by R.J. Marse
LSU Sports Information

Paul Mainieri takes the term “student-athlete” seriously.

Heading into his third season as head coach of LSU baseball, Mainieri’s focus on building the program on the diamond as well as in the classroom has trickled down to every member of the team and coaching staff.

That’s why, after posting a score of 903 in the NCAA Academic Progress Rating the year prior to his arrival, the baseball team posted a perfect score of 1,000 for the 2007-08 academic year and reached the College World Series for the first time since 2004. Mainieri says he feels like a change in attitude and philosophy toward the class room has enabled the team to have the kind of dual success it currently enjoys.

“When I first got here, a kid that did well in school was a little embarrassed around his teammates,” he said. “Now, he’s held up on a pedestal if he does well. That’s great. That’s a total culture change. The kids are now striving to do well in school, and they now think it’s cool to do well.”

One of three coaches on the Academic Enhancement group for Division I Baseball, Mainieri is quick to point out that the improvement hasn’t been a one-man job. All student-athletes at LSU have use of the Cox Communications Center for Student-Athletes and the baseball team has enlisted its help and bought into hard work in the classroom.

Mainieri singled out Becca Hubbard, the academic advisor for baseball, as one of the people most responsible for the recent turnaround.

As a son of two teachers and the holder of a master’s degree, Mainieri uses his experience to make sure his players are aware of a life after baseball and does his best to prepare them for it.

“I’ve told players for many years that they’ve been blessed with some great athletic ability, but that doesn’t last a lifetime. Their baseball careers are going to end relatively soon, but the one thing nobody can take away from them is their education. If they earn their degree and get a good education, it’s going to open a lot of doors for them in life,” he said.

The Tigers have enjoyed well-known success on the diamond under Mainieri, as well. Last season, a 23-game winning streak propelled the Tigers to their first College World Series in four years, winning the SEC tournament and an NCAA regional and super regional along the way.

“I think we’re probably a little ahead of schedule,” said Mainieri. “I thought it would take a couple of recruiting classes before I felt that we could be a player on a national basis. It really only took one.”

To the head coach, the reason for the sudden success is clear.

“We just have some really outstanding young men in our program that just needed to have some direction given to them, and some discipline. They have talent, and now they’re showing that talent because they’re working hard and they’re doing things the way they’re supposed to be done.”

This year is a new year in many ways for the team, however, as Mainieri welcomes new coaches onto his staff and looks to fill his entire weekend rotation for the season. The Tigers return plenty of experience in the field though, with seven of the nine regular starters from 2008 coming back for the 2009 season, including All-American Blake Dean, freshman All-American Micah Gibbs and summer-league standouts Leon Landry and Ryan Schimpf.

“The real question is going to be our starting pitching,” said Mainieri. “We’re counting desperately on some players who played more of a secondary role last year to play more of a primary role this year. Guys like (pitchers) Anthony Ranaudo, Daniel Bradshaw and Austin Ross. I think they’re very capable of being outstanding pitchers and carrying the load, and let’s hope they do.”

As for the coaching staff, Mainieri hired David Grewe to replace Terry Rooney as pitching coach and promoted Javi Sanchez to hitting coach to replace Cliff Godwin. Rooney was hired as head coach at the University of Central Florida and brought Godwin along as a member of his staff.

Although the names may be different to many fans, Grewe and Sanchez are both very familiar with Mainieri as a head coach. Grewe worked under Mainieri at Notre Dame before leaving to take over as head coach at Michigan State (a job he left to come to LSU) while Sanchez played for Mainieri for four years at Notre Dame and also served as a volunteer coach last season.

The 2008 season was the last in Alex Box Stadium, and Mainieri wants to open up the new stadium in February the same way he closed the last one in June – winning.

“When you coach at LSU, everybody expects you to win every game, so we’d be satisfied if we could go ahead in there and win every game we play,” he says jokingly. “We just want to get off to a good start and I think we will this year. I think we’re going to show up on Feb. 20 expecting to win and going out and playing that way.”