Cal Football: From SoCal to Utah to Berkeley, WR Trond Grizzell Finding His Way
Cal redshirt sophomore wide receiver Trond Grizzell is right where he wants to be.
“I wanted to go to Cal the whole time,” Grizzell explained. “I’m very happy being here. Very excited about the season, very excited about the school.”
A recruited walk-on, Grizzell has made steady improvement since last spring and though the first two weeks of fall camp. He caught three passes for 44 yards and a touchdown in Cal’s first full scrimmage on Sunday, drawing praise afterward from coach Justin Wilcox, who talks about him and fellow receiver Jordan King in the video above.
Trond Grizzell (83) works against defensive back Tyson McWilliams.
Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
His real story is the path Grizzell took to get here.
“I know it wasn’t my ideal route, but it got me to where I wanted to be,” he said.
Grizzell played three years of football at San Marino High School in Los Angeles County. Then COVID arrived in the spring of his junior year in 2020.
“My dad started to realize that California with COVID really wasn’t going to play football,” he said. “I hadn’t really had much recruiting so we looked out at other places.”
A friend of his father had moved his family to Park City, Utah, where his son thrived on the football team.
Trond’s parents wanted to eventually live in the mountains, anyway, and owned a home in Telluride, Colorado. But Telluride High School has an enrollment of barely 250 students and does not field a football team.
So the family of five ventured to Park City to explore what the home of the 2002 Winter Olympics had to offer. Trond worked out with the football team one day, and three weeks later — just after the Fourth of July — they made the move.
Tim Grizzell works in real estate and has maintained his business in Southern California, commuting back and forth on occasion.
“It was really nice, but it was a lot different,’ Trond Grizzell said of the change. “I didn’t really want to move — I wanted to play my senior year with all my friends in Southern California. But I just had to take advantage of the opportunity.”
He adapted quickly after relocating from just 21 miles off the beaches of the Pacific Ocean to the tiny enclave in the Wasatch Mountains, located 45 minutes from Salt Lake City but 7,000 feet above sea level with 95 inches of annual snowfall and an average January low temperature of 13 degrees.
Grizzell took classes remotely his senior year, which gave him unexpected free time. “I could get my classes out of the way and ski the rest of the day,” he said. “It was really fun.”
Football also worked out nicely. As expected, his teammates at San Marino had their fall season canceled, ultimately getting a four-game schedule in March and April. But Grizzell played on a Class 4A team that went 9-3 and reached the second round of the state playoffs.
He had eight catches for 217 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Mountain View and caught a game-winning 29-yard TD on the final play of the game to beat Stansbury.
On the way to catching 36 passes for 660 yards and nine touchdowns for the season, Grizzell began to attract attention from college programs, including BYU, Yale, Air Force, Northern Arizona and SMU.
Cal receivers coach Burl Toler III reached out late in the season, and Grizzell didn’t need much prompting. “I knew if he offered me as a walk-on, I’d come in.”
Three years later, his parents still live in Park City. “It was a pretty big sacrifice,” he said of the move that helped bring him to Cal. "But they love it there.”
Trond Grizzell reaches high to make a catch.
Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Grizzell has yet to catch a pass in a game for the Bears, but he is learning to use his 6-foot-4 height to his advantage.
“I’d say my strength is my catch radius and my ability to catch every ball. That’s my goal — to catch every ball thrown toward me,” he said.
The Bears have a crowded receivers room with good talent, but Grizzell is gradually finding his way.
“I feel good about it but I can’t get complacent,” he said. “Everyone’s good. Everyone’s fighting for a spot. Just got to keep working hard, try to improve where I’m at.”
*** Grizzell was named Trond after a close friend his father made while serving in the military. The “d” at the end of his name is silent, so it’s pronounced “Tron.”
“My dad was a Navy Seal working overseas in Norway,’ Grizzell said. “Trond is a Norwegian name. I’m not Norwegian. It was someone in the Norwegian navy, a good friend, and my dad really liked the name. I've never met another Trond."
Cover photo of Trond Grizzell by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
