Streibich has record day on college field
Jack Streibich rises up for one of his 13 catches against Illinois College earlier this month. Streibich's 13 catches tied the school record for most in a game. (Photo courtesy of Allison Hodges)
Jack Streibich (Christopher Mitchell/SportShotPhoto.com)
Jack Streibich rises up for one of his 13 catches against Illinois College earlier this month. Streibich’s 13 catches tied the school record for most in a game. (Photo courtesy of Alison Hodges)
Former Whitefish Bulldog Jack Streibich is continuing his success on the college football gridiron with a recent record performance.
Streibich, a junior wide receiver at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently finished the final game of the season with 13 receptions, tying the school record for most receptions in a game. Macalester is a Division III program.
“I just felt a little extra motivation, given that it was our last game of the season and things weren’t going well for us,” Streibich said on the phone from St. Paul. “I wasn’t doing anything different, but the circumstances were perfect for me to get a lot of catches.”
Macalester lost that game to Illinois College 32-27 to finish its season 5-5. Streibich completed the season with 43 receptions for 503 yards and 5 touchdowns.
“It was a tough game,” he recalled. “We got off to a slow start, and we were just coming off two losses the two weeks before, so tensions were kind of high, there was a lot of built up stress.”
That final performance raised expectations for Streibich and his fellow receivers heading into next season, he said. The week before, another Macalester receiver set the 13-catch record that Streibich tied.
“Expectations, not only for me but for my position group are really high. We think our receiving corps is a really talented bunch,” he said.
Streibich graduated from Whitefish High School in 2015. In his final season with the Bulldogs he racked up 48 catches for 869 total yards, including 13 touchdowns and was named first team All-State as wide receiver and first team All-Conference.
He also earned All-State academic honors three times while at Whitefish.
Streibich made the decision to go to Macalester after a late recruiting push.
“They actually recruited me really late in the process,” he said. “I’d kind of decided I didn’t want to play football and they contacted me around February, which is really late. The transition was shockingly smooth, I always thought it would be a little rougher, that I’d be homesick. I immediately loved it here, I fit right in with the team. It was a super welcoming bunch.”
However, the transition from Bulldog football to the college level was a little more difficult. Streibich has started at wide receiver since his sophomore year of college, but he recalls coming in as a freshmen to be a big learning experience.
“It was kind of tough going from playing a ton senior year in high school to not playing at all as a freshman,” he said. “That was difficult, you always have high expectations. Being on a team with 80 guys, there’s always a position battle and there’s even a position battle from third string to second string — it’s not like you can beat two guys to make your way up. You’re constantly fighting to make your way up the depth chart, I totally wasn’t used to that.”
Streibich is studying anthropology and economics at the university and is on track to graduate in four years, he said. This spring he’s planning on studying abroad in Capetown, South Africa, which he thinks is going to be an important experience for deciding on what he’s going to do following graduation.
Graduate school or a career in market research could be in his future, he said, but time will tell what path he’ll take.
Whether he’s in St. Paul or South Africa, a part of him always misses the mountains of Montana back home.
“I make it back whenever I have a break, this summer is kind of the first summer that I didn’t spend the whole time back in Whitefish, which was good for me but I always miss it,” he said. “It’s such a great place to live, it’s so much fun.”