Air Force has already made an offer, and more Division I suitors are sure to follow as the wooing of Jake Welch reaches full throttle this fall.

Here is what the winner of the Welch sweeptstakes will get:

• A four-year varsity starter whose impact as a freshman offensive lineman helped reverse the fortunes of a struggling football program, and sowed the seeds for a culture of winning and hard work.

• The GSHL 2A Defensive Player of the Year and TDN All-Area Offensive Player of the Year in 2008, a first team all-league and all-area lineman in ’07, and honorable mention all-league lineman as a freshman in ’06.

• The Most Valuable offensive lineman at the Nike Pro Combine in Eugene this summer.

• A 6-foot-4, 295-pound weight-room maniac, whose power lifting numbers would make a few college linemen jealous.

• A 3.8 student whose No. 1 criteria for selecting a college is its academic reputation.

• A normal, fun-loving 18-year-old who doesn’t take himself too seriously. A guy who once showed up at a Mark Morris-Kelso basketball game attended by 4,000 people while wearing a wrestling singlet, a cape and a “Nacho Libre” mask.

“Just keeping it real,” said Welch, laughing at the memory.

The Mark Morris senior has kept it real throughout his much-hyped high school football career.

“He’s just always like that,” said Mark Morris senior Kyler Roden, one of the top wrestlers in the state — and one of Welch’s closest pals in a crew that Welch described as “the most immature group of friends, ever.”

“He has that tough side on the field and on the mat, but when he is with friends, he’s a big old cuddly teddy bear. He pretty much stays away from talking about his future,” Roden added. “We just hang out, do normal guy stuff. We play video games, watch movies, eat junk food.”

“He’s never too cool for anyone,” said fellow senior lineman Taylor Beck, Welch’s lifting partner, and a college prospect and all-state candidate himself. “He’s a great friend, a great leader on and off the field, and he treats everyone with respect.”

Welch first received college attention following his freshman year.

“I’m pretty sure it was from Oregon or Washington,” he said. “It was a basic introduction letter, ‘We’ve noticed you as a prospect,’ they wanted tape, that kind of thing. It was amazing.”

And for a while, Welch embraced the rush of seeing his name on recruiting Web sites. It was a fleeting phase, and 200 letters later — at least; handwritten notes from Idaho, Oregon and Washington included — Welch’s focus is not on adulation.

“I kind of got caught up in the hype of going online and looking at what people were saying, what they thought of me,” Welch said. “It doesn’t matter to me any more. I stick to what I’m doing. I stick to working hard. What matters is what I think of myself.”

Welch is taking a systematic approach to the recruiting process. He knows exactly what he is looking for in a college football program. He has specific criteria and an almost scientific method for weighing the pros and cons of each prospective option.

And yes, he has a short list. Air Force is No. 1, the University of Washington is No. 2, Oregon is No. 3.

“Right now, I have my heart set on those three,” Welch said. “But I still have a while to make my decision. More schools are coming. Nothing is dead set, and everything is still up in the air. I’m going to wait until pretty late in the process.”

Getting a feel for it all

Welch has taken the initiative at the dozens of football camps he has attended. He always introduces himself to line coaches. He pays close attention to every coach’s style, to how genuinely they interact with players, to their enthusiasm.

New Huskies boss Steve Sarkisian was a standout on all three counts, according to Welch.

“I try to start personal relationships,” Welch said. “No one else can do this for me.”

He looks long and hard at the campus and the city surrounding it.

And he listens to his heart.

“It’s a ‘feel’ thing,” Welch said. “I’ve gone to many camps of schools I want to go to, and I paid a lot of attention to how I felt when I was there. At (Air Force), I liked the staff. They were serious about football, about hard work and also about having a good time.”

Welch has been to Husky camp under two coaching regimes.

“Under Willingham, I noticed there was barely any coaching interaction (with campers). It was fundamentals, scrimmage, back to the dorm,” he said. “At the Sarkisian camp, it was ridiculously fun. It was intense the whole time. Coaches were in your face — a good ‘in your face’ — and it was a totally different feeling. It got me excited about football this summer.”

Welch takes note of those kinds of distinctions, weighs them in his ongoing plans for the future.

“I write down the things I like, anything I notice that seems significant, anything that strikes me and stands out,” he said. “The places I named, those have stood out. They’ve left the biggest impact.”

Air Force, for instance, left an impression with a slideshow pointing out its academic strengths.

“If colleges care about academics, they are going to tell you,” said Welch. “I’m really big on grades. Football is a serious thing for me, but there will be life after football. It’s something my parents and grandparents have always taught me, to have a Plan B and for it to be a serious Plan B.

“I’ve worked my butt off on my grades, and I need to continue that when I go to college,” he added. “If pro football doesn’t happen, I want to be sure I have another way to go.”

Championship dreams

Welch attended seven camps this summer: UW, Oregon, Oregon State, Air Force, Linfield and a pair of senior combines, including his star turn at the Nike event. He lifted with Beck and adhered to “a really intense workout plan” designed by MM line coach Jerry Kiekow.

Welch has several official visits to make this fall, and won’t make a final decision until the end of wrestling season in late February.

“There are bigger schools out there,” Welch said. “My dream is to play in a national championship, and if a school of that caliber were to contact me, that might mess with my current top three.”

The national championship dream is “why Oregon is in the top three,” he added.

Welch continued: “I want to make sure I get every opportunity possible. I don’t want to miss anything by deciding too early. It’s a great feeling, coming from regular old Longview. Not many people think about football when think about this area.

“I’m having a lot of fun with it right now. I’m excited to go on my visits, but I’ll be relieved when I know where I’m going. At least then I can tell people a place.”

Of course, the entire process of choosing a college is Welch’s No. 2 priority.

No. 1?

“I’m so excited about this season,” said Welch, whose Monarchs host Kelso on opening night. “I’ve been looking forward to my senior season since the seventh grade. It gives me chills just thinking about it. Playing in the (Tacoma) Dome has been our goal for so long. We’ve kept that goal as a team and as a group of friends.

“I try not to talk about the recruiting process unless my friends ask,” he added. “They joke around and call me big-timer and prima donna. They’ve kept everything real for me. The recruiting stuff, that’s my thing. It’s not for me to go and brag about it.”