Celebrating Sports Fellowship,
Spirit, and Community Pride
Important Note: All those planning to attend the next meeting,
please RVSP to Taylor prior to the meeting night.
This will insure proper food coverage for the meeting.
Taylor: 251-981-2431 or taylor.means@gmail.com
Gulf Coast Athletic Club
2015 Scholarship Recipients
GCAC Donates $5,250
To Gulf Shores Middle School
The Gulf Shores Athletic Club presented the Gulf Shores Middle School football program with a check for $5,250.00 on Thursday, May 23rd.
Earlier Discussions with Head Football Coach Mel Stringfellow, revealed that the Gulf Shores Middle School football program was in dire need of
updated equipment, especially from a safety standpoint. As an example, Coach Stringfellow pointed out that all of their shoulder pads were in disrepair,
and were literally held together with string and tape.
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club made a decision to help. The donation from GCAC allows the school to purchase new shoulder pads for the entire team and help with the purchase of new uniforms.
This donation only helps Coach Stringfellow in his quest to update their equipment and the Gulf Coast Athletic Club would encourage other individuals or organizations to consider doing the same.
A strong Middle School program can do nothing but help the Gulf Shores High School Dolphins football program.
GCAC Donates $5,000
To Gulf Shores High School
Gulf Coast Athletic Club President, John McCormick, was pleased to surprise Athletic Director and Head Football Coach, Ben Blackmon, with a check for $5,000 at Monday nights meeting. The funds will be used to purchase a much needed endzone camera for filming each game and practices.
The portable unit is needed to replace the previous method of borrowing a bucket truck, that was able to pull up to the endzone and raise a volunteer high enough to record the games. New renovations at the football stadium do not allow for a truck to be used in the this same manner.
Coach Blackmon seemed genuinely surprised by the donation and thanked the club for the very generous contribution to the needs of the football team.
Coach Kevin Steele, later added that this is how communities can make a difference in not only how the teams can prosper, but how individuals can be benifited by these types of technologies as well, to further their goals and ambitions.
Welcome, Members & Guests!
We have a great 2015-16 speaker lineup to present below.
This looks to be a great GCAC season and we're glad to have you with us!
2015-16 Meeting Dates
Date Speaker Comments
8/31 Wimp Sanderson & Sonny Smith Alabama & Auburn Basketball Coaches
9/14 Danny Ford Former Arkansas & Clemson Head Football Coach
9/28 Johnny Majors Legendary Coach & Heisman runner-up in 1976
10/12 Brodie Croyle Alabama Quarterback 2002-2005
10/26 Jerry Stovall LSU Head Coach 1980-1983
11/09 Mike Kolen Auburn All-American, Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl Champ
11/23 Howard Schnellenberger Legendary Coach for 45 Years
01/25/16 Senior Bowl Speaker To Be Announced
From Our
August 31st, 2015
Meeting
Guest Speakers
Alabama Basketball
Coach Wimp Sanderson
&
Auburn Basketball
Coach Sonny Smith
Radio Personalities
Coaches, Wimp Sanderson & Sonny Smith
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club
Is Proud To Announce Our
2015 Scholar Athlete
$5,000 Scholarship Award Winners!
Brittany Leserra & Ryan C. McIntosh
Brittany and Ryan will both receive a $5,000 Scholarship Award.
The GCAC, through the hard work of their members and partnered sponsors, were able to increase the scholarship award
to the highest in the clubs history.
Brittany and Ryan were chosen from a distinguished list of Scholar Athletes from the Gulf Shores High School. We wish nothing but continued success in the futures of both our winners.
G U L F C O A S T A T H L E T I C C L U B
2015 GCAC 13th Annual
Golf Tournament Results
Congratulations to the Winners!
Shown below are more scenes from our tournament.
You can see a larger slideshow of
all the tournament pictures by clicking on this link:
The GCAC conducted its first meeting of the year on August 31st, 2015, which featured guest speakers Wimp Sanderson and Sonny Smith. Both Sanderson and Smith are retired SEC basketball coaches and each led their respective teams (Alabama and Auburn) to some of the best seasons in their school’s history.
Taylor Means, President, opened the meeting by greeting our guests and asking David DeMyer, membership chair, to provide his report. David introduced the new club members and asked them to stand for recognition.
Taylor introduced the new Athletic Director of Gulf Shores High School, Jamie Williams. Taylor then presented Coach Williams with a check for $9000 to fund sports team needs at the high school. Coach Williams, who is in his first year at GSHS and who is attending his first GCAC meeting, spoke for a few minutes about his coaching history, what brought him and his family to GS, and a bit about his coaching philosophy. Coach Williams brought the club up to date on the first two varsity football games of the season, and although GS lost both, he believes the team believes in themselves more than in previous years.
Taylor took back the podium and asked the ever-funny Kevin Corcoran to preside over the team reports and introduce our speakers. Kevin made several comments including noting the large turn-out (approx. 120 people) and he reminded members to RSVP so we have accurate counts for meals and tables. He also bantered back and forth with “Wimp” as Coach Sanderson came to the stage.
Coach Sanderson spoke for about 20 minutes and made several predictions including who Alabama would start as Quarterback. Wimp introduced Sonny, who also spoke for about 20 minutes. He was a “joke telling machine’ but also spoke on several serious items of interest including how coaches have difficulty removing star players from the team, and the benefits of the new rule fully compensating players for university costs.
Taylor closed out the evening by announcing the next meeting’s speaker, Danny Ford.
After the 50/50 drawing, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45pm.
Upcoming
September 14th, 2015
Meeting
Guest Speaker
Legendary
Clemson University
Former
Head Football Coach
Danny Ford
Former Clemson Head Coach
Danny Ford
On Saturdays in the fall, 66-year-old Danny Ford can be found one of two places. He either is watching a Clemson football game on a big-screen TV while tailgating with friends at Memorial Stadium, or he is listening on the radio from an air-conditioned tractor while baling hay when the Tigers play on the road.
Football has run like blood through Ford’s veins his entire life.
Ford grew up in Gadsden, Ala., where he played football, basketball and baseball, all the while knowing that any young Alabaman had little choice about which sport would steal away his heart.
Ford played football at Alabama under legendary coach Bear Bryant, earning all-SEC honors one season and playing in three bowl games. Then he went into coaching. Following a brief stint as an assistant at Virginia Tech, Ford went about creating the same state of hysteria over football in South Carolina that he had experienced in his home state.
During his 12 seasons as coach at Clemson from 1978 through 1989, Ford’s teams won 96 games. They captured five ACC championships and won six bowl games. His 1981 club went unbeaten and won a national championship, bringing with it unprecedented recognition for football excellence to the state of South Carolina.
From an article by Ron Morris at TheState.com.
To read the full article: Click Here Pursuit of Happiness; Danny Ford
GCAC Donates $9,260
To Gulf Shores High School
& Middle School
The money donated will be used throughout Gulf Shores Athletics, including new track uniforms, state of the art sideline communication equipment, and much more.
