Oakleys excellent adventure

Wide receiver Will Oakley, a Class 3A first team all-state selection from St. Augustine (Fla.) Nease High School, was on hand over the weekend as the University of Alabama hosted its biggest official visit weekend of the year.

On Monday, Oakley provided BOL senior editor Travis Reier with a complete rundown of his trip to Tuscaloosa.

Friday, January 16

2:30 p.m.: After school, I headed for the St. Augustine Airport. I had never been on a small, private jet before but I really liked the experience. It was like the rest of the visit-- they treated me very well. I got to the airport at 2:30 and I was on the (UA) jet at 2:40. We didn’t really waste any time. From there we flew to pick-up (Benoit, Ms. running back) Lavarus Giles and then it was only like a 30-minute flight back to Tuscaloosa. (UA graduate assistant) Coach (Jason) Jones picked us up at the Tuscaloosa Airport and took us to the hotel.

5:00 p.m.: We had some downtime once we got to the hotel. Everybody had their own rooms and the weekend itinerary, which included a list of activities and their exact times, was waiting on our beds when we got to our rooms.

6:30 p.m.: We attended a reception for the recruits and their families downstairs in one of the hotel’s banquet rooms. This is where I met my host for the weekend, Tim Castille. He’s a really funny guy and I enjoyed spending time with him.

7:15 p.m.: Right after the reception we had a buffet-style dinner. It was awesome. They had shrimp, roast beef, chicken breast and just about anything else you could want. Coach (Mike) Shula, Coach (Randy) Ross and Coach (Jeremiah) Castille each spoke and we mingled with all of the other coaches, players and recruits.

8:15 p.m.: After dinner, we went to the gymnastics meet and then had some free time with our hosts. Most of us went over to the Britt’s house and hung out and watched TV. All the parents went out to Coach Shula’s house for desert. It was a lot of fun meeting all the players. I spent a lot of time with Tim, Simeon (Castille) and Juwan (Garth). I also spent a lot of time with Aaron McDaniel and Marcus Carter from Fort Payne.

Saturday, January 17

8:45-10:30 a.m.: The receivers had separate meetings with Coach (Charlie) Harbison, Coach Shula and Coach (Dave) Rader. Mostly, the coaches just wanted to see how things were going and if everything was going alright. They talked to us about learning all four receiver positions due to the lack of depth at receiver. They also said that it’s going to be important for us to learn all of the return positions on special teams.

10:45 p.m.: We left the football facility and headed over to the stadium to have brunch in the A-Club room. Before we left the facility they had doughnuts and orange juice for us. At brunch they had one table that had all kinds of breakfast stuff like bacon, eggs, French toast and sausage. The next table was lunch stuff like chicken breasts and steak. We also toured the skyboxes while we were there.

12:00 p.m.: From the stadium they took us to academic meetings. I went to the business school meeting. They spoke to us as a group and provided each of us with a folder of information on the business school. A lot of the recruits --including J.P. Wilson and Justin Britt-- were there. All together there was probably about 15 of us at the business school. After that we toured the campus on the trolley and went over and saw a dorm room at Rose Towers that they had set up for us. We also saw the cafeteria at Burke Hall and the training table.

1:15 p.m.: We took the trolley back to the football complex and took a look at the new facility. It’s going to be awesome. The weight room will be second to none.

2:15 p.m.: We were told we had free time until 3:20. Most of us went back up to our rooms and tried to rest for a little bit.

3:30: We got back on the trolley and headed to the stadium. This is when we did the whole locker room thing. When I walked in my jersey, helmet, socks, pants, wrist bands, skull cap and everything else was hanging up in a locker. My pants even had pads in them. My No. 21 jersey had my name on the back of it. It was amazing and it gave me goose bumps. We all put the gloves, wrist bands, helmets and jerseys on and touched the wooden sign that says “WIN” on the left side of the wall as we were coming out of the locker room. We took a left and then they started playing the fight song as we stood in the tunnel. They went through all of our names and put our pictures up on the jumbotron. The guy on the PA said, “from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, a freshman wide receiver, No. 21 Will Oakley!” It was sprinkling a little bit but that didn’t stop everybody from having a good time. Everybody was jumping around and everything. It was definitely the highlight of the trip. After we finished, I didn’t want to give the jersey back. We took a group photo in our jerseys and I got one with Tim and all the other receivers.

4:15 p.m.: It was time to eat again. We went up and had dinner in the press box. They had a steak buffet with dessert set up for us and it was all you could eat.

5:15 p.m.: We left the stadium for the basketball game. The crowd at the game was amazing and it was a great atmosphere. I was definitely thinking about what it’s going to be like to play against Auburn during the game.

8:30 p.m.: After the basketball game, we headed over to the Bryant Museum where they had ribs, hamburgers, pizza and ice cream waiting on us.

9:30 p.m.: We had free time. Mostly we just hung out with a bunch of players and had a real good time.

Sunday, January 18

9 a.m.: We got up and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. From there everybody went over to see Coach Shula and we all said good bye to the other coaches.

1 p.m.: There was quite a few of us on the flight home. Marcus Carter, Aaron McDaniel, Lavarus Giles and Nikita Stover were all on the plane with me. They took me home first and brought the other guys back. It was a smooth flight and we had a lot of fun. There’s just about anything you could want on the plane: water, soft drinks and snacks. As soon as I got home I had to get ready for a formal that my high school was having that night.

Oakley's overview:

Going into the trip I was hoping to meet all of the other recruits and players and get to know the coaching staff. My parents (Bill and Glenda) met me up there. They drove from Ponte Vedra to Centreville, which is where my grandfather and grandmother live. My grandfather (Jim) works in the communications college at the University. Also, my maternal grandparents live in Brent, which is right next to Centreville. As for the visit, it was more than I expected. Every part of it was cool. Just from spending time with the other guys who weren‘t committed, I know a few of them were saying that they enjoyed it and even if they were leaning somewhere else it definitely helped Alabama with them. I know that if I wasn’t already committed (to UA), I would have after this visit.

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