By Keith Harrington

Hartford Central School Superintendent Andrew Cook hosted a special public meeting in the school auditorium last Tuesday to discuss the possibility of a merger for spring sports with two neighboring Adirondack League schools.
Now that the community has been heard, the Hartford Board of Education will meet in October to decide whether to merge for baseball and softball in the spring.
Then the school would approach the Adirondack League in November and on to Section II to be approved by the Jan. 1 deadline for spring sports mergers.
“Our goal is to maintain our existing programs and provide opportunities for students,” Cook said. “As it stands right now in our spring programs, some of our student athletes are not able to participate in interscholastic athletics. We are not in a situation where we are cutting students. It’s just the opposite. We don’t have enough students to form the teams for student athletes to participate in.”
Hartford has not fielded a junior varsity baseball team since the 2010-2011 season. The Tanagers modified team is barely getting by, averaging 10 players a season. The varsity baseball team is averaging 13 players a year.
The varsity softball team has been highly successful, reaching the Section II Class D final the last two seasons. However, Hartford has not fielded a junior varsity team since 2011-2012, and has not had a modified team in two years.
The Tanagers currently have a very large junior class, but the fear is when that group graduates the program will come to an end.
“While it is sad to say, looking into the future, if nothing changes, we could potentially not have a softball team in three years,” Cook said.

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