2024 NFL Draft: Hometown excited for Napa-born prospect Brock Bowers

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- From the town of reds and whites, a man who wears red and black is putting Napa on the map in a new way. Napa High School grad Brock Bowers is the top tight end prospect and a first-round lock in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The Las Vegas Raiders selected Bowers with the No. 13 pick in the draft, making him the highest player selected in the school's history.

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"This is something I've seen coming for a long time," Bowers' former high school coach Richie Wessman said. "I'm just excited to see where he's actually going to land. You can't help but root for him when you meet him as a young man. He's just such a good young man, raised in a good family and he just has all those good attributes that you want in somebody."

Bowers had the pedigree because he comes from a family of college athletes.

Coach Wessman saw Bowers was special the first time he touched the ball.

"We threw him a little bubble screen and he stiff-armed somebody, spun around someone else, juked out someone else and outran everyone to the endzone," Wessman said. "And at that moment, I kind of knew this guy was going to play in the NFL someday."

But the path to the pros had its bumps.

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The team didn't win a single game his sophomore season and his senior year was cut short by COVID.

His luck changed when he graduated high school early to join the Georgia Bulldogs.

In Athens, he won two national championships and became the only player to win back-to-back Mackey awards, which honors the nation's top tight end.

"He's just a champion through and through with his character and whatnot," Wessman said. "He just excels in the classroom, he excels in handling himself in the right way - not getting into any trouble. He's just a dream to coach, really."

As good as he is on the field, his high school athletic director Darci Ward says he's a winner off the field as well.

Even the day before his life changes forever at the draft, Bowers was back at his alma mater spending time with the winner of the Train with Brock Fuel with MET-Rx contest.

"It was a really awesome experience," Ward said. "But it just shows Brock, not about him, he's just out there talking to the kid and making sure that he gets to have a great moment."

During the draft, Bowers will have a special moment of his own. He is celebrating privately with his family in Napa.

The school, meanwhile, is hosting its own draft party because his former teachers, coaches and this town couldn't be more proud.

"I think people are going to go nuts," Ward said. "We're just so happy and excited for him. I knew he was going to be something, you just never know how amazing."

For an athlete and a community, sometimes dreams come true.

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