ORONO – Dwayne Wilmot was impressed with the University of Maine from the moment former assistant football coach Chuck Maloy began recruiting him.

Wilmot worked through the idea of living eight hours from his home in Freeport, N.Y., and he realized it might be a challenge for an African-American kid who grew up in a New York city to adapt to life in rural Maine.

Through his meetings with Black Bear coaches, and after making a campus visit, Wilmot’s instincts told him UMaine was a place he could flourish as a student-athlete.

Wilmot was an outstanding football player at Kellenberg Memorial High School, but he also had academic credentials and was recruited by Ivy League schools. Instead, he accepted a package from UMaine which included an academic scholarship for his tuition and a football scholarship for the rest of the tab.

“You’ve got to get a good feeling about not so much the way they need you, but the way they care about you and will help you in terms of progressing not only as a football player, but as a person. That’s what brought me here,” Wilmot said.

He never could have imagined his experience would include the terrifying incident he endured last December. Late one Saturday night, he discovered UMaine provided no refuge from racism.

Wilmot returned to his dorm room in the early morning hours of Dec. 14 to find a message on his answering machine that included racial slurs and death threats.

Police determined the voices he heard were those of UMaine hockey player Bryan Masotta and two of his teammates, all of whom were white. The call apparently stemmed from an altercation between a hockey player and a friend of Wilmot a day earlier.

“It seemed like it was a deep-rooted hatred for me just because I’m African-American, and that was most troubling,” Wilmot said.

Masotta eventually pleaded no contest to the charge of criminal threatening and was fined $1,000. Charges against the other alleged participants, Matt Oliver and Shawn Mansoff, were dropped because their comments were not threats.

All three were suspended from school for one year and left UMaine.

Shaken after the threats, Wilmot was forced to re-evaluate not only his future at UMaine, but his outlook on life.

“Unfortunately, it made me a little untrusting of people in general because you never know who’s going to be the person that might attempt to hurt you in that manner,” said Wilmot, who resisted the urge to leave school, realizing it wouldn’t solve the problem.

“It’s unfortunate, but it makes you a stronger person,” he said. “I think I’ve overcome that.”

During that painful time in his life, Wilmot realized he had been right about the people at UMaine all along. The entire community, including UMaine administrators, coaches, and student-athletes, supported him and helped him get through a trying time.

“It enabled me to find close friends like Coach Coz [Cosgrove], who was one of my staunchest supporters,” Wilmot said. “I have 85 friends [on the team.] A lot of people are your friends, but they’re not so apt to stand up when things are kind of controversial.”

Wilmot, who said he harbors no ill will toward the hockey players not involved in the incident, was especially appreciative of the support provided by coach Shawn Walsh.

“Coach Walsh spoke to me and he wrote me a letter expressing his sorrow over the situation that had taken place and that he hoped I was getting along well,” Wilmot said.

Judging from his performance in the classroom and on the field, Wilmot has overcome the trauma.

This fall, the sophomore has emerged as one of the Bears’ primary pass receivers. The 6-foot, 200-pounder ranks second on the squad with 44 catches for 440 yards and one touchdown.

After making five catches in more limited duty last season, Wilmot is six catches away from becoming one of UMaine’s top 10 all-time leaders for receptions in a season.

“Last year, I got to a level where I ran excellent practice routes,” Wilmot said. “This year, I have to get to a level where I can run excellent game routes. The speed and intensity is something you can’t account for in practice.”

UMaine often uses Wilmot on quick screens and other short passes, which enable him to put his considerable skills to good use.

“I think Dwayne’s forte is his quickness,” Cosgrove said. “He’s a shake guy, a little bit of jing-jing and go run. We think he can catch the short route and make things happen. We expected him to be more of an impact kid this year, no question about it.”

Even so, it has been a transition year for Wilmot, who has made the necessary adjustments to become one of UMaine’s go-to receivers.

“Athletically, he’s one of the top athletes on our team,” said quarterback Mickey Fein. “He’s a kid that can jump and run and catch the ball. It’s very exciting to have a player like that out there.”

Fein, who lived with Wilmot last summer, is still amazed by Wilmot’s resilience after all he has endured.

“Nothing like that should be commonplace in society,” Fein said. “With the stuff he had to deal with last year, he could have gone away and how could you blame the kid? It’s a credit to him and his character that he’s still the kid I knew before, a great kid.”

Wilmot said his brush with racism carries a simple message.

“There are a lot of people here who just see Dwayne, whether my clothes are baggy or my speech is different,” Wilmot said.

“I made a promise to myself that I wasn’t going to let what happened affect how I judge the next person and the next person,” Wilmot said. “That would make me biased toward others, and I’d be no better than the people who made those comments. I really can’t dwell on it, because I have a lot more positive things in my life, friends and a lot of people who do care.”