BC is Alves' first visit
Justin Rowland
EagleAction.com Recruiting Analyst
For good or for bad, four-star offensive lineman Michael Alves' Wednesday unofficial visit to Boston College would be a tone setter. That's because it was his first unofficial visit of the recruiting process.
If you're wondering whether it's rare for such a highly-ranked football recruit going into his senior year to take his first visit at this point, the answer is yes. It is rare.
But every situation is unique and no two recruits are the same.
That Alves' first unofficial visit would be to Boston College is even more interesting. After all, the San Diego (Calif.) St. Augustine guard lives and attends school about as far away from BC as one can get in the mainland of the United States.
Alves' sister recently graduated from high school and their parents, to celebrate the occasion, planned a trip to New York as a gift to her. Alves came along. His father has family in the Boston area and it seemed like a good idea to stop by and see Boston College while they were in the Northeast. After all, BC had offered and was making Alves a priority.
The 6-foot-4, 310-pound lineman spoke with EagleAction.com about his trip and seemed pleased that he had made the plans he did.
Though Alves had been to the Northeast a couple of times when he was younger the last time he was in the area was when he was only eight or nine years old, he said. And that wasn't anything like an unofficial visit on behalf of a Power Five conference football program.
"Basically I just went around the campus and I talked with Coach (Justin) Frye and Coach (Coleman) Hutzler most of the time," he said, citing BC's offensive line/positional coach and his area recruiter. I saw the offensive line workout, actually. I watched the pump up video and all that stuff. I went to the computer science department because that's what I'm interested in majoring in."
Normally Steve Addazio himself would carve out a lot of time for one-on-one talks with a recruit of Alves' caliber. But ironically, while the California recruit was at the Heights, BC's head coach was in California.
Still, Addazio knew about Alves' visit and made sure to connect with him.
"I didn't get to see him (in person) but we actually Facetimed for about 30 minutes," Alves said.
BC's presentation was heavy on the school's history of producing high quality NFL offensive linemen and that was a message that resonated with Alves.
"Basically, when we walked through the halls they pointed out that every poster was a poster of offensive linemen," Alves said. "All the names of draft picks on the plaques - most of them were offensive linemen."
Alves added that he enjoyed the area. He noted the weather was beautiful. The one downside to the trip?
"We were in traffic pretty much the whole day. That kind of sucks, but the weather was nice and Boston College is a really nice place," Alves said. "I think I have more interest than I did before. It's definitely a school I'm going to consider after everything I heard about it. It sort of appeals to me."
It was Alves' first unofficial visit of the recruiting process. He has no other plans set in stone yet, but he's open to an unofficial visit to UCLA at some point soon.
Alves noted that, in addition to BC, some of the schools recruiting him the hardest are Washington State, Arizona, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington. Because the BC trip was such a big investment, even if the real goal of the visit was to see New York, it's unlikely the family will invest a lot into a similar trip to a faraway school. Those might have to be official visits.
Justin Rowland
EagleAction.com Recruiting Analyst
For good or for bad, four-star offensive lineman Michael Alves' Wednesday unofficial visit to Boston College would be a tone setter. That's because it was his first unofficial visit of the recruiting process.
If you're wondering whether it's rare for such a highly-ranked football recruit going into his senior year to take his first visit at this point, the answer is yes. It is rare.
But every situation is unique and no two recruits are the same.
That Alves' first unofficial visit would be to Boston College is even more interesting. After all, the San Diego (Calif.) St. Augustine guard lives and attends school about as far away from BC as one can get in the mainland of the United States.
Alves' sister recently graduated from high school and their parents, to celebrate the occasion, planned a trip to New York as a gift to her. Alves came along. His father has family in the Boston area and it seemed like a good idea to stop by and see Boston College while they were in the Northeast. After all, BC had offered and was making Alves a priority.
The 6-foot-4, 310-pound lineman spoke with EagleAction.com about his trip and seemed pleased that he had made the plans he did.
Though Alves had been to the Northeast a couple of times when he was younger the last time he was in the area was when he was only eight or nine years old, he said. And that wasn't anything like an unofficial visit on behalf of a Power Five conference football program.
"Basically I just went around the campus and I talked with Coach (Justin) Frye and Coach (Coleman) Hutzler most of the time," he said, citing BC's offensive line/positional coach and his area recruiter. I saw the offensive line workout, actually. I watched the pump up video and all that stuff. I went to the computer science department because that's what I'm interested in majoring in."
Normally Steve Addazio himself would carve out a lot of time for one-on-one talks with a recruit of Alves' caliber. But ironically, while the California recruit was at the Heights, BC's head coach was in California.
Still, Addazio knew about Alves' visit and made sure to connect with him.
"I didn't get to see him (in person) but we actually Facetimed for about 30 minutes," Alves said.
BC's presentation was heavy on the school's history of producing high quality NFL offensive linemen and that was a message that resonated with Alves.
"Basically, when we walked through the halls they pointed out that every poster was a poster of offensive linemen," Alves said. "All the names of draft picks on the plaques - most of them were offensive linemen."
Alves added that he enjoyed the area. He noted the weather was beautiful. The one downside to the trip?
"We were in traffic pretty much the whole day. That kind of sucks, but the weather was nice and Boston College is a really nice place," Alves said. "I think I have more interest than I did before. It's definitely a school I'm going to consider after everything I heard about it. It sort of appeals to me."
It was Alves' first unofficial visit of the recruiting process. He has no other plans set in stone yet, but he's open to an unofficial visit to UCLA at some point soon.
Alves noted that, in addition to BC, some of the schools recruiting him the hardest are Washington State, Arizona, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington. Because the BC trip was such a big investment, even if the real goal of the visit was to see New York, it's unlikely the family will invest a lot into a similar trip to a faraway school. Those might have to be official visits.
