St. Michael Catholic School in Fairhope held their groundbreaking ceremony for their new, on-campus stadium this morning. The St. Michael Cardinals, who compete in 4A, are led by head coach and former NFL QB Philip Rivers. The program has only been active for five years and has been playing their home games at Fairhope.
“I just think anytime you have a place that’s your home, it’s huge. It’s huge for all the students, for the players, that it’s your own home. We’ve had unbelievable hosts for our home games in Fairhope, and our baseball and softball teams in Daphne, who have been so generous to have us there, but it’s not ours. Everyone wants to have their home stadium that they take pride in, our students come to their school to go to ball games so it’s exciting and I’m looking forward to it,” Rivers stated on the new stadium.
Interim Principal Paul Knapstein spoke at the ceremony as well about what it will mean to the school to have an on-campus stadium that St. Michael can call their own:
“Three years ago we started a campaign called bring our Cardinals home, the concept was to eventually have playing fields for all the teams here at St. Michael. We purchased land, rebuilt our field-house, and are about to start our 8th year. We’ve had great support from Fairhope and Daphne, but it’s time. It’s time to have a stadium on campus and we are so grateful.”
St. Michael is a program trending in the right direction, winning 11 games over the last two years after losing 18 region games in a row in the previous years. The new stadium will only continue the development of a program that is still just getting started.
