Lineman got a shot and led Endicott football to tremendous season: Lester made the most of his opportunity

When Justyn Lester was a junior on the Endicott College football team, he was just trying to crack the lineup. 

Competing for a spot on Endicott’s dominant offensive line, Lester went the first three games of his 2021-22 campaign watching his teammates on the sidelines. When a spot became available due to injury, Lester pounced on the opportunity and never looked back.

“I was floating around during camp all the time as the sixth lineman,” Lester recalled. “Me and this other player were battling for that sixth lineman spot, and we’d sit on the sideline the entire game and just watch and be like ‘wow, we want to get out there.’ The opportunity finally came, and I knew I couldn’t let go of it.”

The rest is history — Lester earned consecutive All-CCC selections in his junior and senior years before being crowned the CCC Offensive Lineman of the Year this fall in his final season of athletic eligibility.

“Me earning offensive lineman of the year doesn’t really show how great of an offensive line we were,” Lester admitted. “I played next to those guys for three straight years, and we really got to know each other. There’s some plays where we don’t even have to say anything, we just go. We have the communication down, and being next to those guys really made it that much easier.”

Lester is right.

The Gulls offensive front ranked ninth in NCAA Div. 3 football for sacks allowed per game at 0.64 and 21st for rushing yards at 214.5 per game. In conference play this season, Lester did not allow one sack. Lester was also named to the All-New England team along with his CCC recognition.

Lester, an alumnus of the Tewksbury High School football team, arrived at Endicott as a freshman not knowing what to expect.

“I didn’t really know what to expect coming in,” he said. “Coming in and meeting new people, learning new plays, and meeting new coaches (was different).”

However, it didn’t take long for Lester to fit right in, asserting himself to a growing culture in the Endicott locker room.

“The culture was just starting to develop,” he remembered. “People would miss meetings and stuff like that, and we kind of took it to the next level throughout my five years of being here. Us as a team, we’ve really developed and showed the will to want to be here compared to previous years.”

While buying into the culture, Lester was also buying into himself heading into his final year of eligibility for the Gulls.

“I had a little more self-confidence,” said Lester. “Seeing myself from past years, knowing I could elevate my game for one last year and seeing what I could really do.”

Standing at 6-foot-2 and 275 pounds, Lester is a force to be reckoned with on the Endicott offensive line.

“For a big player, he’s very flexible and he’s physical,” said Endicott coach Paul McGonagle. “He can change direction pretty well so I think that’s his biggest asset. The way our scheme is built, he can redirect well.”

Being an offensive lineman, the spotlight isn’t always shining on you. That didn’t matter to Lester, showing up every day and making a substantial impact in the trenches.

“I don’t think Justin ever missed a practice, and he’s not going to get the notoriety of a receiver or a quarterback, but you win or lose games up front and we’ve been fortunate (to have him),” said McGonagle.

With Lester's help, the Gulls knocked off No. 5 Hardin-Simmons in September in the program’s first win over a nationally ranked opponent. 

“It was definitely one of the bigger wins of my career,” said Lester. “We wanted to come away with more wins than that, but we came into that game knowing they were going to underestimate us. We weren’t ranked at the time, but we knew if we executed and listened to our coaches the entire time, we were fine.”