At the beginning of the fall 2006 semester, it appeared the LSU baseball team would only lose a handful of players from this past season’s starting line-up. But after senior starting pitcher Derik Olvey and sophomore outfielder Jarred Bogany chose to transfer prior to this season’s opener, the baseball program loses more and more of its players every day. “I really didn’t have much choice,” Olvey said. “I was told that I was not welcomed at LSU anymore by Coach [Paul] Mainieri. I was told if I wanted to play, I should look into going somewhere else.” Olvey transferred to Arizona State University after just one season with the Tigers. He compiled a 6-2 record at LSU, earned a 3.50 ERA and recorded 55 strikeouts while appearing in 12 games. Olvey, who previously played for Mainieri in 2004 and 2005 while at the University of Notre Dame, said he expected Mainieri to handle the situation differently. “I never thought I had personal problems with Mainieri,” Olvey said. “My transfer from Notre Dame was more for personal reasons and family reasons. When he came here, I was under the assumption that we we were going to have a new relationship and that we were going to start over. I guess that wasn’t his assumption.” Olvey appeared in just 20 games over his two-year span playing for the Fighting Irish. He started seven games with an overall record of 3-2. Mainieri said he thinks his job as a coach is to not only win but mentor and help his players succeed in life – a system he thinks Olvey did not believe in. “Hard work, sacrifice, commitment, how to handle pressure, how to manage your time, how to be successful academically and how that education will carry you through a lifetime is what I try to teach,” Mainieri said. “All of these qualities that I try to impart on every single player that has ever played for me. The ones that don’t get the message get very frustrated playing for me because they don’t want to meet those expectations. And quite frankly when I had Derik at Notre Dame, he didn’t buy into that.” Mainieri said he sat down with Olvey prior to this season to discuss his future in the LSU athletic program and thinks he did him a favor allowing him to transfer when he did. “He’s already transferred once and the rules are so liberal for transferring now that you can transfer and be eligible to play immediately at the other school,” Mainieri said. “But you can only do that once, so when he left Notre Dame and came to LSU he was immediately eligible. Now that he’s leaving LSU and going to Arizona State, he has to sit out for one calendar year before he is eligible.” Because NCAA rules require Olvey to sit out one year, he will redshirt this upcoming season for the Sun Devils. Although he will sit out, Olvey said he thanks Mainieri for allowing him to leave the team when he did. “At least he was honest with me,” Olvey said. “He could easily have kept me around and kept me there and not played me, so at least he was honest with me and gave me the opportunity to play somewhere else to further my career.” Mainieri said he treats every transfer the same and said if a player cannot live up to the expectations he has for him, it is better for the player to go to another university. “There’s a player that I’m not on his Christmas card list,” Mainieri said. “Derik believed he’d be better-served playing for another coach. I wished him luck. I have nothing against him. But he wouldn’t conform in his dedication and in his willingness to fulfill his potential. All I want to see kids do is fulfill their potential. I feel that if I do not handle them in a way that allows them to fulfill their potential, then I’m not doing my job correctly.” Along with Olvey, Bogany has decided to join the Sun Devils for the upcoming season. He agreed with Olvey, saying that even though he and Mainieri did not agree on his situation at LSU, he respects him for the honesty he showed during the process. “Me and Coach didn’t really see eye-to-eye about some things, but I still have the upmost respect for that program,” Bogany said. “I just didn’t feel comfortable with my situation. I felt like it was time for a change.”
—–Contact Jay St. Pierre at [email protected]