Allen baynes
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club opened its August 26, 2024 meeting in the Clubhouse at Craft Farms Golf Resort at 7:00pm. President George Autrey welcomed the crowd of 61 attendees to our new season. He stressed the importance of RSVP for the bi-weekly meetings.
He informed the crowd of our newly revised website at gcathleticclub.com , completely redone by new Board Member and Web Guru, Sean Merron, who has taken over from longtime Website hero, Jim Walker. New logo, new look!! Check it out. Membership is still open for this year as we approach 70-80 members, which is a good fit for us. You can join, sign up for golf or the Pick “Em Pool, and other items. $300 per member for eight great meetings! gcathleticclub.com
Our annual Golf Tournament is set for October 18th at Craft Farms, registration form on the website and also sponsorship opportunities can be claimed there as well. We moved up from chilly November. Our annual dues pay for meeting meals and speakers, but the golf tournament raises funds for our two annual Scholar Athlete Scholarships and Gulf Shores High School and other student related funding requests. We recently gave GSHS Athletics money for purchase of new video equipment.
It’s time for our annual Pick “Em Pool or, more officially, the Prolific Pigskin Prognosticator Pool. It kicks off this coming weekend. $25 gives you picking opportunities against the odds for 10-12 games each week through the year end, with cash prizes and a cool trophy at the end. Lamborghini aka Todd Lamb is the Defending Champion. Your Editor proudly points out he won the first year in 2016, but his bride, HiYield aka Cynthia Tunnell, is the only two-time champion. Board Member Zach Estes is handling the Pool this year for GCAC.
New members and guests were introduced. Lots of new people, awesome!!
The GSHS Dolphin Report was deftly handled by new Athletic Director, Jason Watts, who performed like a seasoned pro! Football started last Friday with a loss to NW Florida powerhouse Choctawhatchee HS from Fort Walton Beach, FL. The season looks more favorable from this point forward even though we moved up to 6A after winning last year’s 5A State Championship! Mary G. Montgomery of Mobile is next. Volleyball Girls are really good at Varsity and JV levels, the future looks bright. Cross Country is starting soon. GO, DOLPHINS!!
Team Reports and the Crying Towel were handled with usual tongue-in-cheek by Dec McClelland. After hearing from the assorted team fans in the audience, all with rosy optimistic attitudes, the world stopped. Never before has a Crying Towel been awarded on Weekend 0 and at out first meeting, but Florida State, ranked #10, fell to Georgia Tech 24-21 in Dec’s beloved Dublin, Ireland. “Yellow Jackets dance an Irish Jig…put a sting in your “chop”! New member and FSU fan Bill Raus, attending his first ever meeting, good-naturedly accepted the Crying Towel on behalf of FSU. Don’t worry, Bill, it’ll be better!
New GCAC Treasurer David Harper introduced our Guest Speaker, Allen Baynes and his wife, Christie. Allen graduated from Auburn in 99 and started officiating in Arena Football after that. He was a Side Judge at this year’s Super Bowl LVIII played in Las Vegas in February 2024. His father and brother have both officiated at Super Bowl games, an incredible family achievement!! He’s a member of the Alabama Officials Hall of Fame and sells Real Estate for Sotheby’s in Birmingham as a livelihood.
His wife is an UA graduate and he started NCAA officiating the year Nick Saban came to UA, Allen, an AU grad, said he needed to get out of the house on weekends! After 16 years, lots of experiences. He and his Officiating Team of 7 work together all year, are graded on their performance on every play, and always “be clear, obvious, and solid in all their calls. The goal is, that after the game, they’re not talking about us.” He says they receive their individual game performance grades on Wednesday of each week.
Allen reviewed the new NFL and NCAA rules for this year. NFL kickoffs have drastically changed with a Landing Zone to cut down on player concussions and the replay challenge is different and could affect game outcomes. NCAA changes include a new Two-Minute Timeout and player communications from sideline to Quarterback. NFL on-side kicks are only allowed in the Fourth Quarter and must be announced, no more surprises!! An excellent presentation by a really great guy!! Thanks, Allen.
The 50-50 prize was awarded to Bama Fan John Mitchell.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:18pm.
Our next program on September 9, 2024 and our Speaker will be Mr. College Football, Tony Barnhart.
Submitted by Bill Tunnell, GCAC Secretary
