When school started at the University of Maine Monday, one student-athlete, having just arrived by plane Saturday, stepped foot into a world usually reserved for basketball players from Wheeler High School or Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. Instead, it’s former Newton shooting guard Jerrell Boswell who’s moving on up — in more ways than one. The 6-foot shooting guard who most recently called Snead State Community College his home, will play his final two seasons of college basketball up north in Division 1 for the Black Bears in Orono, Maine. Boswell showed up for classes Monday and will begin workouts this week.

Boswell has a penchant for scoring. A 2006 Newton graduate, he averaged 20.2 points per game during his senior season. In 2005, on the heels of a 17 points per game sophomore season, Boswell averaged 21.9 as a junior and led the Rams to the Class 5A Final Four.

For the past two seasons, Boswell has played at Snead Community College in Boaz, Ala. and Wallace State Hanceville, also in Alabama. Moving on to the Alabama Community College Conference didn’t slow him down much. At Wallace, he averaged 19 points per game and was named to the All-Region 23 team. Heading into his sophomore season at Snead State, Boswell was ranked as the 45th best JUCO player in the nation. He responded by averaging 18.5 points per game and last year at Snead State and was named to his second All-Region 23 team.

"We knew he was a Division 1 player it was just a matter of when he was going to do that," Newton coach Rick Rasmussen said. "He actually had a Division 1 offer out of high school but he chose the junior college route instead. He’s paid his dues."

There is no reason to think Boswell can’t move on to Division 1 and be successful. He has scored everywhere he’s played and his outside shot in particular is lethal. In a game last season at Snead, Boswell drained 15 treys for 45 points. In a game in high school during his sophomore season, he hit six threes in the second half against Eastside to bring the Rams back from a 20-point deficit and win the game. He scored a career-high 41 against Lithonia his junior year at Newton and once scored 19 points over a four-minute span against Rockdale County. The dude can fill it up and that’s something Maine head coach Ted Woodward is excited about and counting on.

"Jerrell certainly adds some deep range shooting and explosive scoring punch to our wing positions," said Woodward. "He is a great shooter with a very quick release who can stretch the defense."

Boswell is expected to play the two spot at Maine although he admits he may be used at the point from time-to-time — not something he’s too accustomed to.

"It’s something I can do," he said. "I’ve been working on my point guard skills all summer because he [Woodward] said I might play a little bit of point."

Offense is not one of Boswell’s deficiencies obviously but defensively, both he and his former coach agree he will need to improve to be successful at the next level.

"There is a lot I can work on but I need to work on my defense and conditioning," Boswell said.

"We’ve never had a player who wanted to spend more individual time in the gym shooting from different positions on the floor," Rasmussen added. "He knows he'll have to improve defensively because at his size, he'll probably have to guard the other teams point guards."

Putting in the work is one thing Woodward won’t have to worry about. Boswell made it to the next level mostly because he can shoot and score, but that didn’t happen overnight. He worked at it and it’s his work ethic and drive to improve that will ultimately carry him at the next level.

"He’s always done whatever it takes," Rasmussen added. "I know he’s gotten a lot tougher. Being in college he’s gotten a lot stronger and that was one of the things coach [Woodward] liked about him was he knew he was tough enough to play in his league — in Division 1."

Boswell is a survivor and landing a scholarship to Maine is just a testement to his resolve. Whenever he needed to fulfill an academic requirement or work through a situation to fulfill eligibility requirements, he found a way. Over the summer when he needed one more class in order to be accepted to Maine, he found a way to get through it despite having already basically moved back to Covington. It’s paid off though and as he has earned 72 credits toward graduation so far and will end up with his bachelor’s from an excellent academic institution.

"I’m proud of this because he has worked hard like coach [Rasmussen] said," Melissa Boswell said of her son. "He’s always dribbling the ball and working hard so I think he deserves this."

Having bounced around to two junior colleges and sitting out a year for eligibility requirements, he’s already used to life away from Covington. So when he found out he had an opportunity to play at the highest NCAA level, he didn’t care that it was in a place as foreign as Maine.

"I never cared where I ended up I just wanted to play D-1 ball," Boswell said. "I could have gone somewhere in California or anywhere. When I first went to Wallace -- about three hours from home, it wasn’t really that bad. So I'm used to being away from home."

The fact that Boswell leaves a small JUCO for Division 1 doesn’t even faze him. And it’s not cockiness. This is a guy, who when asked if he ever thought he could drain 15 threes in a game answered by saying "well a made 12 in the last game so I was felling pretty good".

Boswell understands the game will change but to a man, believes he’ll be just fine.

"The players are much bigger and everyone is more equal," he said. "I’ll just have to work harder, get bigger in the weight room, but I think I can manage."

Rasmussen was quick to point out that all of Boswell’s teammates now will have been the best players on their high school teams and every player was All-Region and All-Area. Nevertheless, he doesn’t see the transition being something his former star guard can’t handle let alone be successful at.

"He’s mentally tough. He’s not afraid to go inside with the big people and from the perimeter it’s hard to find everyone better," Rasmussen said. "He does what it takes. He’ll need to improve some things and like he said, the players are bigger, taller and stronger. But we always knew he was a Division 1 player. He paid his dues. It just happens this is the route he took to get there."