WAHIAWA — As a seventh grader, John Olley attended his sister's graduation at Waialua High School and watched the valedictorian deliver the traditional address from a podium.

"I told my dad, 'That's what I want to be,' " Olley said.

Next month, Olley will live out that dream as one of Leilehua High School's six valedictorians.

"It's awesome, it's the best feeling I had in my life," Olley said of receiving word about the honor. "It really gives me a sense of accomplishment."

He and Leilehua's other top academic seniors are thinking of a theme for the shared valedictory address, but for Olley, the speech writing will have to wait until after this busy week.

Besides advanced placement exams in calculus (tomorrow) and U.S. history (on Friday), he will try to help Leilehua's baseball team win an O'ahu Interscholastic Association championship. The Mules, 8-2 and the No. 3 seed in the Western Division, open play in the OIA tournament with a first-round game today against East No. 6 Roosevelt (5-5).

First pitch is set for 4 p.m. at Fred Wright Park in Wahiawa.

Whether Olley gets the starting assignment on the mound or in center field, he figures to play a prominent role on offense and defense.

As a pitcher, he is 4-1 in OIA competition with a 1.21 earned run average, and has 29 strikeouts against one walk. He also bats leadoff and has drawn nine walks in that spot.

"His on-base percentage has to be over .500, because he's on base at least twice every game," said Mules pitching coach Brendan Sagara.

As a center fielder, Olley "is as good as anybody in the state defensively," Sagara said.

"He's real intelligent, so he knows situations and where to position himself, where to throw the ball," said Sagara, a 1991 Leilehua graduate who spent the past seven summers as a minor league pitching coach. "He also runs well. He's one of the better athletes I've seen at our school, and that's saying something because there's been a lot of good ones."

But none in such a high-profile sport has ever been valedictorian, at least not in recent memory.

BUSY SCHEDULE

Olley's goal was not accomplished without hard work and sacrifice.

During baseball season, his day begins before dawn as the Mules start weight training at 6 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. After a full day of classes, including those two AP courses, Olley has baseball practice until about 6:30 p.m., then heads home to shower, eat and do homework.

"I study until I'm so exhausted that I have to sleep," he said.

He also spends much of Sunday trying to keep up his 4.1 cumulative grade point average, which also includes an AP biology course he took as a junior.

"Saturday is really the only day I can relax and have fun," Olley said.

'LIKE A COLLEGE KID'

Not that school and baseball aren't fun.

Olley said he especially enjoys the sciences, and he plans for a pre-med curriculum at Creighton University this fall in addition to walking on to the Blue Jays' baseball team.

"I'm thinking of being either a pediatrician or a (general) physician," Olley said. "The sciences just come to me. I like it because it explains everything. When you wonder why things are the way they are, it usually can be related to science."

That can even apply to baseball.

Olley has been a starter since his sophomore year, when he was the winning pitcher in the 2004 regular-season finale against Pearl City that gave Leilehua the OIA's Western Division championship. But under Sagara, Olley has elevated his game this season thanks to improvements made in weight training and diet.

"People say I've changed, that I've become a totally different pitcher," Olley said. "Coach Sagara has taught me how to use my whole body, so there is less stress on my arm. He changed my workouts and even my diet, to get the most out of everything. He's an awesome coach."

Sagara said Olley's intellectual approach and maturity make it easy to get the messages across.

"He's very coachable," Sagara said. "He's more like a college kid, because you only have to tell him something once, and the adjustment is made. He carries himself like a college junior."

Mike Kim, the Mules' 24-year-old first-year head coach, said Olley has made his job easier by serving as an example to others.

"He's taking courses I never even took yet," said Kim, who teaches health at Leilehua. "In study hall, he's the tutor for the younger boys. It's good because one player was in trouble academically earlier this season, but his problem was math, and Olley helped him. He's a great example for everybody."

HITTING THE SPOT

Olley, a right-hander, said he needs to rely on smarts as a pitcher because he does not possess the 85 mph fastball.

"My approach is 'command/movement/velocity,' and I try to live by that," Olley said. "I know I cannot rely on my fastball to blow people by, so I just try to hit my spots and get outs."

He said his three years on the varsity also has helped his pitching.

"My sophomore year, I was a lot more nervous," Olley said. "Now I feel like this is it, it's my senior year, so I just have to stay calm and relaxed."

Those qualities should also come in handy next month, when he finally realizes that dream five years in the making.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.