sold the bike and started concentrating on one thing, not letting anything else distract me. By the end of the year, I ended up being the second best (pole vaulter) on the team."

By his sophomore campaign, Starkey was clearing 13-6 and knocking on the door of the State Meet. Soon after he headed to California to live with his mother, then returned a year later to the Chicago area to live with his father in Des Plaines.

"I wanted to go back to Palatine," he said. "But Maine West (track) coach Ron Brown said, 'I want you to come to school here. We'll give you an opportunity to jump and jump well. We'll get Ralph Murdy to help you.' "

Murdy, now in his 31st year teaching social sciences at Maine West, served as an assistant track coach from 1973-90. Brown was head coach from 1972-85 before retiring from West in 1990.

Since West has no indoor track facility, Murdy took Starkey to and from Maine East and South to work on the teen's pole vaulting skills.

Starkey revisited Maine South Feb. 14 and jumped 17-9 while competing in a showcase event hosted by Hawks' vaulting coach Jim Lonergan.

"I practiced several hours a day, and I would stay longer than anyone else," Starkey recalled of his prep days.

Brown, now a successful entrepreneur in the hotel and casino business, said the first time he saw Starkey vault in competition as a Warrior was at Maine South.

"Dean said he didn't want to just come in at 12-6, rather he wanted to break the (facility) record," Brown recalled. "So there I am, with a new athlete on the team, and he's dictating what he wants to do.

"We have to stop the entire meet so he can get a longer running start than normal, and then he runs down, plants the pole -- and when that pole bent down and he released, I thought he went through the roof! That was my first encounter with him as a pole vaulter."

Murdy said: "(Starkey) was the hardest-working athlete I've ever seen. He was the hardest worker in practice and the hardest worker in meets. We'd actually overwork him, but the conditioning paid off.

"He was as strong as a shot-putter and he had superior speed. He was a role model for the other athletes, too, always motivating the team to work harder. Once in a lifetime, an athlete like this comes around. No question about it, he's the best I've ever seen."

Brown said Murdy's assessment was right on the money.

"There are very few people who have priorities and goals like Dean," Brown said. "And for a high-school kid to have a mentality like that ... let's just say others could not obtain the concentration level he did. In my opinion, Dean worked on pole vaulting 24 hours a day, he was so far ahead of everyone else. He was, and still is, a very exceptional person."

Starkey was an alternate at the 1992 Summer Olympics and has trained with 1972 Olympic bronze medalist Jan Johnson, began seriously vaulting again last year. His goal is to reach 18-8, but at age 37, Starkey knows that won't be an easy task.

"Jumping at this age hurts a lot," he said with a chuckle. "I'm about 10 years older than the average pole vaulter, and I'm also competing against guys I knew (and coached) when they were 5 year olds. But it's fun -- I love doing it, I love training. And I love coaching, too."

Not only is Starkey training for his own chance to make the '04 Olympic cut, he's trying to help 26-year-old University of Illinois grad Justin Nordberg make it as well.

"I get so much satisfaction helping others," Starkey said. "It's rewarding to see a guy you're coaching do well. So now I have two shots to make the Olympics -- as a coach of Justin or as an athlete. And whether I make it or not, I'd like to keep coaching high-level athletes and also attract other talent. It would be great for those guys to have the same opportunity I had -- to have a good career as a pole vaulter and share my passion for the sport."

[vaultchamp16]

Starkey, your support is awesome and I wish you the best of luck.

[opalkak]

You can do it Dean, good luck this season.

Thanks for all the help over the last year.

Make sure you don't go wakeboarding before any meets, that video is great.