'Felt great to be honored': Charlton's Austin Borggaard wants to use Carlton Memorial Trophy as 'motivation to keep working hard'
SOUTHBOROUGH — It was a night to relish and remember for Austin Borggaard.
The St. Mark’s School senior from Charlton was interviewed on NESN, met Boston Bruins bigwigs Cam Neely and Don Sweeney and watched the B’s game April 15 from a luxury box, during which time he was introduced to the TD Garden crowd via the Jumbotron.
It was hockey heaven for the 2024 male recipient of the John Carlton Memorial Trophy, which the Bruins annually award to the outstanding senior high school hockey player in Massachusetts for his academic and athletic excellence.
“It was a great night for both of us,” Borggaard said Tuesday, making sure not to leave out Carlton Trophy female honoree Monique Lyons of Williston Northampton.
“It obviously felt great to be honored because a lot of hard work has gone into the whole process, and it’s great to see that hard work paying off and somebody recognizing it. But I’m also going to use that award as more motivation to keep working hard.”
The evening of excellence, which was shared with his dad, Andy Borggaard; mom, Amy Breton; and brother, Drew, a hockey-playing freshman at Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, was well deserved.
Borggaard is not only a standout on the ice and in the classroom, but he has served as a peer discussion leader to his fellow students and, at the age of 19, is an entrepreneur with an expanding business.
A 6-foot, 185-pound center, Borggaard scored an Independent School League-leading 24 goals and dished out 25 assists in 28 games while captaining the Lions to the top seed in the New England Prep School Athletic Council small schools tournament this past season.
“He’s someone who is an elite skater, it’s effortless,” St. Mark's coach Carl Corazzini said. “He has an unbelievable shot. He’s someone who on any given shift can turn the game on its head just because of how fast he is and how well he shoots.
“I think the big thing for him is over the course of his three years with us is the maturity and the hockey IQ, those are the things that he’s developed in his game. He’s got a lot of good hockey to come.”
That Borggaard, who basically takes up residency at the Worcester Ice Center in the summer, oozes skill should come as no surprise as his dad owns Borggaard Hockey School, which specializes in skating and skills training. But he has also put in the time and effort to improve all aspects of his game, especially positioning and physicality.
“Obviously since I’ve been here, I’ve grown as a player, grown as a person,” Borggaard said. “I’ve developed more skill, gotten bigger, stronger, faster.”
Borggaard, an honor-roll student with an A average, will continue his studies — he’s thinking of majoring in business — and his hockey career at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, in the fall of 2025 after playing a year of juniors, quite possibly in Canada.
This Division 1 recruit visited Colgate and Maine and drew interest from Holy Cross and New Hampshire, but he immediately knew Sacred Heart, with its 3,600-seat Martire Family Arena, which opened last year at a cost of $70 million, was the place for him when he stepped on campus.
“Once I visited Sacred Heart, I knew I wanted to go there,” said Borggaard, who committed to the Pioneers in late November. “Everything I was hearing, and talking to the coaches, was what I wanted to hear.”
Classes end in mid-May, but before Borggaard and his fellow St. Mark’s seniors graduate June 10, they’ll participate in a multi-week experiential learning program dubbed Lion Term.
Borggaard applied for and received a grant from the school to develop a class on how to start a business, the blueprint of which will be left behind for other students to utilize. He has firsthand knowledge of what it takes to get a company up and running.
Borggaard started Renewed Ride Detailing, a mobile car detailing business, last summer. It went so well he hired two employees and expanded the coverage area in Central Mass. along with providing service on Cape Cod.“It’s going pretty well actually,” Borggaard said.
—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Night at Garden is fitting reward for Charlton's Austin Borggaard
