Celebrating Sports Fellowship,
Spirit, and Community Pride
Important Note: All those planning to attend the next meeting,
please RVSP to David Lee prior to the meeting night.
This will insure proper food coverage for the meeting.
David Lee: davidtlee107@gmail.com
Gulf Coast Athletic Club
2016 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!
Welcome to the Guest Speaker lineup for the 2016-2017 Season!
Our Guest Speaker Lineup
Date Speaker Comments
Aug. 29: Coach Bill Curry Former Alabama Head Coach, 3-time Super Bowl Champ
Sept. 12: Quentin Riggins Auburn Linebacker. Team Captain, All-American (88’ & 89’)
Sept. 26: Kevin Scarbinsky Lead sports columnist for Alabama Media Group
Oct. 10: Jason Campbell Auburn QB. '99-Gatorade Player of the Year 10-years NFL
Oct. 24: Coach Jackie Sherrill Played at Alabama. Head Coach for WSU, Pitt, TxA&M, MSU
Nov. 7: Heisman Winner: Charlie Ward Florida State QB All American 11 years NBA
Nov. 21: Coach Ray Goff SEC Player of the Year (76’) Head Coach University of Georgia
Jan. 23: To Be Announced Reece’s Senior Bowl & BCS Meeting
Important Note: All those planning to attend the next meeting,
please RVSP to David Lee prior to the meeting night.
This will insure proper food coverage for the meeting.
David Lee: davidtlee107@gmail.com
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
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.
From Our
November 23rd, 2015
Meeting
"Rivals Week"
with
"College Game Day"
Special Guests were
Lou "Dec" Holtz & Chris "Kevin" Fowler
From College Game Day!
This was NOT the meeting to miss!
GCAC was treated TWICE on this special meeting night! First up, was GSHS Head Football Coach, Jamie Williams, with some X's & O's that many of us hadn't understood....until last night. Now I know what an A-gap is! Coach showed us how our donations are put to work and how they free up other funds for additional, much needed equipment to help better the GSHS squad. Great job Coach Williams!
Our second treat of the evening was surely a classic and, hopefully, something we will be enjoying each season. College Game Day was brought to you by the GCAC Sports Network....who knew we had a network?!? The brain child of Kevin Corcoran with an incredible, star studded group of additional talent, especially Dec McClelland with his dead-on Lou Holtz impersonation. Kevin's son Owen was a huge part of the background crew, and special guests included Barb Patty, David DeMeyer,
Dr. McCollough, & Bob Grant.
As with any TV show, commercials are just the price you have to pay, but when a commercial is sponsored by the McCollough Institute who's motto was "If You Can't Keep Your Chin Up....We'll Do It For You"!......well, that's creative juices flowing!
This was one of several....surely non-approved....commercials that graced the airwaves of Game Day!
It was hilarious to see unsuspecting interviewees, nervously taking questions from Chris "Kevin" Fowler, unsure of what to expect from a known comedian.
We now know that Dr. McCollough answers to many names....David DeMeyer is the Washington State flag bearer at each Game Day broadcast, we also know that Bob Grant is a man of few words, and Barb Patty, is a woman of many words. After a lengthy interview with Barb, eventually the Game Day segment ended returning to Barb's interview that apparently went late into the night.
As was appropriate, the evening ended with a standing ovation with whoops & hollers for the Game Day crew. Here's hoping they don't retire this year and will make a return trip to Gulf Shores, AL again in the near future!
Here is a picture from the Game Day "Set".
Here You Go! Rivals Week--College Game Day--Video
Brought to you by the GCAC Sports Network!
College Game Day! Rivals Week!
Chris Fowler & Lou Holtz....sorta
Chris "Kevin" Fowler Lou "Dec" Holtz
Shown below are more scenes from our tournament.
You can no longer see a larger slideshow of all the tournament pictures. Google has disabled Picasa Links, only allowing slideshows to be viewed, not visited.
2016 GCAC 14th Annual
Golf Tournament Results
Congratulations to our Winners!
A special thanks to our Tournament Co-Chairmen,
John McCormick and Fred Dickinson, who year after year, put on a great tournament. Also we want to thank Craft Farms and their staff for exceptional support to our tournament, to
all the volunteers who provided additional help, and
especially our tournament sponsors for supporting
the GCAC 14th Annual Golf Tournament!
