St. Michael football team makes special trip to Shrine

By LUCY LUNSFORD
For The Catholic Week 
HANCEVILLE — Two buses pulled into The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Onboard were 70 football players from St. Michael’s Catholic High School in Fairhope. Leading the group was former NFL quarterback, Philip Rivers, who took the head coaching job at St. Michael after retiring from the NFL in 2021. 
The team spent time camping and team building at the Diocese of Birmingham’s Camp Tekakwitha, visiting the Cenacolo community, and The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, all while on their way to Athens to play their jamboree game against Rivers' high school alma mater, Athens High School. 
Even on a tight schedule, the players spent time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, attended noon Mass and heard a talk about Mother Angelica and the history of the Shrine.
Said Rivers: "... Coming here to the Shrine is special for me, its been many, many years since I’ve been here. It's special to my family, my wife was a convert and Mother Angelica, tapes and her on EWTN was a big part of that. Seeing the place here and these nuns, just all of it, it’s unbelievable. Our players were going ‘where are we again? You said we were in Alabama?’ I know you don’t feel like it.”
“At St. Michael’s … we talk about the whole young man wanting to grow in our faith, in our academics and on the football field. Not just win a game or make a tackle or make a throw, it’s more than that, it’s bigger than that. And not just I, but our staff, we share that all the time. And of course we want to win and we’re competitive, all those traits, because those help you grow in your faith and other aspects of your life. It touched all the emotions this week. I think very impactful. And some of them, it may not have touched this week, but you know the Holy Spirit was alive and working here on these young men and hopefully it will have an impact on them in their future.”