SHARON — Over the course of four years, Quentin Kindred started every single game while on the Housatonic Valley Regional High School baseball team.
In his sophomore season, Kindred batted over .400 with one home run; his junior year he again batted over .400 and hit three home runs.
Before his senior year, Kindred decided to hit with an old-fashioned wooden bat — a feat that is extremely difficult for even the most advanced college players. The result? A batting average over .350 and another three home runs.
His skills were not limited to the bat. In four years behind the plate as the team’s catcher, Kindred’s arm dominated opposing base runners. In 20 games during his final season, only three base runners attempted to steal against him and all three were gunned down.
During his time in the program, Kindred helped the Mountaineers go from an 8-12 record to 10-10 to 14-6 and the no. 6 seed in the CIAC Class S Tournament.
When speaking about the history of the program, Kindred’s name comes up with others such as Steve Blass and John Lamb, both of whom went on the have professional baseball careers.
What has one of the program’s more talented players in recent history been up to since hanging up his cleats?
Following graduation, Kindred attended Franklin and Pierce University in Rindge, N.H., on a baseball scholarship. After competing in the fall season, Kindred decided to withdraw from the university and return home to Sharon.
A few months later, he started his own landscaping business, Kindred Property Care LLC. It began with push mowing his neighbors’ lawns and in a few short months grew to several clients.
A year later, after starting to advertise, the business exploded, and fairly soon he was able to buy heavy equipment and several trucks. Now the business has a shop in Wassaic and is often used by the town of Sharon for any additional maintenance work that needs to be done.
While Kindred misses playing baseball, he loves working for himself because he controls his own destiny. Nobody is standing in his way, and he can make the business into whatever he wants. He controls how large and successful it has grown; it’s all done by his own hand.
The once-dominant baseball player has traded in his cleats for a mower and a snow plow. However, baseball will always remain a large part of him and eventually, no doubt, he will find his way back to the game that he truly loves.
