Baseball catcher Matt Casburn’s final season with the Brock Badgers wasn’t the fairy-tale ending he was hoping for.

Like many student-athletes, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Casburn’s fifth and final season in a Badgers jersey.

Although he hoped for a season, Casburn understood the reality of the pandemic and threw himself into his studies by successfully completing his Bachelor of Accounting Co-op undergraduate degree.

He’s on track to graduate this spring and will now turn his attention to beginning his Master of Accountancy program at Brock.

“I had made the decision to return to the team in hopes of trying to help bring a provincial championship back to the school before any decisions were made by Ontario University Athletics (OUA) regarding the fate of the season,” said Casburn. “Unfortunately, the effects of the pandemic made this impossible.”

Casburn has served as a catcher for the Badgers baseball team since arriving in 2016. In his first year, Brock reached the OUA finals and brought home a silver medal. In other years, the season presented new challenges and opportunities with dominating regular seasons and early playoff exits.

When Matt Casburn’s final season with the Brock Badgers’ baseball team was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it allowed him to put his entire focus on successfully completing his studies.

“Although we did not accomplish the end goal, it was still a great achievement for the team and program,” said Casburn. “We celebrated many great wins together over the years.”

As he turns his attention to his post-baseball career, Casburn plans to write the Common Final Examination (CFE) next September while continuing to work towards his Chartered Professional Accountant designation.

He said his experience as a student-athlete will benefit him in the working world. He spent time in public accounting through Brock’s Co-op program and noticed some of the elements critical on the baseball field were also important in his professional life.

“My coaches have always said baseball is a very unforgiving sport, but so is life,” he said. “There are a lot of things that I sometimes cannot control, but baseball has taught me that my work ethic is not one of those things. The lessons I have learned through sport, and my competitiveness and strong work ethic will offer the potential for professional success in the future.”

Casburn, who grew up in St. Catharines and learned the game through the local minor baseball program, was recruited by Indiana’s Purdue-Calumet University when he graduated from St. Francis Catholic Secondary School. He played second base for the American school’s baseball team and held a 4.0 GPA, but ultimately chose to transfer to Brock.

“Brock was able to offer me everything I was looking for athletically, but more importantly, academically as well,” he said. “It was the opportunity to play for a very competitive baseball program, and join a highly respected Co-op Accounting program.”

The Badgers were in need of depth at catcher when Casburn arrived at Brock, and assistant coach Jono Marcheterre knew his prowess behind the plate from watching him in minor ball.

“Matt hadn’t caught in a few years,” said Marcheterre. “We needed to shore up our depth behind the plate and I kept telling coach Marc LePage that I knew that Matt could catch. Matt was a little reluctant and rusty at first, but he dove in head first and never looked back.”

Casburn developed into one of the best defensive catchers at the university level and gave Brock’s pitchers an edge with his pitch framing and understanding of how to call a game.

Marcheterre said the Badgers will miss the calming presence he brought to the team.

“Baseball is fundamentally about failure and resilience,” he said. “The best way to deal with the highs and lows of a play, a game or a season, is to remain even keeled. Matt is the epitome of that.”

Catcher is arguably the most physically and mentally demanding position in baseball. It’s a position that requires a lot of situational understanding, including receiving, blocking, throwing and pitch calling.

The way Casburn approaches this challenge is what will serve him well in the future, said Marcheterre.

“I have known Matt since he was about 10 years old,” he said. “The thing that stuck out about Matt as a kid, and still does today, is his passion. He is passionate about baseball, and equally passionate about working hard to get better. He is the model student-athlete. He is the one studying on long bus trips, the one who wants extra reps and the one that pushes himself to be the best that he can be.”