MSU-N Game Day Feature: Farming to Football and then back to the Farm

While many Montana State University-Northern Lights fans know Justin Pfiefer as a defensive lineman for the football team, that's just one side of the star senior.

What they might not know about is his passion for farming. Pfeifer grew up on a farm in Cut Bank and when he came to Havre to play football for MSU-N, he majored in agriculture. Once he completes his degree at Northern,, he will move back to Cut Bank to continue his passion and start a life as a farmer.

"I really love farming," Pfeifer said. "Cutting wheat I always thought was pretty cool. I've always been into combines and tractors and cutting wheat and doing that kind of stuff so that's a really big interest to me."

Pfeifer decided MSU-N was the best place to get an agricultural degree because he already had family in Havre. It was also only a two-hour drive from his home town, so Pfeifer was not too far away if help was needed on the farm.

Growing up, Pfeifer's experiences grew his love for farming. His father had a custom cutting crew and would take Pfeifer on his jobs. Over the years, Pfeifer traveled to other states such as Oklahoma and Nebraska.

"It was pretty interesting getting to go check all these places out as a little kid and experiencing something like that," Pfeifer said.

At MSU-N, Pfeifer just finished earning his bachelor's degree in agriculture. In addition to his major, Pfeifer learned some plumbing and welding. Pfeifer believed learning more about mechanics at MSU-N will be the most beneficial for him because he did not get to learn about truck engines when he was younger. He has also learned more about chemicals used for spraying, which he was in charge of at his farm growing up. With all that experience farming, Pfeifer believes it helped him in football.

"Growing up on a farm, you're doing a lot of labor and physical work and that all ties in with playing football and doing that kid of stuff," Pfeifer said. "You got to be a pretty strong guy to play football so that definitely helped me out a lot."

Pfeifer does love football, too. Over the past four years, he has made many friends such as former teammate Wylie Novak and current teammates Joe Fehr and Jake Horner. When he gets free time from football and school, Pfeifer will often spend time with them watching football or playing video games such as Madden and UFC games.

With this being his senior season, Pfeifer has continued to make memories. Pfeifer rooted for the Oregon Ducks growing up, so when the Lights played Southern Oregon University in the Ducks' stadium, it was an experience he will cherish forever.

But what he has enjoyed the most over the course of this season is working with MSU-N's new defensive coordinator Mike Van Diest. Back when Van Diest was still the head coach at Carroll College, Pfeifer visited when he was still a junior in high school and liked Van Diest based off his first impression. He was unable to play for Van Diest right out of high school but Pfeifer was thankful he got to work with the NAIA legend years later.

"I really enjoyed listening to him and I wanted to play for him but unfortunately academically and stuff like that it would have never worked out," Pfeifer said about his first impression of Van Diest. "It's weird years later on that I've been playing for him so it's cool."

Over the course of his senior season, the defensive tackle has recorded 25 total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss through seven games. Pfeifer only has four more games for the Lights before his career comes to an end. At the end of the semester, he will move back home to Cut Bank to begin his farming career. After the adversity he faced during his time playing football, he believes that learning to push through that will help him in his farming career.

"Sometimes things don't go your way. That's what I learned from playing football," Pfeifer said. "I've tried being a positive guy and looking to the bright spot so that's probably the one main thing I learned."