Even before Philip Rivers left the NFL to become head coach of the St. Michael Catholic High School football team, there has been a mission in place at the school. “Bring Our Cardinals Home,” has been the rallying cry.

Wednesday morning, the Fairhope school took a major step in that direction, breaking ground on an on-campus football stadium that is projected to be the centerpiece of an athletic complex that will eventually include a baseball field, softball field, track and soccer field.

The football field and lights could be installed by this fall, though the optimistic hope is that the Cardinals will be playing in their new facility to begin the 2024 season.

“This is the third groundbreaking we’ve had in eight years,” said interim principal and athletics director Paul Knapstein. “First, we opened the school, then the fieldhouse and now we break ground on the football stadium.”

Rivers is in his third season leading the Cardinals football team. He said the excitement for an on-campus facility has been building since he first considered returning to the high school game.

“This means everything to us,” Rivers said. “It’s the next logical step in the growth of our school and our football program. We’ve got a great place to play now at Fairhope, but it has Pirates on the field and in the locker rooms, as it should. But this will allow our kids to experience the whole student experience. When people see that we’ve broken ground everybody will be excited to keep the ball rolling.”

Rivers said the field will have natural grass and will feature fans as close to the action as possible. His desire is to start small with the seating capacity until overflow crowds make it necessary to add more seating.

The new stadium will be just outside the existing fieldhouse and locker room.

“This can be a draw for other kids to come to St. Michael, but first we’ve got to focus on the kids who have already been here and deserve that full experience,” Rivers said. “We couldn’t be more excited to break ground.”

The ceremony included a blessing from Archbishop Thomas Brodi of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile. He told of the first meeting 14 years ago to discuss opening the school. His prayer concluded with “may the Cardinals win many games here,” before adding that the pope didn’t actual sanction that last part of the blessing.