Upon recently returning to International Falls following a short stint as a defensive end in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ training camp, Ty Boyle took the practice field this week as a volunteer assistant coach for the Falls High School football team.

Boyle, a 2006 FHS graduate who also played on the defensive line at the University of North Dakota, had been signed last month as an undrafted free agent by the Steelers.

“When the season got over at North Dakota, I started being contacted by some agents,” he said.

After appearing in a post-season college All-Star game, which put him “on the radar” of some scouts looking for NFL talent, Boyle said he moved to Pittsburgh, where a sister and brother-in-law of his live, and signed on with an agent who set him up with a training facility for NFL prospects.

Boyle said he stayed in shape as he went through a “waiting game” for a couple of months after not being selected in April’s NFL draft, before the Steelers signed him as an undrafted free agent when the lockout ended.

“I had been on the Steelers’ radar early on...,” he said. “They were a team that had me on their draft boards ranked higher than some other teams.”

Boyle said he knew it was going to be tough for him to make the team because of the number of defensive linemen the Steelers have with NFL experience.

Before having the opportunity to play a single down in an NFL preseason game, the Steelers released him last week to make room on their roster for a larger rookie defensive end, 6-6, 290-pound Jarrett Crittenton of Middle Tennessee State.

“I was kind of undersized for what they were looking for in the position,” Boyle said.

While his agent has been looking into the possibility of whether other teams would be interested in signing him, Boyle said there unfortunately is no NFL game film of him to market to other teams after not playing in the preseason.

“I was hoping after (last) weekend’s games maybe some teams would start to making moves” he said. “Training camp is fluid, and maybe someone else may get injured, or somebody else might be looking for a defensive lineman. So, now I’m just going to continue to work out, and hopefully I get another opportunity.”

Compared to playing college football, Boyle said the speed, size and the amount of skill among NFL players “is on a whole new level.”

“Playing college football, having great technique, stuff like that, you go to the next level and you see that your technique, which used to be great, is now average,” he said.

Whether or not he has another opportunity to be on an NFL team, Boyle said his experience being at the Steelers’ training camp has given him “a total new respect for how hard these guys work and the type of sacrifices they’ve been willing to make to be able to hone their skills and their bodies to be able to get up to that type of level of competition.”

Boyle said being involved this week as a volunteer assistant coach for the Broncos’ varsity high school football team has included working with the offensive and defensive lines to free up his older brother, Jay, Falls’ head coach, to work with some other positions.

“It gives him the freedom that he usually doesn’t have during two-a-days to work with some other positions during the week.” he said.

In the event another NFL team doesn’t call by the end of the week, Boyle, who majored in economics and political science at UND, said an opportunity in politics has emerged for him to help arrange visits made throughout the country by Vice President Joe Biden.