Hibbitts to focus on basketball, drops baseball
Blake Hibbitts is no longer a dual-sport athlete at Central Michigan, but his career is not yet complete.
Hibbitts, a senior who was a right handed-pitcher on the baseball team and forward on the basketball team, will focus on basketball and plans to return for the 2016-17 season.
A torn ACL during a fall basketball workout kept Hibbitts out for the basketball season, but baseball Head Coach Steve Jaksa said Hibbitts made the decision to leave the baseball program last summer.
“He made a choice. It was too much for him to do both and he decided he wanted to stay with basketball,” Jaksa said.
Central Michigan Life reached out to Hibbitts but he declined to comment.
In an interview with Andy Sneddon of cmuchippewas.com, Hibbitts said he was not ready to give up on basketball.
“It’s going to be a different team, but it’ll be a good experience to have another year with a completely different team,” Hibbitts said.
Hibbitts, who started every game for the Chippewas in 2013-14, moved to a bench role last season. The forward averaged 3.6 points per game last season, but shot .350 from 3-point range in 31 games as CMU won the Mid-American Conference West Division and advanced to the MAC Championship game.
Watching this season unfold from the sidelines, Hibbitts has been instrumental in helping coach and develop the young players on the roster, said Head Coach Keno Davis.
Davis said Hibbitts has one year of eligibility remaining and is hoping to get him back to full health this summer. Davis said he is still unable to participate in any live drills but is inching closer to his goal.
“He’s been doing his rehab in the training room, in the strength and conditioning area, but he’s pretty limited in what he can do,” Davis said.
Hibbitts and junior guard Braylon Rayson will be seniors next year on a roster that will lose guards Chris Fowler, Rayshawn Simmons and Austin Stewart and forward John Simons.
Davis said he will be happy to have Hibbitts’ shooting ability on the team again. Hibbitts has a shooting percentage of .375 for his career.
“We’ve missed his shooting,” Davis said. “It definitely helped our depth having another player at that position who could spread the court.”
Hibbitts has traveled with the team to some road contests and can be seen behind the bench at home games. Davis said with the tough season Hibbitts has had, it is important to make him feel as if he is a part of the team.
“I know with our group, he feels that (he is a part of the team), and he is,” Davis said. “As a coach, you make sure to keep the dialogue open to see how they’re doing physically, but also mentally.”
Davis said Hibbitts will not return in any way this season.
“It’s a tough thing to go through but hopefully he’ll be better from it,” Davis said.
Simons touched on Hibbitts’ ability to shoot the three.
“He’ll be a very good 3-point shooter when he keeps playing,” Simons said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that have the ability to shoot. We’ve been able to pick up the slack a little bit.”
Last season on the baseball team, Hibbitts pitched in eight games, with four starts, and finished 0-2 with 12 walks, eight strikeouts, 10 hit batters and an 8.84 ERA. The baseball team won the MAC West Division championship before losing to Akron and Toledo in the MAC Tournament.
Hibbitts started four games and had eight appearances, including starting the Clash at Comerica against Michigan State. He had an ERA over eight in both seasons and never registered a victory.
Jaksa said he respected Hibbitts’ decision to depart from the baseball team and called it a “non-issue.”
“I talked to Blake quite a few times,” Jaksa said. “He got his ring. Not many guys win two championships in the same year. Everything’s good but he just made a choice. He thought that was going to be best for him.”
Jaksa said he sees Hibbitts in the weight room frequently.
“He was a baseball player of Central Michigan and he always will be,” Jaksa said.
Jaksa said his team will be fine without Hibbitts, saying “he was part of a pitching staff and they all had roles.”
He added this season’s starters will include senior right-handed pitcher Sean Renzi, junior left-handed pitcher Nick Deeg and redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Pat Leatherman.
Von Lozon and Taylor DesOrmeau contributed to this story.
