Surprise.
The Sun Belt Pages brand began on aisle 14 of a local grocery store I worked at. I saw the seasonal arrival of college football preseason magazines and thought to myself it would be a fun idea to enlist the help of Thomas Gleaton and us make our own dedicated to Sun Belt football. That was Summer 2020.
Since then we’ve sold two copies of our magazine, cranked out a couple dozen podcast episodes with the talented Andrew Zimmel and grew our Twitter account to over 1,000 followers in a very short time thanks to the help of our social content man Zach Branner.
With this newsletter, we’ve tied together a strong community around Sun Belt football that wasn’t there before. That was our goal and I think we achieved it.
This is the last newsletter you will receive from the Sun Belt Pages.
On Nov 1 I will be starting a new chapter, one I’ve turned page after page for a long time to find.
I’ve accepted a job at the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Ms as the newest Sports Reporter. I’ll be covering Mississippi Gulf Coast prep sports and Southern Miss athletics.
It’s an opportunity I’m unbelievably excited for. I get to return to the coast lining the Gulf of Mexico and cover sports in a community rich with it. I get to cover a school with a passionate fanbase and I get to work with a company that still truly cares for local coverage.
It’s a new leg in a journey I’ve been on since 2016. There have been so many people who have helped out a kid at little ‘ol Troy over the past five years reach this point.
The following is a short thank you.
Starting with Nic Lewis at Forgotten5 and the family that came with it. The extremely talented Alex Funderburke was a joy to work alongside in our small blog covering Group of Five football and is an even greater joy to watch continue to grow.
Chase Gage popped in for a short moment before his natural writing ability earned him some well-deserved attention. Seeing him enjoy his new line of work in the broadcast has been awesome to witness.
These two pushed me to keep working even if they didn’t know it.
The support I’ve received from friends and family has often times been the only pillar I’ve stood on. My parents and my wife Angie have supported my efforts from the beginning. My social media presence can be entirely attributed to Daniel Samac who, without fail, retweeted everything I tweeted back when I had just 150 followers.
The SBP gang helped create an engaging community that fostered excitement for the players and schools that make the Sun Belt such a fun league.
Andrew, Zach, Thomas and especially Alyssa Newton: THANK YOU.
There are so many names I haven’t dropped and that includes anyone who has ever read my work and engaged with my social media. You guys are the real driving force for everything.
Now for the sad part.
The future of the Sun Belt Pages is a bit unknown. This may very well be the last season we operate in any shape or form. Newsletters will cease immediately. Tweets will become far-and-few in between from this Saturday through the end of the season. At which point the account will likely go cold. Andrew and I will continue to produce our podcast through the end of the season, but it will be socialed only on our SBP twitter account. For those that don’t follow us on Twitter, be sure to check Spotify each week around Tuesday or Wednesday.
There is hope. I happen to be covering a school that coincidentally will be joining the Sun Belt in 2023. It is not far-fetched to think we may fire things up again in a couple summers.
Until then, this is a goodbye.
But more importantly, this a thank you.
Scott Watkins.