All Tyler Quinn wanted to do was cruise at the beach with his boys.
An All-ILH second team selection at Maryknoll, Quinn was ready to walk away from the game, content with being a good high school ballplayer that chose not to take the journey any further.
Quinn was scheduled to compete at a showcase event at Hans L'Orange Field but was determined to ditch.
"I remember vividly calling my father and saying, 'Hey, Dad, I'm good.' But my dad was like, 'It's $180, just go,'" Quinn recently recalled to Aloha State Daily.
Quinn reluctantly showed up to the field, a decision that extended his baseball career by six years, the last two as a starter at the University of Utah.
When Quinn halfheartedly showed up to Hans L'Orange Field with his catcher's gear and the rest of his equipment, perhaps he played with the freedom of having nothing to lose. His 60-yard dash time was officially clocked at 6.8 seconds, while his catcher pop time registered well under two seconds, both elite metrics for a high schooler hoping to play college ball.
Aided by the nudging of future teammate Jordan Hara, Quinn decided to go to the only college that offered him a spot on the team: Pacific University, an NCAA Division III school in Forest Grove, Ore. that also features the largest population of students from Hawai‘i for a school located outside the state.
"I got a chance," Quinn said. "I kind of went in there knowing that I was going to be a backup catcher at best."
Pacific's starting catcher in 2019, Jacob Igawa, leveled up to Division II Hawai‘i-Hilo before eventually becoming a two-year starter at Hawai‘i. Quinn earned immediate playing time, hitting .413 with two home runs as a freshman in 2020. After his season was cut short due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quinn stayed home in Mililani for the remainder of the year. It was during that period that he bulked up by eating more often and working out frequently at a friend's house nearby, going from "140 soaking wet to 175 pounds."
The 5-foot-9 Quinn continued to produce for the rest of his Pacific career, hitting .412 in 2023 with a total of 20 home runs. In between college seasons, he got to test his ability in summer ball, where he swung a wooden bat and competed against Division I players. In 2022, he was named team MVP for the Corvallis Knights of the West Coast League.
Making the jump from Pacific to Division I baseball is rare but not unprecedented. Quinn noted that a former teammate of his in Chase Anderson was the first to go from Pacific to Utah, while Leilehua alumnus Ty Yukumoto made the jump from Pacific to Gonzaga in 2025, hitting .291 in 50 starts.
At the end of the 2023 season, Quinn played four seasons at Pacific but still had two more years of collegiate eligibility. He initially committed to Portland in the transfer portal but the paperwork never arrived. Instead, it was former Hawai‘i assistant coach and current Utah assistant Mike Brown that convinced Quinn to sign with the Utes.
Quinn admits there was an adjustment to Division I ball. All the skills pitchers possessed in Division III were amplified at the DI level.
"It became a lot of harder, more spin on their pitches, stuff like that," Quinn said. "I struggled basically the first half of the year, and so the stats aren't great for that first year at Utah, but it was a learning experience for sure. We had to come up with different plans in order to be successful at the Division I level."
Quinn started 27 games at third base and 14 at catcher for the Utes in 2024, hitting .214. His tore his ACL after hitting his fourth home run of the year against Oregon.
"I came in for the celebration, jumped up and I tore my ACL, my meniscus," Quinn recalled. "They were basically like, alright, if we get surgery soon, we can get you ready to go for this year."
Quinn's hitting numbers improved across the board in 2025, hitting .316 with five home runs in 50 games. He was used as a utility player, starting 25 games at first base, five at third and 17 at designated hitter.
The Utes went 21-29 overall and 8-22 in Big 12 Conference play, their season ending last week.
"It's just been a blast. Obviously, there's been some some good and some bad," Quinn said of his time at Utah, where he majored in applied positive psychology as a graduate student. "(Playing for a Power Four school) is about as glamorous as you can imagine and you get a bunch of free stuff which is nice, and managers help clean up. That wasn't a thing at Division III, but it's a nice life.
"Obviously there's a lot of work that's involved. You have to continually improve each and every day, and the game doesn't change. It's so unbelievable how similar the game is, but yet how different it is at the same time. It's all 90 feet (between bases)."
For someone who was ready to leave the game behind, six years of college ball was not on Quinn's radar at first. When asked about kids from Hawai‘i who aspire to follow in his footsteps, he says: "One piece of advice would be just to not worry about what others are doing. I think a lot of people get wrapped up in a bunch of nonsense. It's not about this, that or the other thing. I look like your average person. It's more about consistency every day, and not looking too far ahead. I never thought that I would end up here at the end of the day. That was not in my head.
"And don't focus on others. Just focus on you. Focus on things that you can get better at and just develop from there."
With only 20 rounds in the MLB Draft, Quinn has accepted that his pro prospects are thin. He has given thought to life after baseball.
"For me personally, I'm not expecting to get my name called by any means," he said. "If opportunity arrives, I would love to take it, but as of right now, I'm just going to go through the entrepreneur route. I don't know what it is yet, not really sure either.
"If (pro baseball) doesn't happen, I'm not losing any sleep over it. I've had a great career. I've got two extra years thanks to COVID. It's been an unbelievable experience. I'm just very thankful for my opportunities that I've gotten, the people I've met, some of the lifelong friends baseball brought to my life."
Without his father's encouragement, Quinn says his college experience would've been spent "as a frat guy, that's for sure."
After six more years of baseball, Quinn's next beach outing won't be spent wondering what could have been on the diamond.
"A lot of luck was definitely involved but, hey, I'm glad I did it," he said. "It's been an awesome journey."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
