Local attorney Byron Cotton is this year’s All Sports amateur award winner. Cotton is a competitive tennis player — he is currently ranked Top 10 in doubles in the State of Florida, and Top 50 nationally.
Cotton began playing tennis as a boy, but then gave up the sport when he was injured in high school. After twenty years of not touching a racket or stepping on a court, Cotton began playing tennis again in 2010; by 2017 he was competing at nationals. In 2022 Cotton and his teammates from the Bluewater Bay Tennis Center won USTA regional and sectional events and placed fourth overall at nationals in the 7.0 18 and over category.
Cotton is a native of our area. He is a graduate of Choctaw High School (1992), Florida State University, and Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. Byron is married to Julie Cotton, who is Director of the Northwest Florida State College Hospitality and Tourism Management Program. Byron and Julie have one daughter, Callie, a 7th grader at Liza Jackson Preparatory School.