My apologies to many of our teams for the photographer error resulting in black and white pictures. This was the only way to salvage the pictures from incorrect camera settings.
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club
Is Proud To Announce Our
2016 Scholar Athlete
$3,500 Scholarship Award Winners!
Taylor Brown and Ishan Patel
Taylor and Ishan will both receive a $3,500 Scholarship Award.
The GCAC, through the hard work of their members and sponsors.
Taylor and Ishan 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
From The Archives!
Classic GCAC Meeting
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club started its 2016-2017 season on August 29, 2016. President David Lee opened the meeting and thanked all attendees for one of the biggest crowds ever with 103.
President Lee told the audience of GCAC’s mission to celebrate college football and raise money for the Gulf Shores High School Athletic Department and for student athlete scholarships. The main sources of fundraising are an annual golf tournament and donations to the Gulf Coast Athletic Club Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization.
David then called GSHS Principal Ernie Rosado to the podium and presented him a check for $5,000 to cover uniform expenses for two GSHS football teams. This made a total of $36,000 donated by GCAC in the last two years.
David also told the Club of a new, fun, fundraising opportunity for the Club. The On-line Football Pool is a weekly opportunity for all amateur prognosticators to show their stuff by picking winners from a 15 game weekly lineup selected by our Club. Entry is $25 for the year and the year-end leader will get an attractive award. All members will be sent an email with the link to join the GCAC contest.
Prior to his introduction of Coach Bill Curry, Gaylon McCullough talked about the significance of contributing to the GCAC Foundation. Donations to the Foundation are tax deductible and an easy way to show your support for the Dolphins. He noted more than $150,000 had been contributed by the Club over the past 15 years.
He then introduced Coach Curry, who he described as not only a great player and coach, but a great friend as well. Coach Curry played under Coach Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech, then played under Coach Vince Lombardi with the Green Bay Packers. After retirement, he coached at Georgia Tech, Alabama, Kentucky, and Georgia State as well as being a football analyst for ESPN. His spell-binding presentation of his life from age 12 on was truly inspirational as he told of true life examples of how good coaches maximize the best talent in their players.
After the 50/50 drawing was held, the meeting adjourned at 8:40pm.
Click on the Picture Below for all the meeting pictures!
Bill Curry
From Our
GCAC Meeting
August 29th, 2016
Bill Curry
Former Alabama
Head Coach
10 Years in the NFL
3 Time Super Bowl Champ!
Bill Curry David Lee Dr. Gaylon McCollough
President David Lee welcomed members and guests to the second Gulf Coast Athletics Club meeting for 2016-2017. He shared some “stories” about our guest speaker, former Auburn star Quentin Riggins.
Guests were introduced. President Lee then gave the club an update on the inaugural weeks of the Office Football Pool. The best picker at the end of the season will receive the Prognosticator of the Year trophy, along with other prizes.
Coach Owen Corcoran with Gulf Shores High School gave an update on sports programs. Football continues to show progress with heads high! Volleyball and cross country have begun and doing well.
Kevin Corcoran, who had done such an outstanding job with the Crying Towel presentation since the inception of GCAC 15 years ago, has asked for relief this year. Dec McClelland will be taking over the reins. David praised Kevin for his dedication to GCAC and announced that Kevin will be chairing a Special Education Task Force for Gulf Shores/Orange Beach education.
Chris Warner led the Crying Towel presentation and Team Reports. After David DeMeyer gave an inclusive report on Bristol and its record football game, the Crying Towel was awarded to LSU for its 16-14 loss to Wisconsin at historic Lambo Field, proving, for that game, that Les was not more.
Our Guest Speaker was Quentin Riggins, the star linebacker for the Auburn Tigers from 1986-89. He was First Team All SEC and Second Team All American, winning three SEC Championships. A graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery, Alabama, Riggins played pro ball for Winnipeg in the Canadian Football League, but said it was just too cold in Canada! Returning to Alabama, he was the Sideline Reporter for Auburn Football Radio from 1991-2015. In 2011, he was named Vice-President for Governmental Relations for Alabama Power Company.
