What makes a good burger?
Is it the meat used to make it? Or maybe it's how the patty is seasoned?
The executive board members of Gator Grill Club have a simpler explanation — it's the grill.
Understanding how to grill meat to perfection, and bonding with others over it, is exactly why Gator Grill Club, a new student organization dedicated to the art of grilling, was founded.
The club’s first official meeting drew a crowd of around 300 students to Flavet Field. The e-board cooked burgers and hot dogs while teaching interested students the importance of grill safety.
Tyson Jimerson, a 19-year-old UF finance freshman, has been a member of the club since its first meeting.
Jimerson originally became involved with the club after playing a basketball game with its founder, he said. A desire to learn more about proper grilling drew Jimerson in, but the club’s focus on outreach made him stay.
The club plans to do cookouts for the homeless as its main form of community outreach. It also hopes to host grill safety events and bring in animal science students to showcase how meat is processed.
“At the end of the day, if you're not doing something to contribute to the community, there's something more you could be doing,” Jimerson said.
The club plans to meet on Wednesdays, with each meeting focused on different aspects of grilling. While some will be more akin to the first meeting, which was a grill-out, others will focus on food safety and how to grill properly.
Members have various degrees of barbecue backgrounds. The logistical head of the club, Ava Prator, a 19-year-old UF computer engineering sophomore, is among those helping out more behind the scenes than on the grill.
“I help a lot with room bookings. Right now, I’m making merch. I take notes and keep track of what’s going on,” Prator said. “I don’t have a lot of grilling experience, but I do like to help when I can.”
Another member of the e-board, Reed Coene, a 19-year-old UF finance freshman, believes the logical next step for the club is partnering with businesses in Gainesville. Doing so could help the club, which currently pays for costs out of pocket, secure more stable funding, he said.
“It's definitely going,” Coene said of his quest for sponsorship. “But we haven't really gotten any responses back yet.”
Despite the difficulties with outreach, members are still hopeful they’ll be able to grow the club more than they have already, said Coene.
Coene said he’s grateful for the work club founder Cooper Zysk did to get the club started.
Zysk, a 19-year-old UF construction management freshman, has been an avid griller his entire life. In high school, Zysk and his friends had cookouts for football games. What started as a hangout between friends became a cherished tradition.
It was this sense of tradition — and the community that came with it — that Zysk wanted to bring to UF, he said.
But founding Gator Grill Club wasn’t an easy task. While Zysk started the process of making the club in September 2025, it didn’t become official until January due to safety reasons — mostly around allowing students to be in contact with fire on campus without officials present.
Before the club got started, it first had to get insurance.
For Zysk, the club’s success is a dream come true, he said. Only one meeting in, the team behind Gator Grill Club has cooked over 300 burgers and 500 hot dogs.
“So far, it's been a wonderful, wonderful job for our exec team and everyone who's been working together with it,” Zysk said. “Our future is very bright.”
Contact Nevaeh at nbakerharris@alligator.org. Follow her on X @nbakerharris.
Nevaeh Baker Harris is a first-year sports and media journalism major and The Alligator's Spring 2026 Student Government reporter. In her free time, she enjoys watching medical dramas, reading horror novels, and listening to 90s rock music.
