When did St Pauls get so good?

[mattd 3]

Maybe I wasn't paying enought attention to HS football, but I had never heard of St Pauls until 2 yrs ago. Then all of a sudden they have 5-6? top Div 1 players. Have they always been a good team? Or just recently? More or less curious..

[rcgroom 0]

They have always been pretty good...i went to Murphy...another Mobile Alabama high school. St pauls was always strong while i was there (1999-2003).

That is also were Jake Peavy the San Diego Padres pitcher went.....it is a very expensive school....so they always churn out great players at every sport.

[mattd 3]

Not trying to stero type some ppl but there are some obvious players they had last year that were from less fortunate upbringings...how'd they get into St Pauls if it's so expensive?

[aumd03 2]

I'm pretty sure they offer scholarships for "academic- read as athletic" abilities.

I graduated from HS in 99 and that was the best baseball program in the state at that time hands down. They were as good as vestavia in baseball during their best days. I saw them mercy rule a team in the championship series. Of course they had Peavy and about 5 or 6 others that went pro or went div 1. I'm pretty sure they were also the pipeline behind that south alabama program.

[Wishbone 0]

Since I started going there in 1978.

[nimsjus 0]

I went to UMS from 1999-2002. During that time, UMS was much better and was winning state championships. SPs recruited several kids while I was in school and none of them really panned out. They were not bad players, but none were college prospects and none were any better than the non-scholarship kids SPs/UMS had. They also had several "foreign exchange students" who just happen to be on their home country's junior national teams (including Jean Felix from UAT). I think they have just been a little luckier with their recruiting recently. The scholarship guys they have brought in the last few years have been much better prospects and therefore their teams have been more successful. It is also not always the best to assume certain kids are the "recruits". I know there were always kids at UMS who people assumed were recruits and they were not. When I was in high school I definitely knew who was a recruit at SPs but, now I would not even venture a guess so as not to look foolish.

[bigsixfive 341]

Not trying to stero type some ppl but there are some obvious players they had last year that were from less fortunate upbringings...how'd they get into St Pauls if it's so expensive?

They offer scholarships. The penalty (at least in the Mobile area) is they have to bump up a division if they play public schools.

[Ravad 78]

Since I started going there in 1978.

Will you get to graduate soon?