Jackie Sherrill
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club opened its October 10, 2022 meeting in the Clubhouse at Craft Farms Golf Resort at 7:00pm. President George Autrey welcomed the crowd of 80 members and guests, including parents of our Scholar Athletes.
George reminded the assembled crowd that an RSVP is greatly needed as we weren’t expecting this many tonight. Please respond so we don’t put the Craft Farms staff in a bind.
The Football Poll has 26 participants and There Went The Irish (Dec McClelland), Carter1051, and John Boller continue to pace the pack. Last week, our Fearless Leader and your Editor’s better half, Cynthia Tunnell, won. The award? Bragging rights!! Other notables were named – you know who you are.
GSHS AD Coach Tubbs gave the Dolphin Report. When he announced GSHS Football has started the year at 7-1, the crowd went wild!! 2 games left, then the first round of the AHSAA playoffs begin in Gulf Shores on November 4 th . A new season attendance record has already been set. Volleyball is 41-15. GO, DOLPHINS!!!
Dr. Gaylon McCollough brought us our second Scholar Athletes of the year, each of whom will compete for the Male and Female Scholar Athlete Scholarships awarded each year by GCAC. Normally each scholarship awarded will be between $1,500 and $3,000, depending on the success of our fundraising activities. This year, our major event is the annual Golf Tournament at Craft Farms on Friday, November 18th. Go to our website for details.
Doc introduced our Female Scholar Athlete, Jensen Ward. She has a 3.9 GPA, President of the Senior Class, the International Club, and is the 2022 Homecoming Queen. She is a four-year soccer star, being the high scorer and selected for All State last year. She is in the National Honor Society and also in Coastal Alabama Junior Leadership. This Girls State attendee plans to go to Mississippi College on a soccer scholarship and will study kinesiology on her path to a medical degree.
Our Male Scholar Athlete is Cameron Cooper, last week’s Player of the Week on the GSHS Football Team. This Tight End/Middle Linebacker has a 3.98 GPA and has played FB for 4 years. He leads in the team with 50 tackles and 2 sacks, plus has 3 catches. This National Honor Society member is undecided on a college, but wants to get a degree in Business and return to Gulf Shores and own his own business.
Team Reports were handled by Dec McClelland who told the crowd the SEC had 4 teams in the Top 10 and 6 in the Top 25. After another week of thrilling team reports, the coveted Crying Towel was awarded to the Kentucky Wildcats for their thumping by the South Carolina Gamecocks 24-14.
Dr. McCollough did double duty again this week, with his beautiful bride present, and introduced our Speaker, his former University of Alabama National Championship (64 & 65) teammate and Coach Extraordinaire Jackie Sherrill. This Oklahoma native/Biloxi, Mississippi transplant always wanted to be a Coach. He started under Johnny Majors at Tennessee, then Washington State, then was named Head
Coach at Pitt (where he coached Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino) with a 50-9 record. In 1982, he went to Texas A&M as Head Coach & Athletic Director where he won 3 Southwest Conference Championships and created the infamous 12th Man Kickoff Team. In 1991, he went to Mississippi State and is a member of the MS Sports Hall of Fame.
Coach talked about a variety of issues and stated that, some years back, he had predicted the current state in disorder in the NCAA since the NCAA didn’t care for the athletes. Elimination of athletic dormitories and training tables, curfews, and rules hindered Coaches from trying to teach boys to be men. He said back then the PAC-12 was going away, and look at recent developments. He feels we are headed toward a 40-60 team national conference without the NCAA, all about fans, dollars, and market share.
He said years ago, the NCAA could have given players the same thing as what we now have with NIL. He believes guardrails must be put in place on NIL and NIL Collectives will now dominate as the situation can never be reversed. The Transfer Portal exists because the NCAA doesn’t care for the Student Athlete and recruiting to keep your own players is harder than getting new ones. He noted that he, Gaylon, and their Alabama teammates got $15 per month!! Coach went to Alabama because he wanted to play for the Bear, who he said took care of his players, none ever like him. Coach Bryant also gave the UA professors $1.5 million in the early 60s as the professors hadn’t had a raise in 5 years. Class Act!!
Jackie stated college football is all about developing players, where the NFL is all strictly about production. He has 3 P’s: 1) prepare players, 2) practice the players so the game is easier than practice, and 3) put them in the right position. Another incredibly insightful program from one of the game’s Best.
Our annual fundraising golf tournament is November 18th and we need sponsors and players!!
The 50/50 pot was awarded to Doctor McCollough which immediately handed the award money off to our Scholarship Nominees!
Next meeting on October 10th will feature current GSHS Coach Paul Rhoads, former HC at Iowa State.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30pm.
