Napa High’s Bowers and Giguiere make it official, sign letters of intent to play NCAA Division 1 football
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Signing a National Letter of Intent is always a great day for an athlete.
On Wednesday afternoon, Brock Bowers and Jack Giguiere made it official that they would both be NCAA Division 1 student-athletes.
The moment is even more special due to the fact that Bowers and Giguiere are close friends.
“It’s just really cool,” Bowers, a four-star recruit explained. “Ever since freshman year, we’ve been together. We’ve been playing basketball and everything for a while.”
“It means everything,” Giguiere added. “I’ve been best friends with him since seventh grade. We’ve been playing together. It’s pretty crazy that we got to go through the whole college decision together and we’ve gone through all of our high school careers together. It’s cool that we got this time together, too.”
Both have also carried grade point averages over 4.0 in the stint at Napa High. Both also played for North Bay Basketball Academy and KT Prep, a 7-on-7 team.
Brock Bowers
Bowers will be heading to the University of Georgia in Athens where he will have to decide what he wants to major in since he’s undecided. He will also be enrolling in courses at Georgia beginning in the upcoming spring semester.
Over the last few seasons, the Bulldogs have been one of the most competitive teams in the toughest conference in the country – the Southeastern Conference. In 2019, Georgia went 12-2 and finished runner-up behind the eventual College Football Playoff National Champion LSU. They went on to win the Allstate Sugar Bowl 22-17 over Baylor on January 1st.
In 2018, they went 11-3 and once again played in the SEC championship game. In that game, they lost 35-28 against Alabama. Despite the loss, they still made it to the Allstate Sugar Bowl that they lost 28-21 against Texas.
The best season over the last few years came in 2017. The Bulldogs won the SEC and made it to the College Football Playoff Championship game after beating Oklahoma in one of the best Rose Bowl Games in recent memory by a score of 54-48 in two overtimes. In the CFP National Championship, they lost to Alabama 26-23 in overtime.
This season, they went 7-2 and are the eighth-ranked team in the CFP’s rankings as of Tuesday.
There’s no doubt that Bowers is heading to one of the top programs in the country. He’s also a piece of the third-ranked recruiting class in the NCAA according to ESPN.
“I’m just really excited to get out there and compete against the best and play with the best,” Bowers said. “That’s just what I’m looking for right now and to see what I can do.”
In his time on the football field, Bowers has been the top player in the league. Last season, he was the VVAL MVP. Bowers had 39 receptions for 1,098 yards and 14 touchdowns. His longest touchdown was a 90-yarder. He also averaged 122 yards receiving per game. On top of that, he carried the ball 22 times for 316 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Bowers was also selected to the All-American Bowl that is normally nationally televised on NBC in January. Only the nation’s top 100 players receive the honor to play in the All-American Bowl that takes place in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Overall, the All-America Bowl has had a total of 450 players drafted to the National Football League, with 100 of them being first-round picks. He’s also been ranked as the No. 2 among all tight ends in the nation.
During his time at Napa High, Bowers has been a two-sport athlete playing football and basketball.
In the inaugural year of the Vine Valley Athletic League, Napa won the title in boys basketball. That season, they went 23-6 and had a 12-0 VVAL record. He was first-team All-VVAL that season as well.
Bowers isn’t alone as far as being an NCAA Division 1 athlete either. Both of his parents were athletes when they attended Utah State. His father, Warren, played football and his mother, DeAnna, was a pitcher on the softball team. Then there’s his older sister, Brianna, who is entering her sophomore softball season at Sacramento State in the spring and is a 2018 Napa High graduate.
“It’s cool,” Bowers explained. “My parents did a good job for me and my sister and it all worked out.”
Jack Giguiere
Giguiere is off to the University of San Diego. He is currently undecided as to what he plans to study at USD. He will also play tight end.
Napa High football has a good amount of history sending some of its players to USD. From 2009 to 2013, Michael Ruffino played there, and then from 2013 to 2017, Miles McArdle also played there.
“It means everything to continue the tradition and just show what Napa High football can do,” Giguiere said of being yet another Napa player to play at USD. “A lot of people doubted the football team through our 0-10 sophomore year and to be able to turn it around like we did last year. It just means a lot.”
The University of San Diego has been one of the most successful programs in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision over the last five years. The program had gone 64-19 in that time under head coach Dale Lindsey. The Tritons have won the Pioneer Football League title outright in each of the last four seasons, with a tie in 2015. In each of those seasons, they went 8-0 in the PFL and have played in the FCS playoffs. The furthest they made it over that time was the second round of the FCS playoffs.
“I’m excited about it,” Giguiere said. “Just to be able to go to a winning atmosphere and just have coaches that you can trust and know what they’re doing.”
USD will be playing their 2020 season in the spring of 2021, but Giguiere won’t take part in the team’s spring activity. He’ll graduate in the summer and then head down to San Diego over the summer.
Over his time at Napa, Giguiere has also been a multisport athlete. Besides football, he’s also played basketball for three years.
