Brendan Hartley '23 Recruiting Profile

Eight years ago I arrived in Purcellville, Virginia, from New Jersey, knowing very little about the sport of football.  Almost immediately I was plunged into the ULYFL, a local football league and by the end of that season I was hooked.  Football was my sport.  As I’ve grown, I have played rugby, basketball, and I’ve wrestled, but football has remained my passion.   I played Upper Loudoun Youth Football all through middle school.   The summer after I graduated (middle school), I began my own rigorous program of physical training, working out daily.  This training payed off when I became one of the freshman chosen to be on the JV Team at Loudoun Valley High School.  I have been a varsity starter ever since my sophomore year and have played full back, middle linebacker, outside linebacker and long snapper.  My goal has been to help my team win games while improving my physical condition and skills every year that I have played.  In that vein, I look forward to the challenge of playing college ball.

Throughout my career in football I have always strived to become a better athlete.  In middle school I participated in several travel football teams.  I have served my team as captain in my freshman, junior years and senior years. My freshman year of high school I was selected to play on the JV team.  In my sophomore year I was a starter on Varsity.  As a junior I played varsity and I was selected as an All-Dulles District player.  In beginning of my senior year I was awarded the teams War Hammer award for leadership and dedication to the team.

In my freshman year of high school I started wrestling and playing rugby as conditioning for football.  I earned a spot on the JV team and even won the JV Jamboree for the Dulles district.  That same year I earned a spot on the varsity team and competed in the district and regional tournaments.  My sophomore year I wrestled varsity and again made it to the district and regional tournaments.  My junior year I wrestled varsity and finished in the top three in the district and regional tournaments which earned me a spot at the state championships.  I wrestled in the state tournament and placed in the top 10 for my weight class.  I was also honored to be team captain as well as the recipient of the Viking Award for leadership.

I have brought the drive and determination with which I approach football to my academic studies as well.  You see, I have dyslexia, a very frustrating condition that makes reading extremely difficult.  You can imagine how words and letters moving on the page affects every aspect of school work and becomes even more difficult as the complexity of the work increases.  I am proud to report that in spite of this disability, I have been able to maintain a 3.6 GPA all through high school.  My goal is to use my education and what I have learned from my dyslexia, physical training, and participation in sports to become an Exercise Science.  .  Because I have had to work harder than my classmates to achieve good grades, I know how to work hard and not give up easily in the pursuit of my goals.  This has been the case in the classroom and on the football field.

I come from a family in which my faith and helping people who are less fortunate and/or struggling are very important.  For several summers our family and other members of our church have traveled to the impoverished town of Wytopitlock, Maine where we worked to repair its church and several homes as well as to conduct a Bible School.  I especially enjoyed working with and encouraging the young people there and doing the various forms of physical labor that were required to improve the living conditions in the town.  I hope to continue doing some form of service while I’m in college and on into my adult life.

My family and I live in Hamilton Virginia where my father works as a custom home builder and my mother as a homemaker and preschool teacher.  I have one younger brother who is in middle school and enjoys playing basketball.