Meet-A-Bison: Matt Veldman

Following a National Championship, a Missouri Valley Football Conference Championship and many awards, the NDSU football season is over, and the seniors who have dedicated five years of their lives to the school are moving on. One of those seniors is former tight end and National Champion Matt Veldman.

"My hometown is Becker, Minn.," Veldman stated. "[NDSU] is really a rich football tradition. It's a football town and that's how my high school was growing up."

Matt wasn't a stranger to Fargo when he came here, which made the transition for him a little bit easier. "I have family up here too, my grandma and my uncle live up here, and my brother lives up her now too," Veldman mentioned of his Fargo familiarity. "I've been coming up here my whole life, really a comfortable fit in the community."

Veldman already has his degree, but has been recently working on his master's degree and a minor in Agricultural Economics. "I grew up in a small town, maybe about 3,500 people," Veldman said of his agriculture background. "I lived in town, but there were potato farms and stuff around."

Veldman hasn't always called the Midwest home, however. Before moving to Minnesota and North Dakota, he called home to a few other cities.

"I was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., that's technically my hometown," Veldman said. "I lived there, and then I lived in Cincinnati for a little bit then I moved to the cities and I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis. I went to Wayzata, a public school, through seventh grade."

Transition from city to city wasn't difficult for Matt. As he stated, he had seen the cities and experienced that life. "I was used to the city," Veldman added. "We grew up going to all the [Minnesota] Gopher games, I've been to Minneapolis a ton of times, so I was used to all that."

Like any college student, and especially student-athletes, there is always some sort of difference that a person will find when they leave home. Matt was no exception. "The biggest change coming from Becker to Fargo would be just being on my own. I wasn't with my parents; I wasn't with people I knew. It was kind of a fresh start I guess."

Veldman never failed to mention the people that have helped him throughout his time at North Dakota State. Coming to college in a new city has potential to be difficult, but being on a team with friends going through the same thing never makes it any harder.

"It made the transition easier, but whenever you have a group of people sacrificing for the same thing it makes everything easier," Veldman said. "That's what we did for five years. Put everything aside that you want to do, and knowing that I'm sacrificing along with everyone else for something else, it's so much easier to do that than if you're on your own."

Matt is pursuing a long-time football dream of his at the moment, but he realizes that he can't play football forever and has other dreams -- big dreams -- to run down. "I want to work for a Fortune 500 company," Veldman said with a smile. "Preferably out of the cities, but honestly I'd really like to work overseas. Europe or anywhere like that would definitely be my dream job."

It wouldn't be the first time that Veldman has traveled abroad, so some familiarity would be there for him. "I went to Italy with my family my senior year of high school," Matt said. "We went to Rome and a smaller town south of Rome. This last spring break I went on a trip through the school, and we went to Berlin, Krakow, Poland and Luda fest."

The future is wide open for Matt in terms of the rest of his life, but for now, it's time for him to chase down his biggest dream, a dream that he's had since he was a small child: Play in the NFL. Recently signing with an agent, Veldman will be heading to Indianapolis to prepare for the combine and to start the next chapter in his life.