THOMASVILLE — When Alexander Grave de Peralta blows out the 18 candles on his birthday cake today, there’s one wish he won’t have to make.

The Thomasville High School senior made it his goal to find a school to commit to play soccer by the end of the year.

“I wasn’t going to rush into anything, but I wanted to be set by December,” Peralta said.

Peralta isn’t only set, he’s ready to report to his dream school, West Point.

The midfielder went on an official visit to the New York school in early October with his mother, Barbara, after an assistant watched him play in Atlanta on his club team.

“There are so many pros to a service academy,” Peralta said. “The pros of going to school for free, playing soccer, serving your country and getting a first-rate education.”

The now 18-year-old is the first Division I soccer commit from Thomasville High School, boys soccer head coach Keith Gwaltney said. Gwaltney said the school usually has only one or two signings a year, but that’s not because his players aren’t recruited. They are many who could play soccer in college, he said, but who choose to go to a school based on their academic pursuits rather than on soccer ones.

Peralta said when he visited the campus, his primary concern was the school.

“I wanted to see if I could see myself going there for the next four years,” he said.

Prior to receiving the offer to play on a soccer scholarship, Peralta was going through the paperwork to get a congressional nomination to the school. Congressional nominations and service-connected nominations are the only way to get into West Point. Applicants send their information, including three letters of recommendation, to their state’s two U.S. senators, the representative in the House and the vice president.

Peralta is still going through with the nomination process and has an interview scheduled with Georgia’s 8th congressional district representative, Austin Scott, next week because “it won’t hurt” to do so, he said.

One of those writing a letter of recommendation was Gwaltney.

“It’s a great opportunity for Alex because he’s more than willing to do five years as an officer after his degree,” Gwaltney said. “He understands the major network you’re a part of as a cadet in West Point.”

Peralta said his academic goals include a major in the medical field or law with a focus on doing something in the military.

“The opportunity to serve our country is indescribable, really,” said Peralta, who handled the college search by himself and was recruited by Georgia Southern, Winthrop and North Georgia. “It’s the least I can do.”

The Thomasville-Thomas County Hall of Fame honored Peralta last week as its male student-athlete of the year from Thomasville High School. The senior’s academic accomplishments are lengthy, as are his athletic ones.

“He’s done everything academically and athletically to get to this point,” Gwaltney said.

Peralta was selected as the Region 1-AA player of the year by the region’s coaches. He also won the Class AA boys’ soccer scholar athlete of the year award and was selected to play in the Di-Varsity state soccer all-star game, though he was unable to play due to an injury sustained in the Class AA semifinal loss against Greater Atlanta Christian. He won the team’s Most Valuable Player award as well as the Golden Boot for scoring a team-high 16 goals.

And that was only in 2015. On the soccer field. He’s been a part of the Thomasville program since eighth grade having grown up in a soccer family.

“We’ve known he was a great player coming up through different programs,” Gwaltney said.

Peralta’s father, Dr. Jose Grave de Peralta, was a goalkeeper at Wake Forest from 1980 to 1983. He holds the school record for most saves (620) and save percentage (.865 from 620 saves and 97 goals against).

Alex Peralta’s three siblings also play or played soccer: Joseph, 23; Rebecca, 21; and Nicholas, 13. And Peralta has also participated in cross country, basketball and soccer.

“I’m really proud of him,” Gwaltney said. “It was a great phone call to receive. You can imagine it was quite a celebration.”

There’s one more celebration they’d all like to add: A championship one. Part of the reason Peralta wanted to make a decision was to have it out of the way so he could play his final season without the worry of where to go next year. His senior campaign begins this spring as the Bulldogs seek complete the championship season they fell short of last year.