Coach Bobby Pierce

(No relation)

My job as media relations coordinator at SAMC led to a busy, but fun day on Tuesday, July 29. Each year in late August, the hospital sponsors a Community Health Fair for Men, providing free health screenings for local men. The screenings include PSA screenings for prostate cancer, cholesterol and thyroid, glucose, and blood pressure screening. Height/Weight/Body Fat analysis is also available, as is stroke assessment and vision testing, all free of charge. For more information, go here.

Each year a local celebrity serves as spokesman for the Community Health Fair for Men and this year's spokesman is Bobby Pierce, head baseball coach at Troy University. Coach Pierce is a native of Marianna, Florida and is probably one of the top rising stars in NCAA baseball coaching ranks. In 19 years of coaching, he's never had a losing season and his teams have won championships at almost every stop.

For the health fair, SAMC does a local media tour and news conference with the spokesman every year and Tuesday was the day for that. First we took Coach Pierce to WTVY-TV's studios to tape a couple of segments with local broadcasting icon Ann Varnum. After that, we went back to the hospital for the news conference at 10 a.m. Then it was off to WDHN-TV's studios for a 30-minute live interview on Charlie Platt's Tri-States Today program. Charlie interviewed Pierce, Dr. Robert Schuyler (a urologist with Urological Associates of Dothan) and myself about prostate cancer, men's health in general, and details about the Community Health Fair for Men.
After lunch, we had one other taping, back at WTVY's studios, with news anchor Reginald Jones. Reginald has a 30-minute public affairs show called "Weekend Edition." This taping included Coach Pierce and SAMC director of Community Relations Mark Stewart. When the "Weekend Edition" taping was over, I had to hurry back to the Medical Center to meet a group of people from McKesson who would spend the next day interviewing and photographing some of the hospital's doctors and staff for an ad campaign for their company.