Bo Bounds
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club opened its November 22, 2021 meeting at Woodside Restaurant in Gulf Shores. President George Autrey welcomed the crowd to Rivalry Week at 6:50pm. Our Guest Introducer was Rev. Will Lowery of Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Gulf Shores, a noted Mississippi State fan. George reported no new Club business to be handled tonight.
Coach Tubbs gave the Gulf Shores High School Winter Sports report. GSHS beat Orange Beach, which is always good for the Dolphins. The Swim Team has qualified for State. Boys and Girls Bowling teams are in full swing with the Girls currently undefeated, Shout Out to Coach Owen Corcoran! GO, DOLPHINS!
Dr. Gaylon McCollough introduced two more exceptional GSHS Scholar-Athletes to the assembled crowd, always the best part of any meeting. Our Female Scholar-Athlete is Sachi Patel, who has a 4.0 GPA and a 24 on the ACT. This straight A student is on the undefeated Bowling Team and is headed to the Loveliest Village on the Plains, Auburn, where she plans to major in Biomedical Science with a future in Dentistry.
Brain Brunick, our Male Scholar-Athlete, has a 4.3 GPA and a 29 in the ACT. He has played 4 years on the Dolphin Football Team and is a member of the National Honor Society. He is a member of the Future Farmers of America and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He went to Boys State and also attended the Hugh O’Brien Leadership program. He plans to be a pilot and will attend Auburn University and major in Aviation. Congratulations to both these outstanding Scholar-Athletes!
Doctor McCollough did mention both these and our other featured Scholar-Athletes are in the running for two GCAC scholarships that will be presented in the Spring.
The Prolific Pigskin Prognosticator Football Pool is winding toward its season end, with only about a few weeks left in the fight for the trophy!
Team Reports were handled by the one and only Kevin Corcoran, a relative rookie at giving these reports – only has about 15 years’ experience!! Reverting to the old recounting of the Top 25, Kevin and the fans of each represented teams had an opportunity to plead their respective cases for success or mediocrity, as the case may be.
CRYING TOWEL – who to pick with so much to choose from?? Respecting our ‘tradition’ of not insulting a team more than once in the season (you all know who you are), the Crying Towel went to our GulfHusker, Jim Walker, for Nebraska’s loss to Wisconsin. Although Jim wasn’t there to accept the “Close but no cigar” embroidered linen, President George, who handled the “presentation”, said he’d get it to Jim.
Only 3-8 for the year, it was noted that they lost 7 of the 8 by 7 points or less.
(Publisher Note: Best 3 and 9 team in CFB History! ;-)
The before-mentioned Rev. Lowery handled the introduction of our Guest Speaker and his longtime friend, Bo Bounds, host and owner of the ESPN radio show, “Out of Bounds”, the best sports talk in the State of Mississippi, covering Ole Miss, State, the Tide, and the Saints M-F from 7-10am on 105.9 The Zone and by podcast. This MSU
graduate also has his own clothing line!
Giving a shout out to the National Champion MSU Baseball team, Bounds said he’d been coming to our area for years. He talked about what he calls the silly season, where coaches are fired and everyone else guesses who’s going where. He talked about the rivalries and who’s got what chance against whom. Most of his coaching changes to happen this year have not panned out, but it makes for great ratings. He mentioned several talented players and some coaches, like Kiffin and Leech, who always make for great radio. He targeted three areas that he sees as future trends: 1) sports betting, soon to be nationwide; 2) NIL – name, image, likeness – which he likes as a legal way to get athletes cash in college, and; 3) internships which are not allowed in NCAA sports, but legal everywhere else in business.
Bo said that sports marketing and sports in general is the largest industry and if you can generate content and attract listeners and sponsors, you can be successful. He made other comments about the playoffs, coaching changes, sports agents, rich boosters, buyouts, and other topics. Dr. McCollough brought up his concern of how NIL is polluting amateur sports and where does it stop. No one had that answer.
Bo Bounds was most entertaining. Tune in to his show.
The meeting adjourned at 8:04pm.
