GULF SHORES — Not long ago, Gulf Shores High School's track and field program was still carving out its identity.

Along with the rest of the school's athletics, the Dolphins were transitioning from a county district school to a city program and searching for consistency on the competition fields.

The program has been under the control of coach Jason Hill for the last eight years. He moved his family to the coast two years before that in 2016, leaving his head football coaching job at Vincent High School.

"When I first came here, track was kind of an afterthought," Hill said. "Really, the athletic programs in general were kind of an afterthought — but once we became a city school [in 2019], we've actually had six individual state champions and also finished either first or second in the boys and girls sectionals every year. So, that just goes to attest more to the fact that this community is not only academics, but athletics as well now."

Under Hill, the program has steadily transformed from a developing roster into a pipeline of high-level performers, and he said they are still making their own place in the Gulf Shores athletics family.

"We are no longer second fiddle to nobody," Hill said.

What once was something being built from the ground up is now a program with expectations — and the athletes to meet them.

MAKING WAVES

Some of the latest examples of building that winning culture are Carter Davis, Harrison Wright and the Howe brothers, athletes who set the tone for the program.

Davis is a junior at Gulf Shores and has emerged as one of the top football prospects in the country for the Class of 2027. However, he's also now considered Alabama's top prep sprinter with an unbeaten record in all of his heats over the last two years.

Wright is a senior distance runner with several school records as well and is a member of the basketball and cross country programs.

The Howe brothers, Anthony and Matthew, represent another layer of the program's future. Matthew, a sophomore, and Anthony, a junior, arrived at Gulf Shores with little to no experience pole vaulting only to become mainstays in the event. Matthew began taking on the event as a seventh grader, and Anthony did not start vaulting until the family arrived to Gulf Shores. The two are also on the junior varsity golf team.

With two brothers who took on the challenge of pole vaulting and a duo of standout athletes in other sports who took their talents to the starting lines, Hill has built a program benefiting off the talent walking the campus.

And coaching multi-sport athletes comes with having that "players' coach" trait, a trait that Matthew Howe said he believes Hill embodies.

"He is the most supportive coach I've ever had," Howe said. "He is THE coach you want if you are just getting into events like the pole vault or the decathlon — I wouldn't want another coach other than him."

But coaching these athletes in an individual sport comes with having to showcase mental discipline, for both the coach and the athlete. Hill leans on the trust of the athletics program as a whole to keep dual-sport athletes in shape while he works on bringing track-only kids to the next level with offseason work.

"It takes mental discipline to be a multi-sport guy," Hill said. "My kids that are track-only kids, they're locked in. My distance kids run half marathons, they're constantly running year round. My throwers have throwing events — we host three throwing events during summer — We're trying our best to keep growing the track family to the point where we are no longer an afterthought."

Now, although dual-sport athletes and upperclassmen headline the program currently, Hill is all in on the potential of underclassmen within the program and other track-only stars on their way up the ranks.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

One of the things Hill was most excited to talk about was another member of the Howe family, Matthew and Anthony's little brother, Ethan, who is vaulting 8 feet as a sixth-grader right now.

"We're thinking he's gonna pass everybody if he sticks with it, and we were hoping he does," Hill said of the youngest Howe brother.

The underclassmen or future hopeful standouts of the program do not end with Ethan Howe for the Dolphins. Hill said to keep an eye out for sophomore sprinter Tevonna Campbell, junior thrower Allie Reed and eighth-grade jumper Grace Grissom. Campbell holds four school records, Reed was a state qualifier for the indoor meet and Grissom ranks in the top 15 of the state's middle school long jumpers.

Hill is no longer having to rely on his headliners of the program to put them in a spot to win a team state championship. The program actually claimed its first team title during the boys indoor season just a few months ago — and now they aim to add more hardware to the trophy case when they host the 2026 outdoor track and field state meet at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex in late April.

"When you get to the state meet, you know you're at least in the top 24 of the entire state, so that's pretty cool," Hill said. "And the fact that we host it here is even cooler. That kind of gives our kids a home field advantage because that's where we practice every day."

If you check in on Gulf Shores athletics in the current day from a social media standpoint, they have truly built a brand. From their slogan "Make Waves" to head football coach Mark Hudspeth posting "#BallatTheBeach," the Dolphins celebrate their successes and use it as promotion of the athletes.

"You have athletes that are coming here to get expert coaching," Hill said of Gulf Shores athletics. "To get great academics, to see great facilities. And so we have people that are moving here from all over the country, all over the state, that are coming here because of what we offer. The uniqueness of what we offer and the incredible facilities that we already have, that is just part of it."

Athletic director Jason Watts chimed in as well and credited city leaders, the school board, Gulf Shores staff and more for valuing education and athletics for the current generation while also setting the next up for success.

"Coach Hill and his staff have worked extremely hard building the track and field program," Watts said. "The rise in success of the program is directly tied to the amazing student athletes we are blessed with here at Gulf Shores High School and the dedicated coaches who work so hard teaching and coaching our athletes."

Gulf Shores will open a brand-new, top-notch campus for the 2026-27 school year, and along with it comes one of the best athletics facilities in south Alabama.

Already hitting milestones that put them alongside other athletics in the school, the Dolphins track and field team is past building the program — now, they establish the winning culture.