Clayton Dirks, an LSU Tigers pitcher and undecided sophomore, is still dealing with the effects of his DWI arrest more than a month after it happened.
Dirks was arrested Sept. 6 on DWI charges by the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Dirks said Wednesday he is disappointed in himself.
“It’s something I have to deal with,” he said. “I make decisions and put myself in situations.”
BRPD Cpl. Mary Ann Godawa said Dirks was driving on Lee Drive at 1:45 a.m. when his passenger threw a beer can out of a window. The can almost struck a police car.
Godawa said officers could smell alcohol after stopping Dirks and observed other physical signs of alcohol use.
“He was offered a sobriety test, which he performed and failed,” Godawa said.
The highest legal blood alcohol level for anyone younger than 21 is .02. Dirks, who is 19 years old, had a blood alcohol level of .09, according to police reports.
Police reports said Dirks was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and released Sept. 9.
But Dirks said he was not held in prison for three days.
“I was in custody from about 1:40 in the morning to noon Sunday [Sept. 7],” he said. “That was long enough for me.”
Dirks said being an athlete adds pressure for the student, as well as for others involved in a court case.
“It makes it tough,” he said. “Attorneys have to make sure there is no special treatment.”
Though it is his second year on the Tiger baseball team, Dirks has not yet played in a game for the team. The NCAA granted Dirks a medical redshirt last year after having surgery on his elbow, according to the LSU baseball media guide.
His arrest did not affect his athletic eligibility.
Legal troubles such as Dirks’s would not necessarily affect University enrollment for a non-athletic student. There also are no official NCAA regulations against athletes who are arrested for DWIs.
Head baseball coach Smoke Laval said Dirks’s arrest is strictly a legal matter.
Dirks was punished, but only by the team, Laval said. He would not elaborate on the punishment details.
“It stays within the team,” Laval said.
Challenging Athletes’ Minds for Personal Success, a program developed by the NCAA to assist athletes in life off the playing field, is an outlet for athletes to voice frustration or seek help with personal problems.
CHAMPS has counselors at LSU to talk with athletes about issues ranging from responding to media questions to alcoholism and drug use.
Laval said he always recommends that his athletes talk to CHAMPS counselors when they are having legal problems.
“CHAMPS is an outstanding programming,” he said.
But seeing a CHAMPS counselor was not mandatory for Dirks because his situation was not “severe,” Laval said.
“This is like walking around a football game, and you’re 20 – drinking a beer in a McDonald’s cup,” he said.
Mike Mallet, director of CHAMPS, could not confirm whether or not Dirks had spoken with any of the organization’s counselors.
Dirks said he is meeting with a counselor along with dealing with the consequences of his arrest.
“The legal part’s still going through,” he said.
Dirks said he went to driving school as part of the legal repercussions.