ORONO, Maine — Former Bangor High School multisport star Josiah Hartley, who was a redshirt as a freshman on the University of Maine’s football team this past year, has left the team according to head coach Jack Cosgrove.
“He just said he didn’t want to play football anymore,” said Cosgrove. “If you don’t want to play, you can’t play.”
Hartley was being groomed as an H-back/inside receiver for the Black Bears.
“We thought he was progressing,” said Cosgrove, who didn’t know if Hartley was going to return to school.
Hartley could not be reached for comment.
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Hartley was a versatile athlete at Bangor High.
In football, he played tailback and wide receiver and, his senior year, he rushed for 1,353 yards on 247 carries despite missing two and a half games with a concussion. He also rushed for 15 touchdowns and caught 20 passes for 329 yards and three more touchdowns.
He followed that success by helping the Rams capture the state Class A basketball championship that winter. He scored 13 points in Bangor’s 41-38 win over Edward Little of Auburn in the Eastern Maine Class A championship game after spending the previous evening in a hospital receiving intravenous fluids due to dehydration. He lost 13 pounds.
Hartley went on to play for the Bangor High baseball team that reached the EM Class A championship game.
In track, he qualified for the New England championships in the high jump; earned fourth place finishes in the state meet in the 110 and 300 hurdles as a junior and was All-Penobscot Valley Conference selection in the two hurdles events, the shot put and 4-by-100 relay.
He was part of a state championship 4-by-100 relay team.
Nine Bears preseason picks
The Maine football team had nine players named to College Sports Madness Preseason All-Colonial Athletic Association teams.
Offensive linemen Chris Howley and Josh Spearin, wide receiver Maurice McDonald and tight end Justin Perillo were named to the first team offense and end Michael Cole was picked to the first team defense.
Linebacker Donte Dennis, who missed all of last season due to injury, was named to the second team defense while end Erwin Roach and cornerbacks Darlos James and Kendall James were third team defensive picks.
The Black Bears are coming off a 9-4 season in which they reached the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision quarterfinals.
“It’s nice for the guys to get recognized but we have a long way to go before the first game and a lot of work to be done,” said Cosgrove.
He noted that 62 players are currently on campus working out together and that is four more than last summer’s previous high of 58.
“That’s a good sign,” said Cosgrove. “That’s the next step. The guys are learning about what it takes to be successful.”
Josiah Hartley is a fine young man. I hope he continues at UMaine and keeps, if he has one, his full athletic scholarship. I also hope that, like all UMaine varsity athletes, he still has the first choice of courses for all future semesters, where non-athletes, including second semester seniors, are properly put behind all varsity athletes, and for both semesters. That’s what makes UMaine a fine school.
Why should athletes be given priority over non-athletes when it comes to choice of courses?
If this is true — it certainly speaks volumes about what’s important at the college level. Giving priority to students who participate in sports is just more of the same high school crap where kids in sports are treated better than those who are not.
It is true. The theory being that due to their training schedules, etc. they need to be able to get into certain courses. I don’t agree with the system either, but it is what it is, I guess. Happens everywhere.
Why should a student get a scholarship for playing football if he is no longer on the football team?
Seeing as he quit football, I would imagine his full athletic scholarship (if he got one) will be taken away. I am pretty sure you have to play a sport in order to get the athletic scholarship……
Josh has made a decision to not play anymore, and that should be it. I’m not sure why it’s homepage news. There are so many choices in life and the freedom to make those choices and change your mind is a wonderful thing. Even better when you are still in college and still exploring where your passions lie. I wish Josh all the success in whatever he chooses to do!
I hope it’s an informed choice and I hope he isn’t making a big mistake. College can be stressful and probably more so for an athlete. I hope he reconsiders and gets some guidance to help him cope with these decisions.
Dude, don’t throw your education and possible sports career away. Think about it and talk about it with somebody.
“I’m not sure why it’s homepage news.”Really? The kid is a four-sport star in high school, is recruited and signed by his state university, unusual in itself, then quits with no explanation. Somewhere in there there should be a hint for you as to why it’s homepage news.
Yes, if you quit your program, you are effectively giving up rights to the money you are no longer earning. that would be like you quitting your job, and expecting to still collect a pay check.
There is seriously no pleasing some people. Too much academic attention, and athletes are undeservedly spoiled. Not enough academic attention, and they’re all a bunch of dummies that don’t deserve to be in college. When are you just going to relax and enjoy the game?
The story didn’t say if Josh is on a scholarship. At other times scholarship athletes WERE allowed to keep their scholarships, but who knows in this case? My real point, however, was UMaine’s relentless “privileging” of (participating) varsity athletes over ALL OTHER STUDENTS. No others have programs devoted exclusively to monitoring their academic performance (save for a small no. who were admitted on some conditions), no others have their profs. asked to fill out forms twice a semester, no others have their upcoming courses largely picked out by those same special advisors, and no others have the (absurd) priority of first choice of courses for ALL REMAINING SEMESTERS. The tiresome argument, of course, is that no other UMaine students are under such relentless pressure, including the growing number of non-traditional students, often with family responsibilities. True, this goes on at lots of other universities with big-time sports. But, for non-varsity athletes at UMaine, it does seem a bit biased, though the powers that be reject that argument passionately.
You don’t get priority for all remaining semesters. You just got all worked up over something that isn’t true. Athletes don’t even get priority every semester.
Mallory A: It’s certainly true that most varsity athletes do great credit to UMaine and indeed work extremely hard, and not just during the months in which they play games. It’s almost year-round for many sports. The point of contention, however, is why virtually no other students with different challenges get any of these perks and, no less important, why raising that point brings down enormous anger of those of us, with kids not on sports teams, who dare to ask that question. Varsity athletes, contrary to your contention, DO GET FIRST PICK OF COURSES FROM DAY ONE, NOT JUST FOR SEMESTERS IN WHICH THEIR TEAM PLAYS.
In the most polite way possible, no they don’t. Promise.
To Mallory A: with all due respect, perhaps if you knew first hand how advising and course selection at Orono actually works, you wouldn’t get it so wrong. I do know how it works, and what I said about varsity athletes have first crack from day for every subsequent semester is fact, not speculation. As for getting upset over UMaine athletes’ perks, maybe you’d feel differently if you knew about cutbacks in faculty and in maintenance, for example, while athletic facilities are constantly improved and expanded. Why not compare the falling plaster in Stevens Hall with the latest improvements to our growing sports empire? Maybe you’d then have some sense of why so many ordinary students and faculty and staff are fed up with all of this.
We can say what we want about UMaine athletics, but it IS a D1 program and D1 athletics is a full time commitment in and of itself. He is a young person and he is just trying to figure it all out. Maybe he needs to focus on his studies or maybe he is just tired of getting smacked in the head. He was fun to watch at BHS. Best of luck in whatever he chooses to do.
really isn’t that big of a story. Didn’t the kid from bonny eagle (won the fitzpatrick award) leave the team as well? This seems to happen with a lot of Maine kids who found out that they weren’t the star anymore and that college athletics are a big commitment. Oh yea, I had never even heard of this young man before today.