One football moment still large in his mind was in 2001, when the Auburn team, flying to play Syracuse on 9/22/01, was the first plane back into New York airspace since 9/11, deadly quiet on that plane with F-16s as escorts. As a High School Senior in Montgomery, he worked at McDonald’s daily after football practice, but was invited to Auburn on a Saturday recruiting trip. The recruits always got to visit the team after the game, but Quentin’s Father told the Coaches that they would be leaving at halftime since Quentin had to be at work at 5pm, so Quentin says he’s still waiting to meet Bo Jackson.
He finished his remarks by stating that football and team sports have great life lessons, such as focus, discipline, and respect. An emphasis on communication, with some poignant examples, was stressed since, as a leader, he and everyone must be on the same page.
After the 50-50 drawing, the meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm.
From Our
GCAC Meeting
September 12th, 2016
Quentin Riggins
Former Auburn
All-American Linebacker
One of 12 named to the
2009 SEC Legends Class
Quentin Riggens
Google has disabled Picasa Links, only allowing slideshows to be viewed, not visited.
President David Lee welcomed members and guests to the third Gulf Coast Athletics Club meeting for 2016-2017, with our guest speaker, Kevin Scarbinsky with the Alabama Media Group and al.com.
Guests were introduced, including the parents of our scholar/athletes. President Lee then gave the club an update on the inaugural weeks of the Office Football Pool. The pack is currently led by some picker named Shug Jordan AKA the Mayor.
Coach Owen Corcoran with Gulf Shores High School gave an update. Football continues to show progress, but results thus far have been less than expected. However, he said there’s more to life than winning. Volleyball and cross country have begun and doing well.
Membership Chairman reported that we had 103 members last year at year end, and have 100 members on the rolls as of this evening.
Dec McClelland led the Crying Towel presentation and Team Reports. After scaring the LSU and Georgia fans with veiled threats, Dec did the unimaginable as the Crying Towel was awarded to his team, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, for its loss to Duke. He then stated that would never happen again.
We were honored to have our first scholar-athletes from GSHS with us. Tristen Fitts is a senior at Gulf Shores High, a young lady with a 4.3 GPA and 28 ACT. She is involved with track, volleyball, and softball, also very involved in her church and the community, and wants to attend Auburn for a career in orthodontics. Grey Loper also is a senior and plays on the football team, serving as its captain. He also wishes to enter the medical field and intends to attend South Alabama, and may play football there.
Our Guest Speaker was Kevin Scarbinsky, originally from Pennsylvania, who graduated with a Masters in Journalism from Florida. He worked 30 years in the newspaper business with the Birmingham News and lamented America’s newspapers are going away.
His comments were a reflection on the stories and games he has covered, most recently, the Auburn “last second” win over LSU, now known as the Six Kicks, and the firing of LSU Coach Les Miles. He noted Les always had a problem telling time. He also stated that, since Nick Saban came to Alabama, all other SEC schools have changed coaches at least once.
Kevin loves college sports and described himself as a bit cynical and writes “snarky” comments! He concluded his extremely interesting remarks with answers to some hot questions from the audience.
By: Bill Tunnell
From Our
GCAC Meeting
September 26th, 2016
Kevin Scarbinsky
Lead Sports Columnist for
Alabama
Media Group
Kevin Scarbinsky
By: Bill Tunnell
By: Bill Tunnell
After a delightful meal on the evening of Monday, October 10, 2016, Gulf Coast Athletic Club President David Lee welcomed all to the fourth bi-weekly meeting of the club with a rousing “WAR EAGLE” in honor of our Guest Speaker for the evening, former Auburn Quarterback Jason Campbell.
After introduction of guests and new members, Membership Chairman David DeMeyer announced we were at 101 members this year.
Gulf Shores High School Head Football Coach Jamie Williams again thanked the Club for the $5,000 contribution to buy new uniforms for the Varsity and Junior Varsity. Although the season has not been a rousing success, Coach stated, “We look good doing it!”. He ended his comments by saying the team is “learning a life lesson”.
President Lee brought the Club up to date with the weekly Office Football Pool. After six weeks, it appears that “Girls Rule”.
