Hawaii DL loves visit to Oregon

Oregon had a big recruiting weekend last week when the Ducks took on Washington. Included in that visit was a trio of players from Hawaii led by standout defensive end Kalani Aldrich.

Aldrich, 6-7, 240 pounds is a player we loved at the NIKE Camp in Eugene last June. He had a great frame, was very strong and dominated the one on one linemen drills.

"I loved my visit to Oregon," Aldrich said. "It was my first official visit this year and I really had a good time. We all got in on Friday and we were a little tired at first since that's a long plane ride for us. We met out hosts, mine was Enoka Lucas, but really, all the Polynesian players hung out together and that was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

"To be honest, one of the things that really attracted me to Oregon was all the poly players and being there in Oregon just felt like home for me. On Friday, we got a campus tour, did all the academic stuff and then went paint balling that night. That was a great time, I had never done that before. That night, we just hung out at one of the players' houses and kept it pretty mellow.

"Saturday we woke up, ate and then headed over to the stadium. We checked out the locker room and all the facilities and then headed over to the stadium. That crowd was incredible, I've never seen anything like it.

"They had signs with our names on it and the crowd was yelling, 'come to Oregon,' over and over again. It was a great experience and I was really impressed with the team. I was watching the defensive line pretty closely and I like how they get up the field and just their overall style of play.

"After the game, we went in to the locker room, celebrated with the players a little and then had dinner. I'll tell you, I've never eaten so much in my life as I did on this visit. After dinner we went to a couple of house parties and then kicked it again at one of the players houses and just told some stories all night.

"Sunday morning we had breakfast with the coaches and all of us met separately with Coach Belotti. He talked to me about the visit, asked me how things went and told me how well he thought I would fit in there. He had a jersey there with my name and number on it and that was pretty cool to see. He also asked me what other schools I was looking at and when I might be ready to make a decision.

"I was temped to commit there because I was so comfortable and enjoyed myself so much but I want to take at least one more visit. I talked with my family and they agreed that I should take one other visit to have something to compare Oregon too. I'm going to visit Washington (Dec. 1) and depending on how that visit goes, I'll decide if I should make a decision or take more visits.

"I also have a tentative visit set with Utah for (Nov. 24.) and I've talked with Tennessee and Oklahoma about visiting sometime in January. I'm going to be going to Greece and Italy with my family over Christmas break and it might be nice to have a decision by then but I'm just going to play it by ear. Like I s aid, for sure I'm going to visit Washington and then I'll decide what's next but Oregon is definitely on top for me right now."