New 'Rusty Cowles Fieldhouse' at St. Michael unveiled

By ROB HERBST
The Catholic Week
FAIRHOPE — St. Michael Catholic High School’s transformation took another step on Feb. 24 with the dedication and blessing of the new “Rusty Cowles Fieldhouse.”
The fieldhouse includes a weight room, two locker rooms each for boys and girls, showers and bathrooms, coaches’ offices, a multimedia room, training room and storage space. It’s the second phase of a four-phase, $5.1 million campaign. Remaining phases include site development for an athletic complex and then construction of the athletic complex which will allow St. Michael to host games.
It’s been a major transformation for the school which is not yet five years old.
“What a 4-1/2 years it has been,” Principal Faustin Weber said. “God has been good to us. We are remarkably blessed.”
Weber added the school had 99 students and sponsored six junior varsity teams and offered two physical education classes when it opened in 2016. All used two locker rooms behind the gymnasium. Now the school has 20 varsity teams, eight JV squads and eight physical education classes. All were using the same two locker rooms. 
“This field house will prove to be a tremendous gift to our student-athletes and coaches,” he said.
Archdiocese of Mobile Superintendent of Catholic Schools Gwen Byrd added that the success of St. Michael is much more than the construction progress which has been made in 4-1/2 years.
“Something wonderful has happened,” Byrd said. “It’s not the marvelous buildings that we have, it’s who’s in those marvelous buildings and how they are. I am here today to tell you I could not be more proud of what I hear about the character of the people who go here, the people who teach here, the people who lead here. For me, that’s my answer to prayer. That’s why the Cardinals are here, the wonderful school is here. God is with us.”
The fieldhouse is named after Rusty Cowles, the son of Gary and Terri Cowles, who died at age 10 in a 4WD accident on Dec. 17, 2016. Rusty was a student at Christ the King Catholic School and his classmates were in attendance at the dedication ceremony.
A plaque honoring Rusty was unveiled outside the main entrance of the fieldhouse and reads “Cardinal Forever, Class of 2025.” A portrait of Rusty also hangs inside the field house. 
“If you look around today at this beautiful school, at this new fieldhouse facility, we can truly say the Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy, praise be to God,” Gary Cowles said.