BOZEMAN — Balancing your schedule as a student-athlete is already hard enough, but one Montana State football player also has to add his clinicals into the mix.
A big part of what brought Logan Fredericksen to Bozeman was how the Bobcats made him feel during the recruitment process.
"Montana State was special to me," Fredericksen said. "It was an option that I had out of high school. They recruited people for who they were and not what they were. I was more than just an athlete, and I was really proud to belong to that group."
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2:20After playing in some games as a true freshman, an injury changed things for Fredericksen on the field.
The recovery process from that was especially impactful for the nursing major.
"I went down with an ACL (injury) my second year, and I noticed how big of a difference people make that care for you, especially in the healthcare field," Fredericksen said. "Unlike a lot of my peers in the program, I don't have any family that are nurses, so I never really understood what the profession was. But I've been fortunate enough to be around a lot of incredible people."
The path he's wanting to take isn't an easy one, but it's the one that's spoken to Fredericksen the most.
"My dream is to become a flight nurse," Fredericksen said. "They're some of the sharpest people that I've met. One of my neighbors was a chief flight nurse in the Air Force, and she was a big inspiration to me because of how she treated other people.
"I'm really passionate about caring for others," Fredericksen said. "I think that it's something that God put in my life for me. It's a gift of mine, and I just want to go forward and be fruitful in what I've been given. I think that's a big part of what I want to do after football."
The Bobcat coaching staff has been understanding of the demands of Fredericksen's schedule between football and nursing.
Bobcats coach Brent Vigen praised Fredericksen for his ability to balance both.
"You see it differently from one major to the next, the capabilities of how those things can be balanced," Vigen said. "I know that's one of the more challenging ones time wise to balance, and I think Logan has always had a very positive perspective. He's wanted both, he's not wanted to steer away from either."
His defensive line coach, Nick Jean-Baptiste, echoed this sentiment.
"That's the thing about him, how he does anything is how he does everything," Jean-Baptiste said. "I think he does a really good job of understanding that (he's) going to approach it just the same as (he) approaches football. And so I know he's tired, he's very, very busy, but he does a really good job of once he's between the lines, he's focused on football."
But before his full-time nursing journey begins, Fredericksen and the Bobcats will head to Greeley, Colo., on Saturday to take on the Northern Colorado at noon.