Gulf Coast Media Sports Editor Parker Gillam

GCM

With the athletic calendar and all of its beautiful chaos swiftly approaching, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to the area and provide some of my early impressions from traveling around to different schools.

As one can likely gather, my name is Parker Gillam and I've been covering sports for the vast majority of my life. I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta (Roswell/Alpharetta area), born to parents who graduated from the University of Tennessee.

Their affinity for Volunteer and SEC athletics as a whole rubbed off on me, as college football, basketball and baseball were the only programs featured on my family's TV for much of the year.

Having spent virtually every Saturday watching CFB or CBB from sunrise to sunset, I eventually created a blog and associated Instagram account in high school that saw me cover the sports in a personal way. I like to think that endeavor set the foundation for everything to come in my future.

I went on to attend the University of Missouri, where I was fortunate enough to cover the Tigers' football and basketball teams as a beat writer for three years. Taking part in press conferences, covering home and road games and telling the stories of Mizzou's athletes was incredibly rewarding, and I'll certainly cherish all of that for the rest of my life.

My time in college saw me write for a handful of other sports outlets before graduation led me all the way down to McComb, Mississippi, to work for the Enterprise-Journal.

Your typical small, rural southern town, McComb and its surrounding area is as quaint as it is cultured. And much like Baldwin County, the people of Southwest Mississippi take their sports very seriously (Gulf Shores will experience that when McComb's Parklane Academy visits town this Friday).

I was fortunate enough to cover multiple state title teams, interview college/pro athletes and shed light on some special stories from that unique area. I'll fondly look back on the two years I spent in Pike County, and it was an experience that taught me so much in my early years of adult life.

But while looking for a new opporunity earlier this year, Gulf Coast Media caught my eye. I don't need to tell locals about how appealing the area is, but the allure of working for a more modern media outlet in a well-connected region was also a strong pull.

After meeting with Vince Johnson, Kayla and Micah Green, I was privlidged enough to be offered the sports editor position, and the decision was a fairly easy one.

Having now been in the area for four weeks, I also wanted to share my early impressions while encouraging any readers to reach out and share additional information (sports-related or otherwise) that you think may be useful. As listed above, my email is parker@gulfcoastmedia.com

I'm writing this piece weeks after starting because my early time in the area has been dominated by visiting the 13 high schools that reside within this county and getting an overall lay of the land.

So I'll start there. Pike County, where I moved from, is about a 25-minute drive from end-to-end at its longest point.

Meanwhile, Baldwin County is larger than Rhode Island. That has been an adjustment for sure, but I have truly enjoyed how diverse the geography, cultures and people are as a result.

As virtually every reader knows already, the Eastern Shore is wildly different from North/Central Baldwin, and the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach region is another beast entirely. Truthfully, I struggle to see how anyone could get bored living down here.

Speaking of the people, I want to thank the area for welcoming me with open arms. Having lived in the southeast for most of my life, I'm used to the standards of 'southern hospitality,' but many Baldwin County residents just seem especially happy with where they are at, and they like to share that feeling.

And of course, I also have to talk about the school facilities that I have seen. Pike County was a much more rural area than this, and although I initially thought my alma mater of Milton (GA) was an impressive building, it has nothing on some of the area's facilities.

Gulf Shores' incredible renovations speak for themselves, as do the structures at Orange Beach, Elberta, etc.

For example, I had never seen a high school football team with an indoor practice facility, much less a covered pavilion. But down here, it seems like nearly every school has some form of additional facility besides its main practice field, a sign of how invested the area is in its sports.

I could also delve into the food, weather or other niche aspects of this community, but I've written enough for this self-centered piece.

Thank you for reading and welcoming me into the area, and I'm incredibly excited to get started covering the county's athletes throughout this academic year.

As always, if you have any story ideas, photo/video submissions, social media content or anything else you believe Gulf Coast Media should know about, please reach out to me at parker@gulfcoastmedia.com.

And as a personal aside, if anybody would like to follow my X/Twitter page (@gillam_parker) along with @GCMSportsAL, I frequently share my thoughts on the college football/basketball scene and am always open to conversation/debate regarding those topics.