FARGO – North Dakota State men’s basketball player Joshua Streit has forged a path for the past two seasons as a hard-working, do-it-all player on the court whose worth often doesn’t show up in the stats. After all, hustle games are hard to measure.
These are some of the same qualities used by his older brother, Jacob Streit, with the Bison football program.
“Same thing,” said NDSU football coach Matt Entz. “It’s all these intangibles that sometimes you can’t train, and you don’t find enough kids who are intrinsically motivated to get better every day.”
Whether Jacob Streit will see the field full-time in his second spring football following his move from Division II Northern State (SD) next fall remains to be seen, but it’s also not impacting his veteran 6-foot-4, 245-pound presence .
Bison-returning senior starter Joe Stoffel was close, but after that only sophomore Finn Diggins had a snag on the position, and that was a reception. This is followed by sophomore Carson Williams and four redshirt freshmen: Kelby Azure, Kaden Zenzen, Luke Kokat, and Nate Forystek.
North Dakota State tight end Jacob Streit performs drills during practice at the Nodak Insurance Football Performance Complex on Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
David Samson/The Forum
NDSU lost its first two tight ends to injuries to Noah Gindorff and Hunter Luepke last year before the end of the season, although Luepke was certainly valuable as a fullback and running back as well.
Having a team full of competitors is nothing new for the Streits, who grew up in a house with four brothers.
“It’s just how you grow up hitting each other, loving each other, and hitting each other,” Jacob said. “It’s just going back and forth.”
Joshua Streit of North Dakota blocks the shot from Trenton Massner of western Illinois Saturday, February 25, 2023 at the Sanford Health Athletic Complex at the Scheels Center in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
What he’s been doing since he got here. At Northern, he started 2018 as a true freshman in all 11 games and was second on the team when he rushed for 689 yards, including six touchdowns. He missed the following year with an injury and the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His junior year 2021 wasn’t as prolific as 18 with 11 receptions for 105 yards and three touchdowns.
Streit climbed the ranks after graduating from Northern and sought graduate school elsewhere. He entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal to see which schools had the combination of wanting him and his particular academic interest.
The NDSU and its well-known agricultural program have come forward. He is pursuing a degree in agribusiness. It made it easier for the Bison football coaches to know about his brother and what he brings to the basketball program.
“We knew his background and felt he would come and enrich our team,” said Entz. “And he has. You can tell he’s been here a year now, just like anyone who’s been here a full year.”
Of course, having his second brother on the basketball program helped.
“Sure, just a built-in best friend,” Jacob said. “I only had to drive five minutes to see him play, so it definitely played a role. He and I are quite close, so it was great to have him here.”
What Jacob saw in his brother was a player willing to do the little things on the pitch that sometimes go unnoticed by most people except for teammates and coaches. Things like boxing and rebounds or keeping a loose ball alive.
“He’s pretty tough,” Jacob said. “He knew his role and did what he had to do.”
This spring, he takes that advice to heart.
“Head down, play physical and hard and everything else will take care of itself,” said Streit. “I think everyone is doing a great job here. That’s the culture here, so I just embraced it.”
Jeff wants to dispel the notion that he was there when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he’s been reporting at Forum Communications in his third decade. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and brother to a reporter, Jeff has worked for the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and, since 1990, The Forum, where he has covered North Dakota athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national soccer titles and has written three books: Horns Up, North Dakota Tough, and Covid Kids. He is the radio host of The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack from April to August.
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