If there's one constant in the organization known as CLUB BALLARD, it's Paul Merca.

From day one, Paul has played a key role in the making of Club Ballard Athletics.

Merca started the team with a young man named Derrick Galvan in June 1985 shortly after the conclusion of the1984-85 school year. As to the choice of naming the team Club Ballard, it was a natural that it got its name from the community in north Seattle...after all, Merca was an assistant track and cross country coach at Ballard High School.

"We had the foundation of a good group of distance runners at Ballard High," Merca said in recalling the team's early days. "I wanted to keep the momentum going from the end of the track season and have it carry over through the summer months. I wanted to make sure the kids at Ballard kept up their running over the summer, and so I formed this team, just to make sure they had something to do."

The team wasn't necessarily a team in the official sense, but more or less, a training group. Runners from other neighborhood high schools were recruited, and met either at Ballard High or at Green Lake just to train.

Club Ballard officially became a team in November 1985, and in its debut, won the TAC/USA Pacific Northwest association and regional Junior Olympic cross country titles in the boys' 17-18 age group.

During his tenure with Club Ballard, Merca has helped guide the running and track and field careers of numerous high school All-Americans, including high jumper Rick Noji from Franklin High; distance runners Cajh Hafferty, Nick Pavach, Dave Gurry, and Heidi van Borkulo from Blanchet; long jumper/hurdler Peller Phillips from Garfield; pole vaulter Bryan Madche from Blanchet; and heptathlete/high jumper Megan Franza from Cascade of Leavenworth.

Merca got into the post-collegiate track and field game in 1989 by accident when former Washington State University long jumper Gerald Edwards asked if he could join the team.

Edwards' efforts competing in his first year out of Washington State drew the eyes of several post-collegiate track athletes from the area looking for a support system and a way to continue their careers in the sport, including William "Bill" Ayears, a US Olympic Trials finalist in the long jump in 1988, and Washington State University school record holder.

With Ayears on the team jumping, and running the sprints, Club Ballard soon received regional and national notoriety. His success helped Club Ballard become one of the region's top clubs. As Merca put it, "Even though my board and I did much of the organizational work, Bill's success, and the success of the other athletes on the track was our best recruiting tool...success breeds success."

At one point, Club Ballard was perhaps the country's strongest team (including NCAA division I schools) in the triple jump, boasting on its roster three 55-foot jumpers, including two-time Nigerian Olympian Joseph Taiwo; 1992 Kuwaiti Olympian and national record holder Marzouk al-Yoha; and World University Games fourth-place finisher Mike Harris, a former NCAA All-American from Cal-Berkeley.

Beyond his accomplishments as team leader of Club Ballard, Merca's contributions to the sport are numerous:

--He's successfully coached at the high school level in Seattle, serving as an assistant track and cross country coach at Franklin, Ballard, and Ingraham High Schools, along with a stint as head women's track coach at his alma mater, Franklin High in 1991;

--He has directed Club Ballard's Turkey Trot and Seattle Open Cross Country Classic races;

--He's been on the board of the Pacific Northwest Association of USA Track & Field since 1984, which included service as chair of the Open Athletics Committee;

--He was the assistant director of communications for the 1984 USA Women's Olympic Marathon Trials in Olympia, WA., and public relations director for the 1999 USA Winter Cross Country Championships in Tacoma, WA;

--He has tirelessly worked on several USA Track & Field committees over the years, including Athletes Advisory, Mens Track & Field, Communications, Women's Development (high jump and heptathlon), and Cross Country;

--He is the current public address announcer for the University of Washington's home indoor track and field meets;

--He has worked in media relations at the last several USA national cross country championships, and was a media assistant to the USA national team (2001-03) at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Oostende, Belgium; Dublin, Ireland; and, Lausanne, Switzerland;

--His vast knowledge of the sport has been utilized by many of the country's sports television networks, as he's played a part in the coverage of the US Olympic Trials, US national championships, Goodwill Games, and IAAF World Track & Field Championships for ESPN, NBC, ABC, CBS, Turner, and FOX;

--He is a contributing writer to Northwest Runner magazine, having covered the IAAF World Championships and the Olympics for the publication; and, is a member of the Track & Field Writers of America.

Merca, who was born 6 December 1959, is a life-long Seattle resident. He graduated from Franklin High School in 1977, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington in 1981 in Communications.

He competed in track and cross country at Franklin, and ran cross country at the University of Washington. He served as head manager of the men's track team at Washington