Gulf Shores reached the summit and claimed its first-ever state championship in 2023. The Dolphins’ reward was a return to Class 6A due to enrollment and a spot in one of the toughest regions in the state.

But Gulf Shores head football coach Mark Hudspeth said his team has been embracing the challenges and were ready to prove what the Dolphins can do with the big boys.

“We’ve been in that classification before, three years ago we were 6A in the same region and finished 6-4 and actually had a good year as the first year of our program,” Hudspeth said at Gulf Coast Media Day. “We were a game short and didn’t make the playoffs but nevertheless it was a tough road each and every week and it’ll be that way again, that type of challenge every week.”

Although they will be entering as a champion, half of the other eight teams in the group have also won a title in the last ten years including Spanish Fort, St. Paul’s, McGill-Toolen and Saraland.

However, Hudspeth said the coaching staff worked the championship out of the team in the offseason and have shifted Gulf Shores’ focus solely onto the 2024 season.

“I think we’ve sort of got past that, I think this spring we kind of worked it out of them. I think we humbled them pretty good early and we haven’t really talked about it,” Hudspeth said. “We celebrated the remainder of that semester and when we came back that January, first day of school, we really haven’t even mentioned the state championship.”

Key pieces to the Dolphins’ title run, defensive back Carter Byrd and running back Kolin Wilson, confirmed this year’s discussions have been about this year’s season.

“We aren’t too focused on the championship last year, we’re set on winning against Choctawhatchee in the first game,” Byrd said.

“Just the workouts and the things they put us through, you’ve got to get your mindset focused on the next season knowing we lost a lot of seniors so we had to get ready for what’s coming in front of us,” Wilson said.

Follow running backs Janoy Ferguson and Jamir Alcius as well as defensive backs Elijah Myers, Blaize Thomas, Carter Davis and Jett Todd have also been putting in work alongside Wilson and Byrd this offseason.

Across the board, Hudspeth has seen his Gulf Shores Dolphins answer the call.

“Throughout my whole career, the thing is that tough teams win and I still believe that. That’s the way I train them and sometimes it’s hard, we ask a lot out of them but they’ve answered the bell in the way we train and prepare, we’re not there yet but we’re getting close,” Hudspeth said. “Our veteran guys and the guys we’re counting on are getting there and we want to have a tough team, a physical and disciplined team and if we can do that, we’ll find a way to put them in the right positions hopefully to be successful.”

The head coach also said they were “fortunate to not have much turnover” in the coaching staff with offensive coordinator Kenny Edenfield and defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder remaining at their posts. Former defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads also returned to the Gulf Shores staff after a year with Boston College.

Things will get real early and often with a three-game slate of top-tier programs on the Dolphins’ schedule.

“We open up with Choctawhatchee out of Florida, 11-win season and second round of the 5A Florida playoffs. Then we go on the road against MGM, a team that won 11 in 7A, then we come home, our second home game is against Saraland, a team that was a runner-up in 6A last year,” Hudspeth said. “So, a pretty good first-three-game gauntlet there, we’ll find a lot about our team early to say the least.”

Check out Gulf Shores' full interview as part of the third-annual Gulf Coast Media Day here.