For Ronnie Royal to choose his college out of 23 Division I offers, something must have stood out to make Rivals’ 22nd-ranked athlete in the country from Gulf Shores land on NC State.

“Taking that trip up there to see what they really have to offer, seeing the defensive scheme and talking to all the coaches,” Royal said on June 29 during the Foley 7-on-7 Showdown. “Basically, it all started with the relationship with the coaches, they really had great relationships with me.”

On top of that, Royal watched film of previous Wolfpack defenders and saw a vacancy in the defensive backfield that he felt as though he could fill.

“I watched Tanner Ingle, he played free safety and nickel. He plays just like me and after watching his film, I was like that's really just me on that film,” Royal said. “Because he's leaving, I’ve got to come in so I'm really just trying to take his spot and fill his shoes.”

After he contributed 2,203 all-purpose yards and 34 total touchdowns to Gulf Shores’ offense which helped formulate the longest postseason run in school history, Royal will likely be staying on only one side of the ball when he steps up to the college ranks. Also as a junior, he racked up 39 tackles and two interceptions according to stats on MaxPreps.

Dolphin head football coach Mark Hudspeth remarked on Royal’s potential once he specializes where the majority of his reps will come.

“If you think about it, he only gets half the reps on offense and half the reps on defense. So you can imagine how much better of a player he's going to be when he gets all the reps at just that one position,” Hudspeth said last Thursday. “He's not running his body ragged playing both ways so his body is going to grow. Ronnie's got another level of development that he hasn't even gotten to yet because of being forced to play so many spots.”

Although Royal certainly looked forward to taking the next step, he appreciated the moment he was in and relished the weight lifted off his shoulders after making his college decision.

“It really just feels like a release. Not really worried about going to camps and all that, knowing that you're locked into a team no matter what (is a good feeling),” Royal said.

With that, he is able to play freely and take full ownership of the leadership role Hudspeth envisions for his final season at Gulf Shores High School.

“He's the leader of these guys, which we've got a lot of guys now that are really coming on so he's not going to have to do it on his own like he did two years ago,” Hudspeth said. “So now we've got some guys that can take a little bit of the load off of him as we continue to grow in our program.”

Royal said the Dolphins’ sights are set on replicating last year’s success that saw the most wins in program history as well as a trip to the school’s first state quarterfinals.

“Kind of what we did last year, but we want to win another game obviously,” Royal said. “We want to win a region championship but we definitely want to go to state this year.”

To accomplish those goals, Royal said there is already a formula to follow.

“All we can do is just listen to Coach Hud,” Royal said. “He always tells us that if we do the little things right, we’re going to win the game so just keep doing the little things and working together as a team every day.”