GORHAM — Ed Flaherty smiled at his audience of incoming student-athletes. He congratulated them for choosing to attend the University of Southern Maine. He told them to look to their futures.

"What you do in the next four years will determine how you do in life," said Flaherty. Some 90 young faces smiled back. This was encouragement they've heard before.

Then Flaherty slapped them in the face. They will learn to deal with failure, he said. After four years, their group will dwindle to about 30. During his long tenure as teacher and baseball coach at USM he's witnessed the attrition.

Around the room, smiles vanished.

"Sometimes you need to hear that raw truth," said George Foster of Lewiston, a half-miler in track and transfer from the University of Akron. Standing nearby, Noah Schoneberg of Limington, a transfer from the University of Maine and a distance runner, nodded in agreement.

"A lot of things get sugar-coated. He didn't give that to us and that's good."

The student-athletes, mostly incoming freshmen with a few transfer students among them, came to campus Sunday for a summer overnight orientation set up specifically for them. Parents were invited to participate in a parallel program and spend the night in another campus dorm.

The bottom line: student-athletes and their parents learned more what to expect in terms of support from USM. In return, they were told what USM expects from its student-athletes.

"We're here to give you a boost when you need it," said Al Bean, USM's athletic director, in his welcome. "We'll give you a little corrective action when you need that. It's those folks you associate with who will either help or hurt you."

"You're a target," said Rodney Mondor, taking his turn at the microphone. "When you wear your colors you are a walking billboard for the university. There is an expectation that you're going to succeed, but our society thrives on negativity.

"You're a target for the press, you're a target for those who believe in stereotypes. You can change the perception."

Mondor is associate director of advising services. He and Bean pushed for Sunday's program, the first time it was offered at USM. Their message wasn't so much revealing or revolutionary. Many other schools, including the University of Maine, have similar orientation programs for their student-athletes, although USM's inclusion of parents was a different wrinkle.

That a baseball player shared a room Sunday night with a track athlete, or a softball player roomed with a women's soccer player was part of another message. "You are one team," said Mondor. "You are the student-athletes of USM.

"If one of you goes to his first class in pajamas and a baseball cap pulled down over your eyes and you didn't take a shower after practice, that hurts all student-athletes. You've got to be thinking of the big picture."

Afterward, the students were grouped by their majors and met with advisers for an hour-long primer on how to build a course schedule around the hours needed for team practice. That USM has campuses in Portland and Gorham, and classes scheduled from early to late at night presents its own challenges.

Throw in the jobs that many need to help pay for their education or simply for spending money and lives can become complicated.

Sunday night in her dorm, Hailey Deblois finally took a deep breath. She drove from Coventry, R.I., early in the morning, by herself, dealing with the stresses of Interstate 95 through Massachusetts and New Hampshire on a sunny beach day. An accounting major and a soccer player, she wasn't sure the trip was worth it as she waited for Flaherty to speak. The next morning she was starting to change her mind.

Monday, the focus shifted to Portland. Photos were taken for student identification cards. They signed up for classes, learned about meal plans and felt more like college student-athletes...