All the way from Australia, now on the SFCC baseball team, Kent Fitzgibbons is working hard to achieve the ability to be signed into a college baseball team.
Fitzgibbons was born in Perth, western part of Australia. He came to the U.S. at age 19 on a Student Visa to play baseball in at SFCC in the fall of 2012. He attended and graduated from his high school, Aquinas College, in 2010. He is studying to get his Associate of Arts degree. Fitzgibbons is from a family of seven, three brothers, himself, and one sister. He had gotten started in baseball through his family at a young age and took off from there. His parents send money to him to pay for his living and tuition expenses while attending college.
“I plan to get a degree in business or teaching after attending SFCC,” Fitzgibbons said.
He chose to come here, to Spokane, because of a student named Brandon Harmon from Gonzaga University who is now a coach there. After being a student, Brandon Harmon went to Australia to coach abroad. Harmon had the chance to coach the U16 team in Perth, in the 2008-2009 season. That’s where he met Fitzgibbons.
“I started playing baseball at age 12,” Fitzgibbons said. “My goal with baseball is to get signed or join a major league team.”
After being in Perth for nine months, Harmon heard about Fitzgibbons wanting to go to college, so Harmon helped Fitzgibbons figure out how to come back to the U.S. and study abroad and learn American baseball.
“Kent has great passion for playing baseball and is willing to take a chance. A chance of leaving everything behind and going to a new country and studying abroad to be able to play American baseball,” Coach Harmon said.
“Playing on a Community College baseball team is perfect for Kent because he is young and willing to take chances,” Harmon said.
Fitzgibbons goes to every practice, every day. He works at becoming one of the best and learn as much as he can about baseball for the abroad program.
“My thought of where Kent is right now is he is not physically strong enough to play college baseball. He is working extremely hard in the weight room to get bigger, faster and stronger. And if that does happen, he has a chance to possibly play for us. He is a great guy on our team and our teammates love him being around,” Bobby Lee, head baseball coach at SFCC said.