Dec McClelland did his usual excellent job of running the Team Reports. The Crying Towel was awarded to Bill Durmer and Rutgers University for their performance or lack thereof.
Our Guest Speaker was introduced as a native of Laurel, Mississippi. Jason Campbell led Auburn to an undefeated season in 2004, was SEC Player of the Year, and Most Valuable Player in the 2005 Sugar Bowl win over Virginia Tech. He was drafted by the Washington Redskins as the 25th overall pick in the First Round of the NFL Draft. In November 2006, he was the Redskins’ starting Quarterback. His career lasted 10 years with Washington and four other NFL teams. He will draw his NFL retirement starting at age 55. Last December, he was selected as an SEC Football Legend.
Campbell says he loves golf and is currently volunteering his time coaching football at Northview High School in Atlanta. He noted that some kids today believe they are entitled and don’t want to work hard to achieve goals, but believing they should be paid for those efforts. He said these kids generally have no plan, so it’s his job to help them get a plan.
Our Speaker said his brother went to Mississippi State and he almost went to LSU, but his Mother didn’t like Coach Saban, so he went to Auburn. He said the secret of Auburn’s success as a team that year was simple. “We had players praying for each other and playing for each other, encouraging each other.” Religion is very important to him.
Drafted by NFL Coach Joe Gibbs was big for him. “Don’t forget where you came from and be respectful.” Campbell said Gibbs told him to take advantage of opportunities and prepare to be a man, not just a football player. He stated “Life is so much bigger than football, at the end of the day, we all leave with nothing.”
After the 50/50 drawing, the meeting ended at 8:25pm.
Contributed by: Bill Tunnell
From Our
GCAC Meeting
October 10th, 2016
Jason Campbell
Auburn Quarterback
'99 Player of the Year
10-Years NFL Career
Jason Campbell
From an AL.com article of our last meeting with Jackie Sherrill as written by Daniel Boyett. I remember us being somewhat mesmerized by Jackie's predictions. You can read here how close they all came.....or are still coming!
Back in 1989, Jackie Sherrill had a vision of the future of college football.
It was then that he said the sport would eventually evolve into four super conferences, consisting of the ACC, Pac-10, Big 10 and SEC.
With the recent conference shuffling, Sherrill's old prediction is closer to reality. On Monday night at Craft Farms, the former Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Pitt and Washington State coach told the Gulf Coast Athletic Club about his expectations for realignment.
"When you look at expansion, you look at a team's fan base," said Sherrill, who resides in Wimberley, Texas, and is the president of GameOn Sports Nutrition. "What can they bring to the table? This is what goes on behind closed doors. They're not going to tell you they do this. Texas A&M, for example, increased the SEC's footprint television market by 40 percent.
"There's going to be some teams left out and they're going to be left out because of the fan base."
Sherrill, 67, sees 16 to 20 teams in each super conference, with the four champions in a playoff for the national title. In addition, Sherrill envisions a new governing body, not the NCAA, presiding over the conferences.
According to Sherrill, the benefactors of a new ruling association, which he said would be more translucent than the NCAA, will be the student-athletes, who would receive a stipend.
"It's going to benefit them, a bunch," he said. "You have national merit scholars that are getting living expenses, but the football players don't get living expenses. That's not right."
Sherrill's thoughts on further expansion include:
SEC: He sees the most likely targets as Clemson (fan base of 1.9 million), Georgia Tech (1.7), Virginia Tech (1.3), Missouri (1.0) and West Virginia (1.0).
Big 10: Sherrill expects Notre Dame, Texas, Virginia Tech and Rutgers to be candidates. Virginia Tech because of the Washington, D.C. market, and Rutgers because it has the highest following of any team in New York City.
Pac-12: Like many, Sherrill feels Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State will be added.
Big XII and Big East: Will no longer exist
Everyone else: Will play in another tier, operated by the NCAA.
"It's going to happen," Sherrill said, "and be all done pretty quickly."
Next
GCAC Meeting
October 24th, 2016
Jackie Sherrill
Head Coach at
Washington State
Pitt, Texas A&M,
Mississippi State
Coach Jackie Sherrill
AL.com
