The voice of USF Athletics routinely puts down his radio headset and picks up the pen to share his perspective on the history of USF Athletics.  

Louk has been broadcasting games for 30 years and is the resident historian in the Athletics Department hallways. 

By JIM LOUK

Voice of the USF Bulls

TAMPA - Sometimes there is little doubt even at the very beginning, and Lely High School coach Kim Butts had been around long enough to realize that when he first saw sophomore Dayana Octavien.

“The first time she started throwing you could tell she had a lot of ability,” recalls Butts, who coached Octavien at the prep level in Naples. “The longer she worked, the better she got.  By the time she was senior, she was dominant.”

That's a word that keeps popping up to describe Octavien, who joins the USF Hall of Fame as a Class of 2013 inductee.  A combination of physical talent, drive and determination would lead her to USF Athletics' highest honor.

“Her marks in high school showed she was very athletic,” says Greg Thiel, who coached her with the Bulls.  “She was a very good high jumper and runner as well as a thrower.  But honestly, I don't think anybody foresaw what she was going to become and how much she would excel.”

Just getting to USF on an athletic scholarship was meaningful to Octavien, who became the first person in her family to attend college when she became a Bull in 2000.

She had always been an athlete, playing softball, basketball and other sports.  But her destiny was in track and field.

As a throws specialist at USF from 2000 to 2004, she re-wrote the record book and dominated (there's that word again) Conference USA.

She set the USF record in the hammer throw as a freshman. As a sophomore, she was all-conference in the shot put.  As a junior, she advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in both the discus and the hammer throw. She set a new C-USA record in the hammer throw, and led the Bulls with a remarkable 46 points at the Indoor and Outdoor C-USA Championships.  As a senior, she was the C-USA indoor weight throw champion.

Octavien was named the Conference USA Athlete of the Year for three consecutive seasons, and was a member of the conference's All-Decade Team.

The discus was her specialty. She qualified in the event in the 2004 Olympic trials and was the Conference USA champion in the event two consecutive years.

“It's so different,” Octavien says of the discus event. “It's an event that's really about finesse.  If you look at video, especially if you slow it down, it's a beautiful event, one reminiscent of the original Olympics.”

Throughout her career, the combination of athletic ability and hard work served her well.  But what may have put her over the top was her competitive spirit.

“She is an achiever,” says Butts. “In everything she does she works very hard to get it right.  She has a tremendous heart. She's just an outstanding human being.”

“Dayana is one of the most hard working people I know,” says her former USF teammate Karoline Hagan. “She had a strong will to win. She just worked so hard to accomplish her goals.”

After her graduation Ocatvien re-joined the Bulls for a three-year stint as an assistant coach, before leaving USF to compete to represent Haiti in the 2008 Olympics.

Now, she will join an elite group in the USF Athletics Hall of Fame.

“I was very surprised by it,” says Octavien of her selection. “It means a lot to me because my time at USF was some of the best years of my life.”

Dayana Octavien will join Chris Heintz, Bobby Paschal and Marquel Blackwell as new members of the USF Hall of Fame on Sept. 27.  For tickets, call (813) 974-6729.

GO BULLS!

Follow Jim Louk on twitter @usfjimlouk

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