For years, Christina Mosher’s dream was to play basketball at the University of Maine.

The former Mt. Blue standout achieved that goal and lived that life during her freshman year at Orono last winter.

But that dream has now been replaced by other aspirations. It was announced last week that Mosher was leaving the Black Bears women’s program.

“There’s more than one dream in life,” she said. “Now I’m working toward the others.”

Mosher is still attending the University of Maine. Her scholarship ends after this semester, but the Child Development major decided that other avenues in life were taking precedence over basketball.

“I knew it wasn’t for me,” said Mosher. “It’s hard to do something like that every day when your heart’s not in it anymore. It was tough, but there’s other things I’d like to do, other roads I want to explore and venture down.”

Mosher’s departure from the program leaves Maine with only 10 players from last season. She is the fifth to leave the program since last year ended, including Emily Rousseau, Sandra Vaikute, Magdala Johnson and Brittany Bowen.

Mosher is adamant that her decision had nothing to do with an unhappiness with the program or with the coaching staff.

“Not at all,” she said.

In fact, Mosher relishes the year she had with the program. Coach Cindy Blodgett’s team went 7-23 last year (4-12 in the American East).

“It was an unforgettable experience,” said Mosher. “It was great, really great. I loved it. Off the court, the team was such a close family. That was something I really liked.”

Mosher hopes to pursue a nursing career and wants to focus her time in that direction.

“I knew I couldn’t do that and play basketball at the same time,” she said.

Her fiancé, Mike Whelpley, is currently serving in Iraq and is scheduled to return home in January. No date has been set for a wedding. They both plan to finish school first.

“There are plenty of other roads out there to explore,” she said. “There’s things I haven’t necessarily been able to do.”

Mosher had never been interested in basketball until attending a Black Bears game in Orono while in the fifth grade. That sparked her interest. At the same time, Mt. Blue’s girls’ team won back-to-back state titles, led by center Heather Ernest, who ultimately went to Orono and became one of Maine’s greats.

Mosher, 6-foot-2 post player, made it her goal in high school to pursue a basketball career at Maine and achieved just that. She earned a full scholarship and was a valuable asset off the bench last year at a freshman. She appeared in 23 games, making four starts. She averaged 4.6 points and 3.7 rebounds.

During this summer, however, Mosher began contemplating other career paths. With the impending preseason approaching, Mosher decided basketball wasn’t what was best for her future.

“There are other things that I want to do,” she said. “I want to have a career, and I don’t feel like I’ve put enough effort in that route as I could have if I wasn’t playing.”

Mosher consulted others over her decision. Her parents, Terry and Maureen, her fiancé and former high school coach Jeannine Paradis offered advice and support.

“They said, ‘Do whatever makes you happy. You can’t do something for someone else. You have to do it for yourself,'” recalls Mosher.

When she elected to end her playing career, she knew it was the right choice for her.

“It was tough in ways but it was easy in others,” she explained. “It was obviously something that was a dream to me, that I absolutely loved to do, but it was easy because I knew I have other things I want to do. It would have been harder if there was nothing else that I wanted to do, but because there’s other things I want to do, it was easy for me.”

Even giving up her scholarship wasn’t a significant factor. There was no price to put on her contentment.

“If there’s things you want to do, you’re going to find a way to do it no matter what,” said Mosher. “I’m not going to not finish school now because of this. I don’t want to do it just for the free education.”

The regular season is approaching fast, but Mosher has no second thoughts. She still sees her teammates regularly and even rooms with former Hampden standout Tanna Ross.

“I definitely do feel like it’s the right decision for me,” she said. “So far, it’s been good. I still see them. I still hang out with people from the team and see them around. I’ve been able to put more time into my academics. I’ve been able to go home a few more times.”

Rousseau and Johnson transferred to Division II schools in the Northeast Conference. Rousseau is at Stonehill College while Johnson enrolled at Southern New Hampshire University.

The Black Bears go into the season with four returning starters in senior Colleen Kiljmurray and juniors Amanda Tewksbury, Brittany Boser and Kristin Baker. The other returnees include Ross and junior Katia Bratishko.