NEENAH (NBC 26) — After a standout high school career at Neenah, where he earned first-team all-state honors and was named Fox Valley Association Conference Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, Grant Dean is preparing for his first season as a Wisconsin Badger.
Dean rushed for 3,400 yards and scored 44 touchdowns during his time at Neenah.
After early enrolling for the spring semester, he says he is already feeling confident heading into year one.
“It was definitely a good decision for me because now we're in the summer, and we just had our first OTA practice today and I mean I feel like I know what I'm doing, most of the time at least,” Dean said.
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Dean finished high school on a Thursday and started college classes the following Monday.
He said understanding the playbook and managing his time were his biggest challenges, but the team helped ease the transition.
“As an early enroll freshman, you're kinda walking with your tail in between your legs, but, no, I think it the transition in the locker room was really easy, but the the workouts were definitely pretty hard compared to high school,” Dean said.
During the spring semester, Dean tried to absorb as much as he could from the upperclassmen. He attended Pro Day, where he watched fellow safety and Wisconsin native Hunter Wohler work out before being drafted by the Colts.
Dean said connecting with Wohler was a full-circle moment.
“I looked up to Hunter when I was freshman high school. One of my coaches said if you wanna be good, you gotta get like this guy. So he showed me his film, and I kind of watched a lot of his stuff,” Dean said.
Now that the season is just over a month away, Dean said he is ready for gameday at Camp Randall.
“I'm definitely looking forward to my first Jump Around. That'll be pretty cool. And running out of the tunnel just in front of the whole stadium, that'll be memorable for sure,” he said.
Dean added that he has already talked with Badger teammate and fellow Neenah graduate Matt Jung about attending a Rockets game this fall.
