Scott Phelps, the first football coach in this history of St. Michael Catholic, resigned Monday afternoon.
He will transition into an assistant athletic director role at the school.
“My wife and I think this is the right time,” Phelps said in a news release. “I’ve been coaching 38 years now, and our youngest son is graduating from St. Michael next month. The freshmen I coached in our first year will graduate in May. Our spring season has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic – put that all together, and we just think this is the best time to make the transition.”
Phelps told his assistant coaches about the decision Monday night and met with the team via video conference. St. Michael athletic director Paul Knapstein said the search for a replacement would begin immediately.
“I will be eternally grateful to coach Phelps for starting our football program,” Knapstein said. “His work ethic was a positive example to our young men. Coach Phelps took a group of young, inexperienced first-time football players and, in four short years, made them a competitive group on the field.
“The level of improvement from year to year our team showed was simply incredible. Coach Phelps has put our team in a position to succeed in the future.”
In Phelps’ first season, the few players he had – none of whom could drive – worked out at the Bounds YMCA in Daphne and at nearby Trione Park as the school was being built in Fairhope. The Cardinals play their games at Fairhope Municipal Stadium.
“Coach Phelps didn’t just begin football here,” St. Michael principal Faustin Weber said in the release. “In a very real way, he is a co-founder of our athletic program. He was the only P.E. teacher in our first year, our only football coach on staff, our only weight coach, our first baseball coach, our only bus driver.
“With just 99 students in the school, less than half of whom were boys, he started football, with 13 eligible players and five other kids who were ineligible for 18 months because they transferred. We began with no field to practice on, no equipment, no schedule, no traditions. He’s been a strong Christian role model to our young men — a ‘guy’s guy.’”
The Cardinals were 3-18 in varsity games under Phelps. Last year’s team collected victories over McIntosh and Elberta. St. Michael participated in Class 3A each of the last two years but is scheduled to move up to 4A this fall.
Phelps has spent 22 years as a head coach in Alabama. He went 103-46 in 12 years at Leroy, winning the Class 2A state title in 2004. He also was 13-47 in six years at Robertsdale.