A year after he was expected to arrive on the University of Maine campus, Rickey White has yet to achieve a qualifying SAT score and will not be a member of the Black Bears’ basketball team this season.

But after gaining acceptance to the university last week based on his high school course work, White will attend the school beginning in September.

UMaine coach John Giannini is not allowed to talk about White due to NCAA rules.

White, a 6-foot-6 forward, played his high school ball at Mount Ararat in Topsham. As a senior during the 1997-98 season White averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game. He was a first-team NEWS All-Maine selection.

He verbally committed to accept an athletic scholarship at UMaine in July of 1997.

White said he can’t remember how many times he took the SAT while trying to reach a level that would allow him to play at UMaine.

“It’s real frustrating,” White said. “I prepared myself. I took a lot of prep courses. It just didn’t happen. I needed an 840. I got an 820.”

In order to be considered a “qualifier” by the NCAA, entering freshmen must meet certain academic requirements based on reaching a given grade point average in a number of core classes in high school, and achieving a certain score on a standardized test.

White is considered a “non-qualifier,” which means he is ineligible for financial aid, practice and competition during his first academic year. Non-qualifiers have neither the required core-curriculum grade point average nor a satisfactory SAT score.

White will attend classes as a regular student at UMaine, but will not be allowed to practice with the team until the fall semester of 2000.

White said UMaine basketball coaches have been supportive of him throughout his ordeal.

“They’ve been behind me 100 percent,” he said. “They’ve been pushing me and giving me all kinds of [Web] sites I could use on the Internet [to study].”

White works as a shoe salesman at Track ‘N Trail in the Bangor Mall and has been polishing his game at the Old Town YMCA and at the outdoor court on 13th Street in Bangor.

White is philosophical about the entire process.

“Me personally, I look at it as a learning experience,” he said. “And I think my parents look at it that way, too. You’re going to go through these things at some point in your life. I guess later on in life I’ll be more prepared.”

White said that finding out he’d been accepted by the university was a welcome payoff after a frustrating year.

“It’s probably the best feeling,” he said. “Because now I know that everything’s going to fall into place after all the waiting and hard work.”

Graffam named AD at UMFK

Jim Graffam, who has served in three different positions at the University of Maine-Fort Kent in recent years, has been hired as the Bengals’ interim athletic director.

After working last year in southern Maine last year, Graffam returns to replace Helene Walls-Bouchard, who stepped down last month. UMFK plans to search for a permanent replacement for 2000-2001.

Walls-Bouchard was also the men’s soccer coach and that position has been filled by Ian Gilchrest.

Graffam coached the UMFK men’s basketball team from 1996-98 and held positions in residential life and admissions during that time. He was the NAIA Coach of the Year at Westbrook College in 1993 and led his Westbrook teams to Mayflower Conference titles from 1993-95.

Gilchrest, a Lewiston native, who has been an admissions counselor at UMFK and coached the women’s soccer team last season, is a 1998 graduate of the school.