Page 23 - The BellTower - Spring 2016

ATHLETICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT FORT KENT
McCloskey Making Good Use of Second Chance
As UMFK junior forward Joe McCloskey approaches his 1,000th point of his college basketball career, he knows the path to this achievement was rarely roses and sunshine.
When he started college at the University of Maine Farmington, he was coming off one of the most prolific high school careers that Penobscot Valley High had ever seen. He scored over 1,000 points throughout his four high school years, while leading his team to an Eastern Maine semi-final berth, their first in over 15 years. He entered the 2011 college sea- son with UMF as one of the top freshman in Maine college basketball. He averaged 10 points and seven rebounds per game during that first season.
However things started to go down-
hill from there. His poor decisions off
the court, and in the classroom after the basketball season, culminated in his dis- missal from school. He missed two seasons of competitive basketball while living at home, working at U.S. Cellular and tak-
ing a couple of classes at Eastern Maine
Community College. Unsure with what he wanted to do with his life he was at a crossroads.
Jim McCloskey, Joe’s father and the only UMFK basketball player to achieve the accomplishment of 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, was an inductee into the UMFK Hall of Fame Class of 2014. During his induction, when Joe was sitting in the crowd, listening to his father’s former teammates and coach’s talk about how great Jim was at UMFK and how great of
a place Fort Kent really was, something clicked for Joe. He envisioned, while sitting in the very gym in which his father made an everlasting mark, and saw himself leav- ing his own mark. It was in that instance that Joe decided he wanted to move his life to a different path than the one he was currently traveling. After some research and discussion with family, he knew what to do next.
Shortly after the announcement that Joe would attend UMFK, the University introduced family friend Tom Bird as the new head coach for the Bengals. The two men had known each other for years, and the decision felt even more right for McCloskey.
In his first season with the UMFK Bengals, Joe averaged 19.7 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. He
led his team to ten wins, one more than the previous two seasons combined.
The United States Collegiate Athletics Association named McCloskey a USCAA Men’s Basketball Division I First-Team All American and he was a finalist for National Player of the Year.
In his second season he continues to speed on, and he will eclipse the 1,000th- point mark. With an improved roster from the previous season, the Bengals find themselves at the semester break with ten victories thus far.
More importantly he is achieving success in the classroom. Naturally worried about his academics after what happened in
the past, he was a little hesitant when he started in the fall of 2014, but is doing well. In his first semester back he achieved a 3.1 GPA and backed that up with a 3.31 in the spring. In all aspects of his life, Joe continues to make strides every day and is making the most of a second chance that was never guaranteed.
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