Faith Academy (Mobile, Alabama)
Encyclopedia
Faith Academy is a private, Christian school in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

. It describes itself as non-denominational and boasts 1900 students in K-12th grade. The school opened as a small offshoot of a church in 1969. In the 2005-2006 school year, Faith Academy received the Blue Ribbon award from the AISA. .

Mission statement

Mission Statement


It is the mission of Faith Academy to offer quality Christian education in a safe, clean and orderly environment. Faith Academy seeks to enroll average ability students from primarily middle class socio-economic level. We believe that children have a right to a sound, Christian education. Faith Academy provides a learning center for students with special learning handicaps, as well as honors classes for gifted learners. Faith Academy endeavors to provide for our students’ spiritual, artistic, athletic, social and personal needs through our daily school program and extracurricular activities.

School history

The founders desired to provide a place for Bible study, prayer, worship and a quality educational program. In 1969, Lott Road Christian Grade School was begun in a single, two-story building located behind Lott Road Baptist Church. The school had 170 students in grades one through six and eight teachers.

Faith is currently the largest private Christian School in Alabama. In 2008 almost 60% of the senior class received academic or athletic scholarship with the average ACT score being 24. Students can enlist in honors classes and begin dual-enrollment classes beginning in the 10th grade which allows seniors to graduate with as many as 13 college credits in core academic classes.

For 36 years the Headmaster at Faith has been John T. Skelton. He is a member of the AISA Hall of Fame for his many years of Christian service and has proclaimed the schools motto from its early beginning which is: "To God Be the Glory."

Performing arts

Faith Academy's Senior Choir, under the direction of Michelle McCormick since 2001, have been very successful. In 2010, the Senior Choir and Chamber Singers were invited to perform at the Washington D.C. International Music Festival at the Kennedy Center
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...

.The choir performed a dinner theatre play, titled A Renaissance Repast, in 2005, 2008 and 2009; the performance will continue in 2011. The Chamber Singers also performed morning worship at the First Baptist Church of Mobile on December 5, 2010, notably one of Mobile's oldest churches.

Faith Academy also has an active drama department. Directed by Alisha Waite, the productions began in 2005 with Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

's The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has the longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far. It is the longest running show of the modern...

, and the drama group performed the play again in March 2011. Recently, the group performed Barefoot in the Park
Barefoot in the Park
This article is about the Broadway production. For the film adaptation see Barefoot in the Park .Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The original Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, opened October 23, 1963, with the four lead roles taken by actors Elizabeth Ashley ,...

in 2008 and Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably...

in 2010. In 2011, the group participated in the 2011 AISA State Drama Festival, where they won second place in ensemble, third place in musical drama, and had five students place in All-Cast.

FA's highest band, the Symphonic Band, was invited to play at Carnegie Hall of New York in April 2006, Chicago in 2008, and New York again in 2010. They have won several awards over the last ten years including awards from national competitions. The Faith Academy Bands are conducted and directed by David Pryor.

Athletics

Faith Academy joined the AHSAA in 2008 and has had success in almost every major varsity sport. Volleyball recently won the schools first ever state championship (2009) in 5A led by two time Mobile Press Register Coach of the Year (2008, 2009), Jessica Rapier, a graduate and former player of Spring Hill College. Girls basketball is led by longtime athletic director and 2007 Coach of the Year, Woodie Head and has advanced to the regional finals in each of the first two seasons in AHSAA with a 57-5 overall record. Coach Head is a member of the AISA Coaching Hall of Fame and has won over 1,000 games coaching volleyball, boys and girls basketball and softball over a 25 year coaching career.Softball recently named Raelynn Dennis as new head coach after Woodie Head stepped down to focus more on day to day operations and girls basketball. In boys varsity athletics, basketball has led the way as the benchmark program in the first two seasons of the AHSAA with back to back 20-win seasons and winning the regular season Area Championship in 2009. In their first season they advanced to the sub-regional round of the playoffs with a 20-9 overall record. 2009-2010 proved to be their best season with a 23-7 record and handing Leflore HS their first city loss in eight years and did it twice in the same season which had not been done since 1997 when LeFlore lost twice in the same season to Williamson HS. The Boys program is led by former Auburn-Montgomery and Faulkner University assistant coach John Price and was named 2009 5A Coach of the Year after reaching the Sweet 16 Regional Round of the playoffs. Baseball is considered one the top programs in the city of Mobile led by legendary Coach Lloyd Skoda and has had solid success in AHSAA although it did not reach the playoffs in their first year in AHSAA. With a 2.2 million dollar baseball / softball facility Faith has the top baseball facility in southeast Alabama. Coach Skoda has coached at Faith for over 20 years in addition to Daphne HS where he was named Coach of the Year. In his tenure at Faith Academy his programs have won almost 80% of their games and had 4 players drafted into the Major Leagues and numerous signing Division 1 scholarships. Football is led by Gary Caldwell who took the reigns from Robby James in 2008. In his first season as head coach they posted a 2-8 record with wins over 2A Mobile Christian and 4A St. James. They did not win an area game and are 7-13 in two AHSAA seasons and have yet to advance to the playoffs despite having four players sign NCAA Division 1 scholarships in the same time frame.

External links

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