McFarland: Breen taking nothing for granted in junior season with Southwestern Oklahoma State
After undergoing three knee surgeries, Dawgs Academy alum Justin Breen (Fort McMurray, Alta.) is taking nothing for granted in his junior season with the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs. Photo: Southwestern Oklahoma State Athletics
*This article was originally published on Alberta Dugout Stories on February 27. You can read it here.
March 1, 2024
By Joe McFarland
Alberta Dugout Stories
Justin Breen isn’t taking a moment on the baseball field for granted.
It would have been easy for the Fort McMurray native to pack it all in after a trio of knee surgeries before he turned 18.
Instead, he used it as motivation to take his game to the next level with collegiate stops at Bossier Parish Community College and Arkansas Tech University before landing at Southwestern Oklahoma State University for the 2023-24 season.
The junior first baseman made his presence felt in his sixth game for the team with two home runs and five runs batted in during a 12-5 win over Adams State.
“I was coming off a weekend where I hit the ball hard but nothing was falling,” Breen told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast. “I had a lot of good at-bats and then had a really good batting practice that day.
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Listen to Alberta Dugout Stories interview Justin Breen here.
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That batting practice was so good he texted his father just before the game, then proceeded to hammer a hanging curveball over the scoreboard in what turned into a four-run first inning for the Bulldogs.
Breen homered again in the fifth inning at Athletic Complex in Weatherford, Okla., in what he’s hoping is a sign of things to come as he settles into his new collegiate home.
ON THE MAP
Looking back on his baseball journey, Breen laughs at how he’s become not only a student of the game but also of his body, joking he could now do rehabilitation analysis on himself.
His first visit to the operating table happened in May 2015, when he was just 14.
“I was playing shortstop for Fort McMurray and ran back for a fly ball and the outfielder ran into me,” Breen said. “Then I reinjured it seven months later when I was 15.”
Despite spending nearly two years on the injured list, he earned himself a spot on the Team Alberta roster at the Canada Summer Games in 2017.
With future MLB prospects Gavin Logan and Matt Coutney as well as college stars like Cesar Valero, Tucker Zdunich and Willy Diaz Vasquez on the squad, Alberta captured the bronze medal in what Breen calls a highlight of his baseball career.
He says he was originally not in the starting lineup, but ended up becoming the team’s second baseman, and was a factor in the bronze medal game by drawing two walks and scoring a run in a 5-1 win over Ontario.
HEADED TO THE POUND
After spending the 2018 season back in Fort McMurray, Breen decided to join some of his Team Alberta mates with Dawgs Academy in Okotoks for his senior year of high school.
“When I first went there, it was all about not just making me a better baseball player, but also a better man,” he said.
“Every single day, you’re put through the ringer there and I loved every minute of being at Okotoks.”
While he and his teams continued to perform well, Breen wasn’t quite done with the doctor’s office.
His knee required a third surgery, forcing him back onto the sidelines for most of the 2019 season.
Breen didn’t quit, and with the help of the Dawgs coaching staff, was recruited to join Bossier Parish Community College after graduating high school in 2020.
After playing in a dozen games for the Cavaliers in his freshman season, the right-handed hitter made his biggest splash in his sophomore 2021-22 campaign, hitting .301 with nine home runs and 44 RBIs in 50 games.
He was then given an offer to head to Arkansas Tech but only saw action in one game in 2023, leading him to enter the transfer portal, where he landed at Southwestern Oklahoma State.
THE PATH LESS TRAVELED
With the Bulldogs, Breen believes he’s finally able to be himself as a baseball player: a power bat with good defensive skills.
The Tournament-12 (now Canadian Futures Showcase) alum says he will continue to refine his game over the next couple of years as he helps the Bulldogs get themselves into the conversation of a national championship.
The 6-foot-1, 220-pound infielder also has his eyes on what might lie ahead when his playing career comes to an end.
While many his age are thinking about the potential of playing professional baseball, his time on the injured list exposed him to a new path.
“I’ve played a lot of baseball under a lot of different circumstances,” Breen says. “What I’m looking forward to is after the college baseball life where I can potentially coach junior college baseball.”
He says being on the sidelines wasn’t ideal, but he became a sponge when talking with coaches and made him realize he could help young athletes learn from his abilities and experiences.
While that experience hasn’t been as linear as it might have been for others, Breen says the biggest lesson he’s learned is that he has to use the game and not let the game use him.
It’s the guiding light for the most important piece of advice he has for young athletes just starting out on their respective journeys, which will inevitably become a guiding light for his future coaching career.
“Show up every day and never take it for granted because it can be taken from you,” he says.