After one of the best seasons in state history, can West De Pere's Patrick Greisen top it?

DE PERE – Patrick Greisen is coming off one of the best seasons for any high school quarterback in state history.

The West De Pere senior threw for the third-most passing yards and touchdowns in a single season with 3,846 yards and 49 TDs, behind only Cedar Grove-Belguim’s Josh Weiss (4,231 yards and 59 TDs in 2016) and Appleton Xavier’s Matt Ferris (3,947 and 50 in 2013).

There’s more.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Greisen became one of only nine quarterbacks to throw for at least eight TDs in a game, just missing out on tying the record of nine set by Wittenberg-Birnamwood's Ben Wesolowski in 2021 and matched by Westosha Central’s Brock Koeppel in 2023.

There are 23 games in state history in which a quarterback has thrown for 500 or more yards, and Greisen has done it twice after he had 534 yards against Oshkosh North in the first round of the WIAA Division 2 playoffs and 512 the following week at Sun Prairie East.

He enters this season with 4,126 career yards and 53 TDs and needs 3,382 yards to break former Ashwaubenon star James Morgan’s Green Bay metro record of 7,507 from 2012 to 2014.

Greisen needs 18 TDs to pass Morgan for first on the all-time metro list.

Kewaunee’s Lee Waechter has the most passing yards of any local player with 8,238 from 2000 to 2002 and is tied with Morgan with 70 TDs.

The scary part? Apparently, you haven’t seen anything yet.

“Patrick got better,” said West De Pere coach Chris Greisen, who is Patrick’s father. “As good as he was last year, he’s a whole lot better this year.”

Not just on the field, but away from it.

“He’s grabbing the receivers, he’s bringing them over to our house,” Chris said. “They are talking, they are watching film, they are communicating. He’s telling him what he sees and what to do and how to react and where he is going to throw the ball. I mean, that’s the stuff that high school quarterbacks usually don’t do. He’s doing a nice job.”

West De Pere took a hit with the graduation of most of Patrick’s top targets last season.

Gone is Brock Story, who ranked first in the state with 1,300 receiving yards, tied for first with 15 TDs and was third with 74 receptions.

Sam Suda had 36 catches for 532 yards and five scores. Ben Lemirand, who won the Division 1 state track and field title in the 100-meter dash this spring, had 34 receptions for 729 yards and 11 TDs.

West De Pere even lost its top running back, Evan Ott, who had 1,094 rushing yards and added 31 receptions for 281 yards.

Not everybody is gone.

The Phantoms still have a No. 1 wideout in senior Judeah Kniskern (57 receptions, 834 yards, 10 TDs), who recently announced his verbal commitment to play at the University of Sioux Falls.

There is a good chance a few others will step up and make a name for themselves in a Chris Greisen system that often is quite friendly to offensive players.

But it sure helps to have arguably the state’s best high school QB slinging it.

“You know, for me, last year was a learning experience,” Patrick said. “Now that I know what it’s like, I can now teach and lead my other teammates.”

Patrick Greisen secures his collegiate future

There never was much question Patrick would play at the collegiate level, it was just where he would end up.

He made that decision earlier this summer when he picked NCAA Division I South Dakota over other schools such as Illinois State and North Dakota State.

Patrick did one division better than his old man, who was a star at DII Northwest Missouri State University before being drafted in the seventh round by the Arizona Cardinals in 1999.

South Dakota went 11-3 in 2024 and has gone a combined 21-6 the last two seasons.

The Coyotes have a new head coach in Travis Johansen, who was the team’s defensive coordinator since 2019 and the associate head coach the last three years.

Making a college decision has taken some weight off Patrick’s shoulders entering his final prep season. It’s one big thing to not have to worry about or focus on.

“Their culture was a winning culture, and they wanted to win a championship, and they believed they could,” Patrick said about South Dakota. “Just the coaches and the facilities there had everything they needed to make me a great player.”

One school not on the list was the University of Wisconsin.

Badgers assistant linebackers coach Tuf Borland stopped by West De Pere in January and Patrick visited Wisconsin in April and spoke with the staff.   

In the end, an offer was never made despite whatever level of interest the Badgers had for a kid in their own backyard.

“I think he is the best quarterback in the state,” Chris said. “I say that as a coach, not as a dad. You can see it statistically. Some of the throws he made last year. You know, Wisconsin evaluates on their own. If they felt he wasn’t Division I, maybe because he runs a bad 40-time, if that’s how you are recruiting. … I was told when I was coming out as a senior (at Sturgeon Bay) I wasn’t good enough to play. I had a Division II school tell me I couldn’t play at that level.

“Everyone has different opinions. He’s a Division I quarterback. The throws we see every day, it’s like, ‘Holy, man.’ The reads he makes. The processing he does.”

Patrick has no problem proving any remaining doubters wrong. It might just give him a little extra motivation.

“I like to put a little chip on my shoulder,” he said. “You always have to have a little chip on your shoulder to push you when you are lazy and tired. You have got to get up and have some fire.

“So, yeah, that definitely pushes me to get better. I try to be to practice before everyone else and get a bunch of throws in before practice. Just being better than my other competition.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: West De Pere quarterback Patrick Greisen ready to build on prolific season