Local grads thriving in leadership roles

A number of former Enterprise High School and New Brockton High School graduates are currently embracing leadership roles at both the University of Alabama and Auburn University.

Enterprise grads Jacob Quattlebaum, Bailee Sneed and Casey Doerer are all in leadership roles at Auburn, while Courtney Rogers is succeeding at Alabama. Former New Brockton graduate Ryan Griffin is also in a leadership role at Auburn.

Griffin is one of the drum majors for The Auburn Univeristy Marching Band after having previously served as drum major at NBHS.

“It was pretty crazy,” Griffin said of being named one of the drum majors. “I didn’t expect it coming into Auburn, it really wasn’t on my radar at first.

“A lot of people asked me if I wanted to or assumed I would but it wasn’t really something I thought of at first, because I wanted a music major. When I got to Auburn, though, and met some of the people in the band it became a goal of mine. It became something I wanted to do and wanted to try out for, so getting it was a surreal experience.”

Doerer is the co-captain of the cheerleading team at Auburn.

“It was awesome, just such an honor,” Doerer said of being selected as co-captain. “At first I really wasn’t able to process it because it’s such a huge honor.

“It’s such an honor just to be on the squad but an even bigger honor to be one of the two co-captains. It’s a big role, a big responsibility. I knew going into the process it wouldn’t be a simple job but it was something I really wanted to do and knew if I was given the opportunity to represent the squad and University I wanted to do it.”

Doerer said that after going through the process to become co-captain – which includes an interview with judges and her coach and input from her teammates – that it meant a lot to her to get the vote of confidence from both her teammates and coaches.

“We’re such a close team, so we all get along really well,” Doerer said. “To know that not just my coach and the panel of judges believed in me but knowing the squad believes in me and thinks that they would do well with my leadership was truly an honor and really humbling for me.”

Quattlebaum was urged to join the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) by former Auburn football star – and current NFL player – Derrick Brown as a freshmen and going into his senior year Quattlebaum was selected to serve as SAAC president.

“I felt honored but I was excited to be placed in a role like that,” Quattlebaum said. “A lot of my freshman year was spent in the classroom or practicing and working out, so (SAAC) was a way of taking on a leadership role which is something I wanted to learn how to be better at.

“That’s what I used it for. It was also another outlet for me to meet other student-athletes and get out of the normal college life where it’s just class and athletics. I can get involved in other stuff and build my resume that I can be proud of when I apply for jobs.”

SAAC is very involved in student life at Auburn with putting together charity drives or community service along with helping athletes out with issues like name, image and likeness regulations, but Quattlebaum said primarily the organization serves as the voice of athletes to the school’s administration.

“Our main role is we serve as the voice of student-athletes to our senior administration and to our athletic department,” Quattlebaum emphasized. “Whatever our student athletes need or if they are having issues or whatever it may be that they would like to voice, that’s where we step in and speak to the athletic department or to the senior administration.

“We provide a lot of opportunities for student-athletes to get out of just the athletics side of things and get into the real world and everything but we also serve as their voice for the issues they may have and voice those to the athletic department.”

Sneed is currently the Director of Scheduling for Aubie – Auburn’s mascot – but has also served as the Director of Communications and Marketing and Director of Fundraising for Aubie in the past.

“Our main role that we do is we take Aubie to appearances, film interactions with people, we accompany him to all sporting events and we each have our other individual roles,” Sneed said. “I control Aubie’s calendar. If anyone needs Aubie to come somewhere for an event or anything, they call me.”

Sneed – who was a cheerleader at Enterprise – said that she was simply looking for something to do when she came to Auburn leading to her involvement with Aubie.

“I was super involved in high school and I think it’s very easy to be involved in things at Enterprise because everyone sees all the options we have,” Sneed said. “When I got to Auburn I wanted to do something. I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to do something.

“There was one week where I just started applying for everything I saw. A friend of mine in my sorority was a Director of Aubie and suggested I apply there.

“When I got it I then realized it was a lot bigger than I thought, so I had to cut back on some other things, but it became my favorite thing to do. I fell in love with it.”

Rogers also said that it was an honor when she was selected as the captain of the color guard in Alabama’s Million Dollar Band.

“It was an honor,” she emphasized. “I put a lot of hard work in this program and to see that my coach recognizes that and sees that I can step up and be a leader for the team meant a lot and is an honor.”

Rogers said that she wasn’t even initially interested in being in the color guard in high school but after giving it a try she fell in love with it.

“My mom was really wanting me to try out in high school and then by my senior year I really wanted to pursue it (in college) and, in my opinion, ‘Bama has the best color guard in the state,” Rogers said. “That was the hardest try

-out I had ever gone through for the program here but it was a goal of mine.”

Griffin also serves as the president of Auburn’s male volleyball club and is a practice player for the women’s volleyball team, while also majoring in biomedical sciences. Quattlebaum is the starting long snapper for the Auburn football team to go along with his SAAC duties and is an electrical engineering major.

Rogers is in nursing school at Alabama, Doerer is also a former member of SAAC and is a marketing major and Sneed is a public relations major with a minor in business administration.

Time management is something that all of these leaders have said has been crucial in juggling all of the responsibilities they have.

“It’s all about time management,” Quattlebaum insisted. “It’s tough, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve come up with a good plan to manage my time.”

Quattlebaum said that he dedicated his mornings to school, his afternoons to football and his evenings to SAAC and his personal life. Griffin said that it’s taught him a lot of time management.

“It’s been crazy and a bit of a learning curve,” Griffin said. “It’s a lot of responsibility but it taught me a lot about time management. It’s been a challenge but I think I’ve learned a lot, especially about time management and prioritizing.”

Doerer said that this being her third year in the cheerleading program has helped her be able to handle all of her responsibilities.

“It’s not too bad with this being my third year, you kind of get in the rhythm of everything,” Doerer said. “The great thing about Auburn is you can’t try out (for cheerleading) your senior year (of high school). Most colleges you do that but at Auburn you try out for the first time after your freshman year.

“It was great because I was able to get a jump on my school work and everything and have a normal football season and make friends and then jump into the team the next year. It’s not too much to handle for me. It’s been a lot but it’s not too much and it’s something I really enjoy.”

Rogers is having to juggle her clinicals at Alabama along with school and band practice, but said she uses things like a planner to keep up with her schedule.

“It’s a lot to say the least,” Rogers said. “This semester is probably our hardest semester in nursing school. We go to the hospital twice a week the whole semester and my clinicals are in Birmingham, so I’m getting up at 5 a.m. to drive out there.

“It’s a lot but not anything I can’t handle. I have really good time management skills. I’ve learned to write everything down in my planner and check things off a little at a time. I like being busy and not having a lot of down time, too.”

Sneed says that while Aubie – who makes more than 1,000 appearances each year – is a high level of time commitment, she didn’t fully realize in the beginning she wouldn’t trade it now.

“It definitely can be hard to remember that my school work and social life or anything like that is just as important,” Sneed said. “Sometimes school work isn’t as fun as driving around Auburn with Aubie in your car listening to fun music with the windows down but it’s just as important.

“It definitely is a time commitment that I didn’t realize when I signed up for it but I’m thankful for it because I feel like I’ve learned a lot of skills that most people don’t learn until they get into the workforce. I’m getting those tactical hands-on skills, while still in college and that’s been really great for me.”