Barrie resident Austin Boylan grew up in Minden with a dream of playing junior hockey.
When the pandemic hit, everything was put on ice so he worked on his fitness independently and during his spare time he took a bat to ball.
“I broke my jaw and then COVID happened. And hockey season was kaput, it was done,” he recalls during an interview with BarrieToday. “I just started hitting a baseball off a tee.”
And it went very well.
That summer, he started doing some baseball training. And then he competed in an open, online tryout for Team Ontario Astros of the Canadian Premier Baseball League. That was soon followed by an in-person tryout and won a spot on the Vaughan team.
That was three years ago.
“I wanted to go the OHL … and it totally changed when COVID came,” he explains.
Since then, Boylan has upended his life and his dreams, moving to Barrie to live with his dad for easier access to the Greater Toronto Area to develop his baseball skills. That has involved attending Bill Crothers Secondary School, an athletic-based high school in the public system in Markham.
There, he says, he was able to both develop as a high-performance athlete while also performing well academically, thanks to a flexible system. He graduated this past spring with top grades.
After a year, Boylan switched from playing for the Astros and joined the top team in the Canadian Premier Baseball League, the Ontario Blue Jays Baseball Club — which has a complete training facility in Mississauga.
The nine-year-old league, geared for players aged 14 to 18, focuses on producing high-calibre players and boasts producing Major League Baseball draft picks, Canadian junior national team players and student-athletes who have continued their careers at post-secondary institutions.
“Minden had no baseball whatsoever. That’s why it’s kind of weird coming from a such a small town with no baseball to going with these major-league aspirations,” he says.
While Barrie is a lot closer to the GTA than Minden, it still involved a substantial daily commute as well as the expense of the entire experience. And this past year he had to fight back from a knee injury to not only keep up his fitness level, but develop further as a baseball player.
“It's been fast, but obviously very testing,” says his dad, Jason Boylan. “Just the experience alone for him is going to be a good experience for life … He worked really, really hard to get to where he’s at.”
The younger Boylan credits his parents for their unwavering support. And he says all the effort, work and changes was worth it.
He spent the summer travelling across Ontario with the Ontario Blue Jays team with trips to Indiana, Boston and Baton Rouge, La., for tournaments.
While he plays third base and outfield, his strength is hitting. This summer, he came away with the team’s highest batting average, hitting four home runs, three in Boston, including a grand slam.
“We were in a semifinal game and we were only winning 2-1,” he explains. “We needed that one moment to get a rally going.”
He then hit a 390-foot shot to the left-field trees with the bases loaded. The team subsequently won the Prospect Select tournament.
And during the tournaments where he hit a grand slam, he was scouted. Boylan committed to North Dakota State University in Division 1.
“I’ve been dreaming of going into Division 1 since starting this journey, for sure,” he says. “Pretty much I’m at the highest level I can be next to major league baseball. Obviously, one more step to go. I want to develop when I go to North Dakota University, hopefully get drafted my third year.
“My plan is to go to school, get an education, develop there as well. One thing that drew me to North Dakota State is their player development. Just all their facilities are absolutely fantastic and the coaching staff is great.”
He has committed to the fall 2025 school year. In the interim, he’s taking a gap year to work and save money while continuing to train and play his last year with the Ontario Blue Jays and prepare for collegiate baseball.
“I’m literally living my dream, that’s why it’s crazy … The goal now is to get drafted by major league baseball, just to get one of those 32 teams to call my name.”
