The Alabama High School Athletic Association’s new Private Class AA, Region 1 lineup brings together five Mobile-area private school football programs with winning traditions, setting up a crowded chase for just four available playoff spots.
Private AA currently has only two regions of eight teams each, with the top four teams from each region advancing to a playoff format covering just three weeks, including the title game. Some private-school officials have asked the AHSAA to expand the playoff field to six teams per region in this, the association’s first season of split championships separating private schools (two classifications) from public schools (six classifications), though the format remains unchanged for now.
Region 1 features UMS-Wright, St. Paul’s, St. Michael, McGill-Toolen and Faith Academy from the Mobile area, joined by Glenwood School of Phenix City, Montgomery Catholic and Houston Academy of Dothan. Last season, before the split-championship realignment, St. Paul’s and McGill-Toolen competed in Class 6A, Region 1; UMS-Wright and Faith Academy were in Class 5A, Region 1; Montgomery Catholic was in Class 5A, Region 2; St. Michael played in Class 4A, Region 1; Glenwood competed in Class 3A, Region 4; and Houston Academy was in Class 3A, Region 2 — meaning several of these programs are facing each other as regional opponents for the first time in years.
St. Paul’s head coach Ham Barnett summed up the challenge facing the new region. “I think it’s a really tough region,” Barnett said. “I think year in and year out, there’s five teams that are in our region making big playoff runs, and so I think with the current playoff format — which I hope changes, but it might not — a really good team’s going to be left out. It kind of feels like [the former Class] 6A, Region 1, where we had six really good teams… and then two got left out [of the playoffs], so we’re trading one tough region for another tough region, but that’s football.”
The region’s coaching landscape includes several notable storylines: UMS-Wright’s Sam Williams enters his second year after an 8-5 debut season; St. Michael is led by Philip Rivers, whose son Gunner Rivers is a top quarterback prospect, with a 24-16 record over three seasons; and Faith Academy, under coach Jack French, has made six consecutive playoff appearances, including trips to the Class 2A semifinals in 2020 and 2021.