Most college freshmen must go through a significant adjustment period in the first few weeks of school. Home is often thousands of miles away, family members are no longer around the corner and high school friends and teachers fade into memories.

Such is not the case for freshmen Zak Farkes and Josh Klimkiewicz. Both went to school at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols High School, a prestigious private day school within five minutes walking distance from Harvard’s athletic facilities. Both played baseball together for BB&N, winning Independent School League championships in 2001 and 2002. And both will be playing the infield for this year’s Harvard baseball squad. “If you hit a bomb on our field, it can land in BB&N, where Zak and Josh played,” Walsh says. “It’s important for us at Harvard to get the kids who are in our own backyard. I can’t take credit for digging deeply throughout the country for Zak and Josh, but they were both well-known prospects.”

While BB&N is known for sending students to Harvard, few BB&N players have ever played baseball for the Crimson. BB&N coach Rick Forestiere’s cannot remember memory two BB&N graduates ever playing on the same Harvard team, let alone two classmates. Klimkiewicz and Farkes will be starting for Harvard as freshmen, the former at third base and the latter at second.

“They are two of the finest players I’ve ever coached,” Forestiere says. “Zak is one of the best to ever play the game at BB&N. He’s a leader, he’s the hardest of workers and he’s extraordinarily talented. He’s irreplaceable. Josh is the best high school hitter I’ve seen or coached. He’s offensively scary.”

The two players’ paths first crossed in the spring of 2000. At the time, Farkes was the starting second baseman for BB&N, beginning his third season on the varsity team. Sensing his immense talent, Forestiere allowed Farkes to play with the high schoolers when he was only in eighth grade.

“I won more than 100 games in my high school career. Not that many high school teams play that many games, so I was lucky to get so much playing time,” Farkes says.

Klimkiewicz transferred to BB&N that year from St. Sebastian’s, another local private school that competes in the ISL. A junior, Klimkiewicz decided to stay back a year in order to switch schools.

“I went to BB&N for academics, primarily,” Klimkiewicz says. “I wanted to go to Harvard and I knew about BB&N’s baseball program, so it seemed like a good match.” Klimkiewicz immediately became the starting shortstop for Forestiere’s club, though baseball was not Klimkiewicz’s only athletic interest.

“My dream growing up was to play hockey for Harvard,” Klimkiewicz admits. “Baseball was only something to do on the side.”

The Lexington, Mass. native also played football in high school, a choice that would drastically impact his senior year. On October 27, 2001, Klimkiewicz tore his left ACL in a freak accident on a kickoff, forcing him to sit out his senior baseball season. It was the first time all season Klimkiewicz had been in on a special teams play. The year before, in his second “junior” season at BB&N, Klimkiewicz won the ISL MVP, batting .478 with eight home runs, 48 RBI and 15 stolen bases.

If Klimkiewicz had not won the league’s MVP, Farkes likely would have taken home the award. He finished the year with a .452 batting average and hit seven home runs of his own. While Klimkiewicz watched from the sidelines during his senior season, Farkes became BB&N’s all-around star. He followed Klimkiewicz’s lead, taking home the ISL’s MVP award in 2002.

At Harvard, Klimkiewicz, who says his knee is “100-percent, completely healed,” will likely start at third base and bat fifth or sixth in the line-up. While Klimkiewicz moves one position to the left, Farkes will most likely be moving between positions. The Boston, Mass. resident, who grew up with season tickets to Red Sox games, has played both shortsop and second base this season.

“Zak is the kind of versatile infielder that I like,” Walsh says.

Farkes will likely rotate between hitting second and third as the season progresses.

“I think [Farkes’] spot is going to eventually be in the three-hole for us,” Walsh says. “He’s a three-hole type of hitter.