Hale Hentges is sure about two things.
One, the Helias High School standout wants to play football at Alabama. Two, he's glad his recruiting process has come to an end.
"A part of me enjoyed talking to everyone, but it's nice to have it behind me and have the chance to focus on playing football," Hentges said. "I can start to work on getting better."
Hentges, who orally committed Sunday to Alabama via Twitter, was ranked among the top three football recruits in Missouri and one of the top in the nation.
It was a long road for Hentges in making his decision. About 21,000 miles of road in the past two years.
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NCAA RULES STATE recruits cannot make official visits to schools until their senior seasons. But unofficial visits are allowed.
Chris Hentges had just one rule about driving his son to visit schools.
"I told Hale we would go anywhere he wanted to go, he just needed to be serious about that school," he said.
The trips started in the spring of Hentges' freshman year with a visit to the University of Arkansas. That was first of 15 schools the Hentges family visited, sometimes with his Chris' wife and Hale's mother, Jennifer. Many of the schools received more than one visit.
"Hale read a lot of books and played a lot of video games while we were on the road," Chris Hentges said with a laugh. "But it was great for me to spend that much time with Hale, it is something I will never forget."
Unofficial visits are nearly the same at every school. Tours around campus and the athletic facilities, along with meeting with coaches, are a staple.
"Really, all of the trips were good," said Chris, who is also an assistant coach at Helias. "We didn't have a bad one, you could see Hale being a good fit at all of them."
Hale, who had five scholarship offers after his freshman year, had a handful of things he was looking for in a school.
"Most of the schools checked a lot of the boxes, but Alabama was the one that checked them all," Chris said. "It was everything you would look for in a program."
For Hale, it started with the coaching staff.
"(Head) coach (Nick) Saban and (tight ends) coach (Bobby) Williams, they were straight with me the entire time and that doesn't happen all the time in recruiting," he said. "I really respected that and made me want to play for them."
Hentges wanted to play in a pro-style offense that featured multiple tight ends. And statistics show Alabama uses a two-tight end formation on 70 percent of its plays, calling one H and the other Y. The Y is the more traditional tight end, with a hand on the ground on the line of scrimmage.
"I think they see early in his career, Hale would play the H," Chris said. "But if he puts on another 25-30 pounds, he could play the Y. And that versatility in the offense was very important to me because he could play tight end throughout his career.
"What often happens in a lot of offenses, the next progression is either offensive tackle or defensive end if you get too big."
The family knows playing football for Alabama can open doors long after Hale's playing days are over. Hentges plans on studying communications or business.
"You're going to get the chance to meet people who can open doors for you after college," Chris said. "And for Jennifer and me, that was important."
Hale is scheduled to report to Alabama this time next year for summer school. There has been no decision made about him potentially redshirting his freshman year.
"They told me if Hale was ready to contribute, maybe on special teams, he would play," Chris said.
Hale made his mind up after his second visit to Tuscaloosa, Ala., in mid-April.
"I felt at that point I could knew that was the right place," he said. "I couldn't think of a negative thing, it was the place I should be. It just felt like home."
After taking one final visit to Missouri last week, Hale decided to make his decision to attend Alabama public Sunday. That was because his family was getting together for a birthday party for his great-grandmother.
"I wanted to tell them first and tell them while everyone was together," Hale said. "These are the people who this will affect the most."
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OUTSIDE OF THE Hentges family, the person next-happiest about the decision being finalized could be the mailman who makes deliveries to their house.
NCAA rules allow schools to start sending mail to potential recruits in the September of their junior year in high school. And the mail came. And came. And came.
"I figure it's around 5,000 pieces of mail," Hale said.
That averages to about 20 pieces a day.
"Our mailman is going to get a big tip at Christmas because he toted a whole lot of stuff," Chris said.
The family kept everything. Some were generic recruiting mail, which Hale stopped reading. But some were personal correspondence.
"You could tell which ones those were, Hale made sure to read those," Chris said.
In recent months, coaches began making visits to Helias during the school day.
"There wasn't a day this spring that a coach or two wasn't dropping by to visit," Chris said. "We were pulling Hale out of class, (Helias head) coach (Phil) Pitts and I were talking to them."
Last weekend, Hale called the coaches he had the best relationships with at his top final choices before he made his public announcement.
"I thanked them for recruiting me, but my mind was made up," he said. "They were tough calls to make."
And their reaction?
"They all thanked me for taking the time to call them and said if anything changed, I should call them," he said.
Chris called others, the schools and coaches he had a closer relationship with.
"I probably talked to a few more schools than Hale did," he said. "They were appreciative of getting the call and complimentary in how they thought we handled the process."
Hale is ready for his life to somewhat get back to normal.
"I think in time, everybody will back off," he said. "I don't ever plan on changing, as long as things stay the way they are."
Some coaches have talked to his father about periodically checking in.
"They wanted to call once a month just to see how things were going and I told them that was fine," Chris said. "They're not going to bother Hale, they just want to see what's going on. It's smart from their perspective, just to say hi."
And once a month will be plenty.
"It will be nice to get all that stuff to quiet down," Chris said.