He may rank as one of the hidden gems of Maine schoolboy sports this year, unless your leagues of choice to follow are the Kennebec Valley Athletic Class B in basketball or baseball and the LTC in football.

Rockland High senior Wade Oliver is the classic case of a three-sport standout who hasn’t experienced the heightened exposure that comes with postseason play – though he and the Tigers are hoping to change that during the current baseball season.

This spring, Oliver and the Tigers are 5-2 after a 3-1 win at Camden Hills of Rockport on Monday. Oliver, a pitcher-infielder, is 1-1 after mixing a high-powered fastball with a curve and changeup to hurl a five-hitter against the Windjammers.

“He started off a little slowly this year,” said junior catcher Ben Baudanza-Sturks after Monday’s victory. “But today he pitched great.

“His changeup was nasty, that was his out pitch. And he was throwing real hard, and throwing a lot of strikes and had Camden guessing – they didn’t know what was coming the whole game.”

Oliver, an All-KVAC Class B first-team choice as a junior, also bats cleanup for the Tigers.

“He’s very competitive,” said Richie Oliver, Wade’s father and the Rockland baseball coach. “He’s always been competitive. It’s hard to talk about him because he’s my son, but he’s always been competitive, he hates to lose, and he just battles out there.”

Baseball is Wade Oliver’s sport of choice, and as a result he will continue to pursue the sport next year at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

“I had a couple of offers for football,” said Oliver, “but baseball’s my favorite sport, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

It should come as no surprise that various college football and basketball coaches also had interest in Oliver joining their programs.

In an LTC that last fall featured Fitzpatrick Trophy winner Nick Tymoczko of Bucksport and finalist Bobby Gilbert of Foxcroft Academy, Oliver amassed more than 1,600 rushing and receiving yards.

He set a league single-season record with 879 receiving yards, averaging 22 yards on 40 receptions. Oliver rushed for 753 yards on 68 carries, an average of 11.1 yards per rush. He ranked third among conference scorers with 128 points on 20 touchdowns and four two-point conversions.

Oliver also tied for the conference lead with six pass interceptions and was named first-team All-LTC as both a wide receiver and defensive back.

But Rockland, a Class B school by enrollment at the time, played football in Class C in order to rebuild a program that a few years ago was on the verge of extinction. Thus the team was not eligible for the LTC playoffs during Oliver’s playing days – though the Tigers since have been reclassified by enrollment to Class C and will be eligible to vie for postseason play in 2005.

But despite not being eligible for the playoffs, Rockland has rebuilt its football quickly in part due to Oliver’s efforts, producing back-to-back 5-4 seasons in 2003 and 2004 – Rockland’s first winning campaigns since 1988.

In basketball, the guard was a Bangor Daily News All-Maine honorable mention selection and All-KVAC Class B first-team choice last winter after leading the conference in scoring with 19.7 points per game and ranking second with 4.0 steals per contest. But the Tigers finished 8-10 and in 12th place in Eastern B – one spot shy of qualifying for preliminary-round play.

“He doesn’t really get a lot of recognition around the state,” said Richie Oliver, “but if you put his numbers up against some of the better athletes around the state, he’s really had an outstanding career.”

Kennebunk AD honored

Marty Ryan, athletic director at Kennebunk High School for the past four years, has been named national athletic director of the year by the National Council of Secondary School Athletic Directors.

Ryan was one of six regional finalists for the award, all of whom were interviewed by a panel of secondary school administrators during the NCSSAD’s recent national conference to determine the national recipient.

Ryan is a longtime athletic director in southern Maine, having held a similar post at Wells High School for 22 years before moving to Kennebunk. He has been active in local, regional, and national athletic director affairs, including serving as president of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association in 2001 and his present role as executive director of the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

He also is part of the 18-member University of Maine Coaching and Sport Education Initiative Select Panel: Coaching Maine Youth to Success, which developed the “Sports Done Right” initiative being piloted at schools across the state.