ORONO — University of Maine guard Parise Rossignol will graduate with her degree in secondary education this spring.
But Rossignol didn’t play for the women’s basketball team last season and, under NCAA guidelines, student-athletes have five years in which to complete four years of eligibility.
That means she has one year of eligibility. And Rossignol would like to play next season.
“I haven’t talked to coach (Amy Vachon) about it in depth yet but that’s the plan,” said Rossignol, who has been doing her student teaching at Bangor’s John Bapst High School and Cohen Middle School. “I would take graduate courses in education.
“We’ll talk,” said Rossignol, who has played an important role in UMaine’s America East regular-season and tournament championships.
Vachon said on Monday that she wants Rossignol to return.
“Of course I do. Parise is a great kid. I’ll take her any day,” said Vachon.
Rossignol averaged 5.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in 21.3 minutes coming off the bench for the 23-10 Black Bears. She played in all 33 games with 13 starts.
She went into Saturday night’s NCAA game against Texas in Austin, Texas, with a career-best streak of three consecutive double-figure scoring games.
She had five points and a steal in the 83-54 loss to Texas.
In the America East tournament games, Rossignol has averaged 13.3 points per game on 13-for-21 shooting (61.9 percent), including 5-for-11 from the 3-point arc (45.4 percent) and a 9-for-9 from the free throw line.
She was chosen for the all-tourney team.
She was 2-for-4 from the floor and 1-for-1 beyond the three-point arc vs. Texas.
“It’s been nice,” said Rossignol, the recipient of America East’s Sixth Player Award given to the league’s top non-starter. “My confidence has definitely grown with each game. I attribute that to my teammates and my coaches. I’m very thankful for them,” she added.
During her first two seasons at UMaine (2014-2016), Rossignol averaged only 4.1 minutes per game. She appeared in 34 of the Black Bears’ 68 games.
Citing the fact that basketball wasn’t as much fun for her, she elected to leave the program after the 2015-2016 season.
But Rossignol missed the team atmosphere and the competition, so she casually mentioned her desire to play again to Vachon, who took over as the interim head coach after head coach Richard Barron went on extended medical leave.
Rossignol, the state’s No. 2 all-time career scorer with 2,589 points at Van Buren, sought her release from the program to talk to other schools. But Vachon contacted Rossignol after the 2016-2017 season to see if she would be interesting in returning to UMaine.
Vachon has since been named the head coach and Barron is the new UMaine men’s head coach.
“I won an intramural championship last year,” Rossignol said with a chuckle after UMaine beat Hartford 74-65 in the America East championship game on March 9.
“She started slow this year but now she’s doing what she can do and even more,” said UMaine sophomore Blanca Millan before Saturday’s game. “She brings everything every day. She’s also one of the hardest working girls on the team. She has really helped us.”
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