Six years ago, football wasn’t the be-all, end-all for Steven Pfahler. He could take it or leave it.

Now, as he and his fellow Montana Grizzlies prepare for an FCS playoff game against South Dakota State, the game is different for Pfahler.

“I didn’t really like football,” the senior tight end says of his high school days. “I loved my coach – Coach (Tim) Racicot was just awesome – but I was planning on throwing the javelin from basically sophomore year on.”

Long Beach State was calling about track and field, and football was on the back burner. But by the time Pfahler had hauled in 24 career touchdown passes at Frenchtown High, the Griz were on the trail along with Washington State and some other schools.

Upheaval on the coaching staff at Long Beach State helped steer Pfahler more toward Missoula. He was told he’d have to put on pounds to play tight end in college, and that hard work was in store.

Steven took some convincing. But then, like his smokejumper brother Sam, he leaped in with both feet.

Not that football is his whole life; far from it. With 14 credits this semester and a goal to graduate in four years this coming spring, school pretty much takes up all of his time.

The Sprinturf on the floor of Washington-Grizzly Stadium is where he gets away.

“This year and last year were just, I don’t know, it’s been a lot of stress,” says Pfahler, who has 20 catches for 270 yards and three touchdowns for the 11-0 Griz. “I’ve been trying to enjoy my senior year, but school and other things have brought stress.

“Coming to football practice is what’s gotten me through this semester. It gets me through the day.”

 

Jean Ann Pfahler met her husband Tim when they both were in Big Timber: She graduated from Sweet Grass High School, Griz coach Bobby Hauck’s alma mater, in 1970; her English teacher was the late Bob Hauck, Bobby’s father.

Tim Pfahler worked the family ranch. His stint in the Navy and Jean Ann’s nomadic college education – UM, then Montana State, then dental hygiene school in Sheridan, Wyo. – kept them apart for a time.

Now they have raised three boys: Sam, Scott – he played basketball at Montana Tech and is an engineer – and Steven. They seem to be three peas in a pod. They get after it, whether its hunting or fishing or picking up a blitz or ... roping?

The Pfahlers lived in Big Timber for a time, and then moved to Helena, where the neighbors down the road were the Tryans. By the time the family moved to Frenchtown when Steven was in third grade, the youngest boy was roping with Chase Tryan, who now competes in rodeo for Montana State. Almost needless to say, Steven was good at it.

“I’m thinking if we’d stayed there, we’d be spending $50,000 on a dogging horse, something like that,” said Tim Pfahler.

In Frenchtown, Steven picked up a javelin and started throwing it over 200 feet. He picked up a basketball and helped the Broncs into the State A championship game. And now he’s had the rare effect of changing the Pfahler fall itinerary.

“We were more of a hunting family before,” Jean Ann said. “Now he’s pretty much turned everybody’s life around. Not too much hunting, now.”

On Saturday the Pfahlers will band together to watch the Griz take on the Jackrabbits. Sam’s young daughter Lucy will be there.

“We’ll ask, ‘Where’s Uncle Steve?’ ” Jean Ann says. “And she’ll point out at the field.”

There, big No. 88 could be showing off his excellent hands or sealing a linebacker, helping the Griz win yet another game. Pfahler is among 19 seniors on Montana who’ve won 48 of 53 games in their careers.

“It’s just fun to have him here, fun to have him with the Griz,” says his mom, who along with Tim thought UM football was the perfect fit. “I don’t think he had any idea how much he was going to love it.”

 Pfahler weighed around 195 when his senior basketball season ended at Frenchtown. That he weighed 240 pounds six months later, when the Griz opened their 2006 season at Iowa, is nothing short of remarkable.

Not that he ever wants to go through that process again.

“Eating was just a job,” Pfahler said. “My summer was miserable. I basically wanted to throw up the whole time.”

“‘I told him I thought he’d look good at 240,” says Jean Ann, but 240 wasn’t even a rest stop. He kept gaining through the season, until he weighed 265 heading into his first winter conditioning. In a bit of irony, the teammate the Griz call “Beef” – linebacker Shawn Lebsock – started harping on him. Pfahler now stays in the 245-250 range.

It was like everything else he’s done: He sets a goal and gets after it.

“He’s got a plan and he doesn’t stray too far from it,” says his mom. “I’m not sure where he gets it; I don’t know that either one of us are that driven.”

To graduate in four years in exercise science is pretty rare for a football player. His life, not surprisingly, consists of class, practice, film, study, sleep, repeat. With a lot of carbs thrown in.

“These guys are all busy,” Hauck says. “They’ve got school, they’ve got weightlifting, they’ve got treatment, they’ve got practice and they’ve got studying.

“But he’s always been a real focused kid. He was unbelievable in that regard out of high school. He didn’t have to learn how to manage his time. Which is unusual.”

His work in the weight room has also been singular. Hauck would like to ban the term, “over-training,” but Pfahler tends to bring it back into the vernacular.

“It applies to him,” Hauck said. “You have to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t overdo it.”

 

Only one thing has slowed Pfahler, and that was a bout with the H1N1 virus in early November. He was for once inert, while around him was a flurry of anti-bacterial wipe-downs and roommate quarantines (quarterback Andrew Selle was quickly, and temporarily, relocated).

“My mom,” he says. “She was just in there every night cooking for me. Two or three trips from Frenchtown to Missoula a day. I just hung out in my chair and didn’t move.”

It gave him time to think, perhaps. His only stated regret about his career at UM is the lack of family time. If he had more time, he says, he’d have learned to fly a helicopter: Tim is a “retired” inspector pilot. If he could, he’d spend more time with his brothers and their kids.

“I’m kind of spoiled,” he adds. “My dad would do anything for me, and he just loves the football, and loves trying to be part of everything. I’ve got it pretty good.”

By extension, so do the Griz. They struggled mightily in Pfahler’s absence at Idaho State, needing a last-second field goal to beat the then-winless Bengals. Call it coincidence if you like.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that exciting of a game,” he said with a laugh. “But I just really wished I could’ve been there with the team, celebrating.”

All this from a guy who didn’t care for football, and whose first experience with a Griz-Cat game came in 2006 – when he played in it.

Now he’s been in four of them, all wins. He’s built friendships with the Palmer twins, and Lebsock, and Selle.

“The team joke is we’re Tony Romo and Jason Whitten,” said Pfahler of his QB housemate. “I don’t know what that’s about.”

Then came a sobering thought.

“We had our senior banquet the other day, and yesterday we had our team banquet,” he said Monday. “If you have four more games or one more game, it’s coming to an end pretty quick.”

What will he do? Study some more, perhaps. Train for a possible shot in the NFL. “If I stay healthy and things go right, we’ll see what happens,” Pfahler says.

The trick is to enjoy the moment, even if it’s 7-on-7 or “inside zone.” He’s done that. And then soon it’ll be Saturday, the day Pfahler loves the most.

“It never gets old, running out of the tunnel,” he says. “It actually gets better and better, every time.”

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 523-5247 or at fneighbor@missoulian.com.