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Gary Patterson was busy.
After main TCU to back-to-back top-10 seasons, the pinnacle coach was establishing his masterpiece. It featured a 47-7 win at No. 6 Utah. It concluded with a Rose Bowl victory over Massive Ten champion Wisconsin. It ended with the Horned Frogs ranked second within the nation, having gone undefeated for the primary time in 72 years.
Within the midst of the coach’s magnum opus, Austin Aune caught his eye.
The star quarterback at Texas’ Argyle Excessive Faculty — roughly 30 miles north of Fort Value — dedicated to the rising program. In June 2012, as an incoming freshman, he moved into Moncrief Corridor to start summer season conditioning with the crew.
“I had been there a day, and I went via an terrible exercise the place they only ran us within the filth and I used to be throwing up in all places,” Aune recalled. “I used to be like, ‘School soccer is gonna be robust.’”
Aune awoke the following morning, prepared for Spherical 2. The subsequent exercise started at 10 a.m. Round 9, his telephone rang. Brian Cashman waited for him to select up.
When Aune’s title wasn’t introduced within the first spherical of the 2012 MLB Draft, he assumed his future was at TCU. At some point later, the Yankees chosen the standout shortstop within the second spherical (89th total).
The slot cash for his draft place was $548,000. The Yankees provided Aune a signing bonus of $1 million.
“I had leverage, already being on campus with a soccer scholarship, the place I might put a cash quantity on the market that it’s gonna take this a lot to get me away from TCU,” Aune mentioned. “When the Yankees name, the 27-time world champions, it’s form of onerous to say no to that as an 18-year-old who likes to play baseball. I wished to be an NFL participant or an MLB participant, and I had a possibility, so I needed to take it.”
Aune’s baseball profession ended with disappointment, following six years within the Yankees’ farm system.
However now the 29-year-old husband and father is again to pursuing his soccer dream, this time at North Texas — as maybe the oldest quarterback in FBS historical past.
“When the Yankees name, the 27-time world champions, it’s form of onerous to say no to that as an 18-year-old who likes to play baseball. I wished to be an NFL participant or an MLB participant, and I had a possibility, so I needed to take it.”
Austin Aune on his choice to go away TCU and signal with the Yankees
“My spouse and I've our 10-year highschool reunion in November,” Aune mentioned. “By no means would I've thought I’d be in faculty enjoying soccer 10 years after graduating. Nonetheless being in faculty is form of a loopy expertise, but it surely’s been a extremely cool journey.”
Aune, who ranks fifth within the nation with 1,316 passing yards and ranks eighth with 12 passing touchdowns, grew up roughly 10 minutes from North Texas’ Denton campus.
As a highschool senior, Aune was District 9-3A’s soccer co-MVP. He was additionally named the district MVP in baseball, hitting .447 with eight residence runs and 20 stolen bases. That spring, Aune was visited by MLB scouts on a near-daily foundation. He had three particular person exercises with the Yankees, and traveled to the crew’s facility in Tampa to hit the week earlier than he arrived at his TCU dorm.
Baseball America described him on the time as having “a powerful bundle of instruments, beginning with plus uncooked energy and arm energy … a balanced lefthanded stroke and stable velocity, and scouts reward his make-up as effectively.”
The Yankees discovered him worthy of a proposal he couldn’t refuse.
“He might run, had good athleticism each offensively and defensively, and he was large and bodily,” Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees’ vp of home novice scouting, mentioned this week. “You had an opportunity to get somebody that’s a bit of distinctive.”
Aune confirmed promise in Rookie-level ball, hitting .273 with a .410 on-base share, 10 doubles and 20 RBIs in 38 video games, enjoying alongside Miguel Andujar, Austin Romine, Tyler Austin and Greg Chook. However Aune’s future was foreshadowed throughout his second Gulf Coast League marketing campaign in 2013, when he hit .192 and shifted from shortstop to outfield.
“They gave me the chance to play shortstop, like highschool, and I wished to be the following Derek Jeter,” Aune mentioned. “I feel there’s strain being a second-round decide and making that form of cash that possibly I put a bit of an excessive amount of strain on myself, however the Yankees had been attempting to assist me change into the most effective I could possibly be.”
Aune’s struggles continued at stops in short-season Staten Island (2014) and Low-A Charleston (2015). He was elevated in 2016 to Excessive-A Tampa, however he bottomed out with a .154 batting common in the course of the 2017 season.
“We actually thought he would swing the bat extra and produce extra offensively,” Oppenheimer mentioned. “I feel we knew that there was improvement that was gonna need to occur, and it simply didn’t occur.”
