Whirlwind year continues for Lake Wales' Trent Grotjan as college career begins
It's been a whirlwind year for Lake Wales' Trent Grotjan.
In 2022 as the starting quarterback, he led the Highlanders to a 15-0 season and its first state football title in school history in Fort Lauderdale. He then was an all-county weightlifter and helped Lake Wales remain the county's best high school weightlifting team.
Thanks to a state title and having a stat line that included 30 touchdowns, 2,561 yards and a 60% complete percentage, he signed to Webber International to play football. Grotjan was also the The Ledger's Big School Offensive Player of the Year thanks to his county-leading 2,949 yards in total offense.
He's in the thick of things now for Webber.
"The transition from high school to college is really cool but it also is a bit stressful. Whether it's figuring out your class schedule, finding a place to live, creating a workout plan, making a schedule for training and trying to make some money as well is stressful," Grotjan said. "But it also feels really good to have made it into the small percentage of high school athletes that go on to play college football."
More: Lake Wales' Philipp Davis steadies ship as defense steps up when needed
Football camp hasn't started yet but the former multisport athlete said he's pulling out all the stops to play right away.
"My main focus in making the transition is just preparation," Grotjan said. "I want to show the coaches that I am ready to play immediately and that I'm dedicated to the team's success. ... I want to be able to get on the field as a freshman, whether it is playing quarterback or slot or even special teams. And another one of my goals is to get a conference championship."
But it's all about mini steps for the college football athlete at NAIA Webber. So far, there has been mini camps that include time to get all of player's class business in order. This is so that when the season starts, players don't need to worry about getting organized. Coaches have also been doling out workout plans as well.
These workout plans will be used for Grotjan to attain his other goal.
"The next steps for me would be to make sure I make it on the first team because I want to be able to report on Aug. 3, rather than later," Grotjan said. "In order to do that, I need to keep showing up to workouts and keep proving that I'm ready to go."
Webber last year finished the year at 6-4 ― the program's first winning season since 2018. The first game of the season will be Aug. 26 at St. Andrews.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Wales Trent Grotjan readies for Webber football
