When the Toronto Blue Jays play their home opener on Monday against the Seattle Mariners, Dylan Langlois will have one of the best seats in the house.

Now working on an athletic therapy internship through Sheridan College, the graduate of St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Secondary School will most likely be seated in the camera well right next to the home team’s dugout at the Rogers Centre.

A third year student at Sheridan, Langlois was the only student to be selected by the Major League Baseball team to fill the coveted internship position.

“It’s kind of surreal to think that I was the one chosen to work with the Jays, and I’m truly grateful for the opportunity,” said Langlois, who graduated from the University of Windsor’s Human Kinetics program in 2021. “I’d like to be able to work in professional sports, so this is definitely a great stepping stone to help me get where I want to be.”

Langlois will be at all of the team’s 81 home games, so he’ll get well more than the 420 hours required to complete the internship. His primary role will be to support the athletic therapists and medical staff, and his duties will be ensuring the treatment room is in order, setting up treatment modalities, and other assignments as required.

Although he grew up in a baseball household, Langlois said he actually stopped playing the sport for several years in favour of soccer. He started with the Turtle Club in LaSalle when he was around five years old, but started playing soccer around Grade 6 and kept with it through university.

However, being around the park watching his younger brother Andrew play with the Tecumseh Thunder and St. Clair College, “flipped a switch” and he made the Sheridan squad when they launched a new team two years ago.

Although he won’t be doing much hands-on work with the players during his internship, he still says it’s going to be an incredible experience to be in the clubhouse and learning about everything that goes into supporting the health of the team.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I couldn’t be any more excited to get started,” he said.