Aune was launched, ending his minor league profession with a .226 batting common, 20 residence runs and a .640 OPS in 387 video games.
None had been performed above Single-A.
“Clearly, it didn’t work out the best way the Yankees or I wished it to, however I had a tremendous expertise,” Aune mentioned. “Representing the Yankees, I met Derek Jeter. I hit batting observe with Alex Rodriguez. I bought to play shortstop behind Mariano Rivera when he rehabbed within the minors.
“I didn’t wish to give up, particularly with the chance that they gave me and the sum of money that they gave me. It’s one thing I didn’t wish to stroll away from. I fought till the top, but it surely didn’t work out. I used to be fairly bummed. Once they launched me, I attempted to get again on the soccer recruiting map.”
Following the footsteps of failed minor leaguers turned future NFL quarterbacks Chris Weinke and Brandon Weeden — the latter was additionally a second-round decide of the Yankees (2002) — Aune arrived at Arkansas as a 24-year-old walk-on in the course of the 2018 spring semester.
That fall, Aune transferred near residence at North Texas, the place he took a redshirt and reintroduced himself to a sport he hadn’t performed competitively in seven years.
“I wished to be the following Derek Jeter. I feel there’s strain being a second-round decide and making that form of cash … however the Yankees had been attempting to assist me change into the most effective I could possibly be.”
Austin Aune
“The soccer form was not the onerous half, however getting again into the velocity of the sport,” Aune mentioned. “I additionally needed to shorten up my arm movement as a result of [it had gotten longer during] the transition from shortstop to outfield.”
The persistence required of minor league gamers — who endure interminable bus rides to play in entrance of small crowds, with little hope of reaching the majors — proved helpful. Three-plus seasons at North Texas handed earlier than Aune seized the beginning job.
He bought his first begin in Oct. 2020 — arriving to the pre-game press convention in a Charleston Riverdogs shirt — and took over because the full-time starter within the midst of final season. The Imply Inexperienced opened 1-6 earlier than Aune led them to 5 straight wins — together with an upset of 11-0 UTSA — to change into bowl-eligible.
“He’s at all times had a fantastic angle and labored extraordinarily onerous,” North Texas coach Seth Littrell mentioned. “He’s very mature, very aggressive, and he’s a fantastic teammate. That’s what I used to be actually impressed with. He knew he needed to earn all the pieces. Nothing was gonna be given to him. He needed to have the mentality to outwork and get higher.
“He relates very effectively to the boys within the locker room, which isn't at all times the case, particularly being rather a lot older. … He’s a father and a husband, and in a variety of methods he’s nearer to me than a variety of these guys.”
Aune wasn’t sure he would return to high school this season. He had already accomplished levels in finance and actual property. He had married his highschool sweetheart, Kristin, and had a daughter, Palmer, in February. He thought-about leaping into business actual property.
He nonetheless most likely will. However it will probably wait.
“I felt like we had nice momentum coming into this season and I hadn’t began from Week 1, and I wished to see what I might do with a full season beneath my belt and play soccer so long as I can as a result of the actual world will probably be ready for me it doesn't matter what afterwards,” Aune mentioned. “It’s fairly robust typically — up right here all day watching movie, observe, understanding, going residence … I’ll be on child obligation for a bit, then I gotta watch some movie or do some [class] assignments — but it surely’s such a blessing to be a dad, and for her to return to my soccer video games is fairly particular.”
He prepares for every sport with youngsters, who inhabit a unique universe and observe his lead.
“The fellows love calling me ‘outdated man’ or ‘gramps’ or ‘pops,’ however they’re household to me and I like it,” Aune mentioned. “It’s positively a novel scenario being 10 years older than these guys, however enjoying skilled baseball, there have been guys 10 years older than me within the minor leagues. Take a look at Tom Brady, he’s 20 years older than the fellows he’s throwing to.
“I’m simply attempting to … be a great instance to those younger guys, present them methods to be skilled, caring for my physique and a spotlight to particulars.”
Collectively, they’re chasing a Convention USA championship. They plan to return to a different bowl. When the Imply Inexperienced’s (2-3) journey ends in December, Aune will start making ready for his professional day, daring to dream once more.
“The entire baseball expertise, I have a look at that considerably as a failure as a result of I didn’t make it to the massive leagues, however that have has helped me a lot with the on a regular basis side of the soccer world,” Aune mentioned. “I've a unique perspective on a variety of issues which have helped me a lot to work onerous and never give up on my soccer goals.
“I’m a unique individual than I used to be again then.”
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