A.J. McCarron
Gulf Coast Athletic Club Meeting November 17, 2025
The Gulf Coast Athletic Club held its November 17, 2025 meeting at the Craft Farms Golf Resort. Nice to be back on Monday night. GCAC President George Autrey welcomed the crowd of about 70 football fans at 7:00pm. Introductions of guests ensued. Must be getting close to an election since we had several candidates present, including former Congressman Jerry Carl, Baldwin County Sheriff Anthony Lowery, Baldwin County Commissioner candidate Angelo Fermo, and our Speaker!
Zach Estes gave a brief rundown of the current standings of the Prolific Pigskin Prognosticator contest. He said Matt Akin is a lucky man, must be because he’s leading! Hot on his heels is former Champ Cynthia Tunnell. Lots of games to go!
Coach Watts gave the GSHS Dolphin Report. Starting with Football, GSHS lost in the last 8 seconds of the First Round Playoff game. The team played well all year but gave up too many big plays. Swimming is headed to State this week. Basketball has started with the Girls 3-2 already. Boys are kicking off now. GO, DOLPHINS!!
Prior to introducing this week’s GSHS Scholar-Athletes, our Always All-Star Scholar-Athlete Dr. Gaylon McCollough gave a brief history of the Club’s contributions to Gulf Shores High School Athletics that now total more than $200,000 over the past 24 years. Funds generated by our golf tournament also fund scholarships for the annual Female and Male Scholar-Athlete, normally in the $2,500-$5,000 range.
Today’s Female Scholar-Athlete is Abby True who has a 4.33 GPA and a cool 31 on the ACT, making her a member of the 30 Club. This Senior excels in Softball and is the Volleyball Co-Captain and was Player of the Week for WJTC. She is Senior Class Treasurer and a member of the National Honor Society, also Chaplain at Girls’ State. She is going to the University of South Alabama for a career in speech and hearing.
Our Male Athlete is Levi Howard, an All-A student and a star on the Basketball team and Baseball team. He is a member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and will pursue a medical career. He thanked God and GSHS for all his opportunities.
Team Reports were conducted by the illustrious Dec McClelland who was at the top of his game. The legendary Crying Towel was given to Mississippi State for its ‘Egg-citing” loss to Missouri 49-27. There was a noticeable exhale from the Alabama table.
Our longtime Golf Tournament Fundraising Hero and University of Alabama graduate Fred Dickinson did a splendid job introducing a true UA Football legend A.J. McCarron. A native of Mobile and St. Paul’s HS, AJ won the State as a Junior Quarterback, then went to Bama where he played four years, went 36-4, and led the Tide to Back-to-Back National Championships, the first ever to do that. A runner-up for the Heisman Award, he played 11 years in the NFL and XFL. He and his wife have 3 sons and he hosts a great football camp.
He credits his parents with his strong work ethic (Get on top – stay there) and said he grew up dirt-poor but was able to go to St. Paul’s where he also was an All-American in baseball. He wanted to play two sports at Bama, but Coach Saban nixed that. He said he spent every Sunday in season with Coach reviewing film and talking football.
Your Editor can’t remember a Speaker with so much technical knowledge of the game, it was amazing as he pointed out great coaches, stellar players, why today’s teams, both college and Pro, are so different, and the running game at Bama is so different. AJ says that time management is the Tide’s biggest problem right now, but the Two-Minute Drill is great!
He talked at length about the current SEC Coaches’ situations, saying Lane Kiffin is the domino that could/will change everything, with maybe as high as 10 SEC coaches gone. He finished with his feelings about Strength of Schedule which is crucial to make the Playoffs.
Check out his weekly podcast, “The Dynasty”.
The 50-50 was drawn and the meeting was adjourned at 8:24pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Tunnell, GCAC Secretary
