Country Gazette
On May 26, the University of Hartford Board of Regents voted to reclassify its athletics model from Division I to Division III. The decision sent shockwaves throughout the school and to its future commits.
One of those future commits: Former Franklin High catcher Jake Fitzgibbons. Everyone started leaving Hartford and decommitting, said Fitzgibbons following Franklin Post 75 s 6-2 win over Milton Saturday night. Then the coach (Justin Blood) said he was probably going to leave, so I was like Yup, time to get out of there. Nobody could have foreshadowed or foreseen the developments at the University of Hartford, Franklin baseball coach Zach Brown said. We didn t have a crystal ball. Nobody knew that they were going to move from Division I to a Division III program and because of that move, they lose their head coach.