That means: No interviews with media members, no chalk talks with fellow competitors, no long chit-chats with family members … not even with his wife.

“I try to isolate myself from outside influences,” said Reynolds, Kansas University’s track throws coach and a world class discus thrower, who, by design, conducted his final pre-U.S. Olympic Trials media interview Tuesday.

“I try to focus on the task at hand. It’s my time to avoid everybody,” the 6-foot-5, 270-pounder added.

He won’t go so far as jump on somebody who greets him as he passes in the hotel or on the track, though.

“I can carry on a conversation,” noted the 29-year-old former University of Arizona standout, who will throw in the discus prelims at 7 tonight at Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento, Calif. Finals are 5:05 p.m. Sunday.

“I’m not a guy who looks at my competitors like I’m out to kill them. They are good people. But you get around some guys, they want to play head games, tell stories that are totally fabricated to try to get you thinking a certain way. I try to not play into that and stick to my ballgame.”

Reynolds — he placed fourth at the 2000 Trials after not advancing past the first round in 1996 — is 100 percent focused on placing in the top three this time and gaining a spot on his first U.S. Olympic team.

“I do a lot of visualization, going through the competition in my mind under different scenarios,” said Reynolds, who enters ranked eighth overall in the event with a throw of 219-4. “I do a lot of relaxation and calming. The worst thing you can do is tense up.”

Reynolds, who has been a world-class thrower since 1997, has been in enough big meets to know nerves won’t be a problem. A potential problem, though, is inactivity.

A man who takes his coaching duties at KU seriously, the fourth-year Jayhawk assistant has competed in just four meets this past year. Discus standouts Andy Bloom, Carl Brown, Nick Petrucci, Ian Waltz, Jarred Rome and others have entered three times as many competitions.

“I probably have the least number of meets of anybody in the field,” Reynolds said.

He has tried to make up for lost time.

“I did a training camp last week with my old coach in Idaho,” said Reynolds, a former Boise State assistant. “That was a training boot camp thing. We were training extremely hard. We weren’t recovering at all. It was putting down some groundwork.”

Reynolds — and others, too — believe he has a shot of making the Athens Games.

“It’s the most wide open our event has been in a decade. There are 10 guys within a meter of each other and nobody in the field has been in the Olympics before,” Reynolds said.

“I’ve not had that great of a season, but I am feeling very confident in my abilities now. And I’m finally healthy for the first time in two years.”

A healthy Reynolds — he’s had back problems in the past — is a dangerous Reynolds, says Rome, the No. 1-ranked discus thrower in the competition with a toss of 221-9. He has thrown better than 205 feet in 12 meets this year.

“Doug is a threat no matter what competition he’s in,” said Rome, a former Boise State thrower, who once was coached by Reynolds.

“He is definitely one of the best technicians in the country. The fact he’s able to have a full-time coaching job and still be ranked as one of the top guys is impressive. He definitely could be one of the three to make the team.”

KU coach Stanley Redwine agrees.

“Doug has always thrown well against good competition,” Redwine said of the man who won a bronze medal at the 1997 World University Games and has been a member of the U.S. Pan American Games team. “At this point, it’s not about who has had the most meets or who is the favorite, but who wants it.”

Reynolds, who says he has no immediate plans to retire from the event, says he wants it. Can he get it?

“I have not had that great a season,” he said, “but my training is coming along well and I’m feeling very confident in my abilities now. If I am confident, I can perform.”

As for the controversy about drugs swirling around track and field, Reynolds vows he’s drug-free.

“I do it by the book and clean,” he said. “If others go that route, I will not go and bust their chops about it. I still have to find a way to beat ’em. I am ethical. I have a moral base. It’s my make-up. As a coach I try to play it by the book in recruiting. I don’t break recruiting rules. I won’t break competitive rules.

“I would say a much higher percentage of guys in U.S. now are not using drugs than ever before,” he stressed. “This is cleanest our sport has been. I am excited about that heading into the Trials.”