He learned a new language, discovered a country, encountered merciless heckling and tasted some of the world’s finest wines.

Dexter’s Brad Olson, the former Husson College center, spent this past year playing professional basketball in France.

“I had never been out of the country,” said Olson, who landed a spot on the Dijon roster after attending a tryout in Chicago last summer.

“It was pretty fun. I was a little homesick at first and didn’t play very well early. But I wound up playing pretty well. I averaged around 23 points and 14 rebounds a game,” said Olson, who attended another Chicago tryout camp recently with former Husson forward Chris Funk of Caribou.

Dijon finished third in an 18-team league but missed the playoffs.

Olson said he took French classes for three hours a day and as he became more fluent, the homesickness disappeared.

“I could understand almost everything that was being said and I spoke it good enough to get by,” said Olson.

He said their 50-game schedule required extensive travel throughout the country, mostly by train. The caliber of basketball was similar to Division I college basketball “and some of the teams were even better than Division I.”

The 6-foot-9 Olson was a target for opposing fans.

“They take spectating a lot more seriously than they do here. It’s a whole other sport in itself. They were pretty rude. They got all over everybody. Being an American made me more of a target,” said Olson.

When they weren’t playing, they were practicing. Sunday was their only day off. How did Olson spend his Sundays off?

“I slept,” said the former Dexter High School star, who was the only non-Frenchman on the team.

Away from the court, Olson observed that the French “don’t eat breakfast but eat a huge lunch. Nothing is open from noon until 2 [p.m.] except bars and restaurants. They have a big late night dinner at around 10:30. And there is usually a different wine for every course of the meal. Dijon is the capital of the wine country. The wine over there is hi-test.”

He said his team paid for his lodging, schooling and insurance and he made approximately $1,000 per month. Their games were played in front of anywhere from 200 to 4,000 fans.

They used international rules which employ a 24-second clock, the “bucket is bigger and you can take the ball off the rim both offensively and defensively.”

Olson, who was the second youngest player on the team, added that he spent a lot of time working out and has lost 30 pounds since he last donned a Husson uniform.

He is hoping to play in Finland next year where the money is better.

Kariya deserves his honor

Some may question whether a student-athlete who spent just 16 months at an institution should have his uniform number retired.

In the case of former University of Maine Hobey Baker Award winner Paul Kariya, the answer is an emphatic “yes.”

The university is right in retiring his No. 9 this Sunday at the alumni weekend’s hockey game.

He is still the only freshman to win the Hobey Baker Award [1993]; he was chosen to the NCAA’s 50th anniversary college hockey championship team as well as the Hockey East All-Decade team and he led Maine to its first national championship [1992-93].

He may have played only 51 games in his season and a half at Maine, but he amassed 124 points and made a lasting impression on the college hockey world.

Just as importantly, he has always been a positive role model in a time when a lot of professional athletes have displayed disgraceful behavior. The articulate Kariya, a tireless worker, has won the NHL’s Lady Byng Award [for sportsmanship] twice and has established himself as one of the world’s premier wingers for the Mighty Ducks.