One December night in 2011, Nick Saban visited Gilman on a recruiting trip. Cal Ripken Jr. happened to be there, too. For a few hours, they ended up sitting together in the Finney Athletic Center's bleachers, the Alabama football coach and Orioles Hall of Famer taking in, of all things, a boys basketball game.
Saban was there to see Cyrus Jones, a shooting guard for the Greyhounds and, less than a month later, a Crimson Tide football commit. Ripken was rooting for one of Jones' teammates against Calvert Hall: his son Ryan. The two seniors combined for 44 points in a 77-68 win over the Cardinals.