Excel Christian Academy is set to launch a high school football program in 2025

January 24, 2025 Charles Wilson / BartowSportsZone.com

Rodney Stewart, the CEO and Head of School at Excel Christian Academy, announced this week that the private school in Emerson would add high school football to its athletic offerings in 2025.

Stewart also introduced Steve Birmingham, who works cooperatively with The Church at Liberty Square as an advisor and director of a Football Development Committee at the school. Birmingham has previously assisted in developing a football program at a private school and has a background working with other schools and their athletic departments.

“My first task for the committee was to decide if this is the right time to start football,” said Birmingham. “With overwhelming and full support of the ECA staff, leadership, and community, we believe this is the right time.”

Excel will start the program playing a varsity, nine-man schedule in 2025. The Eagles will participate in the Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools (GAPPS) league. The school’s basketball teams and other sports offerings already participate in that sanctioning body, including 139 member schools.

Nine-man football is very similar to the 11-man game, but the rules require the offense to align four players in the backfield and five (not seven) on the line of scrimmage. A typical defensive formation is the 3-3-3, with three defensive linemen, three linebackers, and three defensive backs.

The playing field is often smaller in length and width, but some sanctioning bodies keep the playing field at full size. Games are frequently high-scoring because the number of players is reduced by more than the size of the field. Fast players often find more open space in the nine-man game.

“We are very excited about the possibilities football brings to our school,” Stewart commented. “We will play our first season at Dellinger Park on Friday nights with five home games and five away for the regular season. We will announce our schedule in the next few weeks, but we are definitely kicking off football this year.”

Stewart and Birmingham both discussed the importance of finding the right coach.

“We have started our search,” noted Birmingham. “We want to find a role model with strong character and a history of success.”

Stewart added, “We are looking for the right individual and the coach the Lord sends us, with desired traits including a strong desire to be a head coach and prior experience serving on a staff. We are also considering respected coaches who have recently retired and want to work in our Christian environment or take on this project as a community coach. The key in all cases is a solid reputation.”

Interested coaches may submit resumes to rstewart@excelca.org and sbirmingham@excelca.org.

“Our goal is to expand to 11-man football,” added Stewart, “but this is a great way to launch our program.”

Stewart also announced that the school has hired a band director, Daniel Varner, who will begin a marching band in grades 5-12 to help create the entire “Friday night lights” experience for the school and the Excel family. ----------------------- Listen to a full interview by Alan Sanders with Rodney Stewart and Steve Birmingham on the Bartow Sports Zone Podcast.