JIm NAGY
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club opened its October 7, 2024 meeting in the Clubhouse at Craft Farms Golf Resort at 7:05pm. President George Autrey welcomed the almost overflowing crowd of about 70 attendees. He thanked the Craft Farms staff and stressed the importance of RSVP. New members and guests were introduced.
Our annual Golf Tournament is set for October 18th at Craft Farms, registration form on the website. Sponsorships are looking good, but we still need more teams!
The Pick “em Pool leaders seem to be depending on the computer’s Autoselect to leap ahead of everyone else. Well, not really, but the computer did pick 12 winners out of 15 one week for one of our leaders. Of course, that same computer selected well less than that for others! GCAC has been doing this for several years and any yearly winner will tell you it’s always settled in the last few games. Kudos to Kevin Corcoran for a great week and your Editor for coming close to the computer the next week.
Coach Watts gave us the Dolphin Report and emphasized how important community and GCAC support is to all GSHS teams. Volleyball is doing well, a little inconsistent, but Swimming has won two meets. The young Cross Country team is setting many new PRs and are getting better. Football has not been the season we wanted, but all are devoted to finishing the race. Go, Dolphins!
Doctor McCollough did his usual incredible job of highlighting out two newest Scholar-Athletes. Our Female Scholar-Athlete is Ellie Flaig who has a 4.18 GPA and 30 on her ACT. A Swimming champion, she is ranked in the Top Ten in the State of Alabama! Using AP classes, she is preparing to go to Auburn, Harvard, or another college to study medical research. “Thanks to GCAC, but a special thanks to Mom!!”
Our Male Scholar Athlete is Benjamin Anthony who excels in Soccer. He won the 5A State Soccer Championship and also 2 other titles and transferred from Bayside Academy. He is interested in Law & Philosophy at Alabama, Yale or others. He thanked his parents, teachers, & the Lord.
Doc did comment about the incredible job the Gulf Shores Schools Board of Education and its leadership, Kevin Corcoran, Dr. Akin, and the entire school system, for the huge improvement in overall grades, especially ACT scores, and the athletic teams’ successes. Fantastic!!
Team Reports and the Crying Towel were deftly handled by Dec McClelland in a relatively easy selection week. Dec always has the best consultants on the Committee, we think he mentioned Tom Brady and Pope Francis, but needless to say, the Crimson Tide, due to its drubbing by the Vanderbilt Commodores, were selected and Fed Dickinson took the “Music City Meltdown” Crying Towel.
Our Guest Speaker this week is Jim Nagy, Executive Director of the Senior Bowl. A native of Michigan and a UM graduate, he worked on the Scouting Teams for the Commanders, Patriots, Chiefs, and Seahawks and has three Super Bowl Rings! He took the Senior Bowl job in 2018, and the road to the NFL really does come through Mobile.
He gave us a great recent history of the game and NFL wishes, noting its efforts to support the Mobile and Baldwin County schools as they gave $5,000 each to 15 different schools. Senior Bowl 2023 saw 10 First Rounders and 45 of the Top 100 drafted. He fielded many questions about player selection and NFL interaction with the game and how the selection process works, with sometime pressure to recruit certain players.
Jim says he continually posts about players on social media and that certainly brings a heightened interest in the game to top quality players, but the real drawing card is the presence of the NFL at the game.
He sees NIL as a major challenge and colleges need a salary cap as there are some huge numbers out there. Editor’s Comment – Jim Nagy was one of the best and most informative programs in a long time.
The 50-50 prize was awarded to Mark Mitchel.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:15pm.
Our next program will be on October 21, 2024 and our Speaker will be Tyler Siskey former Assistant Athletic Director for Player Personnel of Ole Miss, Associate Director of Player Personnel at Alabama, Assistant Coach at South Alabama and Arkansas State.
Submitted by Bill Tunnell, GCAC Secretary
