Fitzy winner Turcotte to play at UM

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Two of the state’s premier high school football players will be continuing their careers at the University of Maine.

Fitzpatrick Trophy winner Jared Turcotte of Lewiston High School and Chris Treister of Portland High, another Fitzy finalist, each recently made a verbal commitment to attend UMaine beginning in the fall.

That should be welcome news to Black Bears coach Jack Cosgrove and his staff, since Wednesday kicks off the National Letter of Intent signing period for college football.

Turcotte, a speedy and strong tailback, rushed for 1,813 yards and 23 touchdowns on a whopping 7.9 yards per carry while leading the Blue Devils to a 6-3 record and a spot in the Pine Tree Conference Class A semifinals last fall.

At 6-foot-1, 220 pounds, the rugged Turcotte already possesses a Division I body. The Gatorade Maine Player of the Year and PTC Class A Co-Offensive Player of the Year also proved a durable performer. He finished as his team’s leading tackler with 113 from his linebacker spot.

He also returned punts and kickoffs while handling the Devils’ punting and kickoff duties. Last season, Turcotte caught four scoring passes and threw one.

Turcotte amassed 4,562 rushing yards at Lewiston under coach Bill County. He reportedly chose UMaine over Bucknell of the Patriot League after considering the likes of Brown, Harvard, Dartmouth, Holy Cross and Division III schools Bates of Lewiston and Bowdoin of Brunswick.

Treister will take his talents to UMaine after quarterbacking Portland to a 5-4 record and a quarterfinal berth in the Southern Maine Activities Association playoffs.

The 6-1, 200-pounder was a two-pronged threat while directing the Bulldogs’ spread offense. He completed 60 percent of his passes while throwing for 1,846 yards and 18 touchdowns during his senior season.

Treister also ran for 574 yards and tallied eight TDs before injuring his back on the first series of Portland’s SMAA quarterfinal against Marshwood of Eliot. His versatility and scrambling ability should make him a candidate to fit into UMaine’s recently adopted spread offense.

Besides UMaine, Treister also visited Dartmouth, Brown and the University of Massachusetts and considered Harvard and New Hampshire.

At Portland, Treister followed in the footsteps of former Bulldogs quarterback Quinton Porter, who went on to have a solid career at Division I-A Boston College and who is now on the roster of the NFL’s Houston Texans.

Cosgrove is prohibited by NCAA rules from commenting on recruits until UMaine has received their signed NLIs.

UMaine women seek consistency

UMaine women’s basketball coach Ann McInerney continues to look for solutions to her team’s inconsistency.

The Bears (10-10) dropped to 4-5 in America East play following Saturday’s 65-55 loss at New Hampshire. UMaine remains in a fourth-place tie with Binghamton in the league standings heading into Saturday’s noon National Girls and Women in Sports Day contest against Albany at Alfond Arena.

McInerney had hoped for a more emotional and inspired effort against the Wildcats, but the Bears’ struggles continued.

“We’re so inconsistent and that’s something that we’ve struggled with all year,” McInerney said.

“I think we played soft. I think we were outhustled. We got killed on the boards,” she said of Saturday’s game.

McInerney continues to look for more hard-nosed, aggressive play from her team, which features a nucleus of four seniors in Bracey Barker of Bar Harbor, Ashley Underwood of Benton, Katie Whittier of New Gloucester and Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa.

“I think we have to get back to the fundamentals,” Barker said. “We have to get back to doing the little things and wanting to get out there every day and be the best team out there. I think it’s a reality check and we need to get back to what we do well.”

McInerney came away from Saturday’s game impressed with Corinna native Danielle Clark, the Wildcats’ leader in scoring, rebounding and intensity. The coach clearly would like to see her players give the kind of effort she saw out of the former Nokomis High standout.

“For two years she’s proved playing against us why she should be in a Maine uniform because that kid plays with as much pride and heart and just will do anything to win,” said McInerney, who wants to see more consistency of effort and desire from her players.

“I think when we’re doing those things, we’re a pretty good basketball team,” she said. “When we’re the ones that just sit around and expect everybody else to do the dirty work, then we’re not a very good team.”

Strong impact with the Terriers

Former Deering High School basketball star Carlos Strong has paid immediate dividends for Dennis Wolff’s Boston University Terriers.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound freshman guard from Portland is averaging 22.7 minutes per game this season and is BU’s fourth-leading scorer.

“Offensively, he’s a talented player,” said UMaine men’s coach Ted Woodward. “He’s been a guy who can come off the bench and do a nice job for them, shooting the ball very well. He’s a guy who can score off the dribble and shoot 3s.

“He’s part of that solid freshman class they have that’s going to be good for a long time.”

Strong is averaging 7.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. He has played in 18 of BU’s 20 games and started four of them.

“Carlos started off well, then got hurt and missed some time, so we brought him off the bench and every game, he’s played a little bit better,” Wolff said after Wednesday night’s victory over Maine. “Tonight was one of his best all-around games, offensively and defensively.”

Strong guarded top Maine scorer Kevin Reed for much of the second half and helped hold him to two points – 12.3 below his season scoring average.