NASHVILLE, Tennessee—Making a critical decision at the right time for the sake of the team is what coaching baseball is all about. And for good or bad, they are never easy to make. Spanish Fort head coach Tommy Walker made a critical one recently for the sake of his home team — his family, and their future — to accept an offer to coach at Vestavia Hills High.

"Been a tough decision for us," he said. "We absolutely loved our time in Spanish Fort and the people there. It has been special on so many levels. So I feel torn on one end, excited on the other. We are leaving seven years of friendship and something that we were a part of starting and building and achieving. It's hard to leave that. It really, really is. Spanish Fort exceeded our expectations far beyond what we even hoped for and I know we had high hopes and expectations even before we got there. We had heard that it was a great baseball community and were excited about it, but that was an understatement."

Walker had hoped to break the news to his SFHS players in person, but was in Nashville, Tenn., for a wedding when the school board announced the selection Friday.

"So I just got on the phone and starting calling," he said by phone from Nashville. "I called all the varsity players and I'm still trying to reach some of the junior varsity players. I just want them and everyone in the school and community to know that we love them and we'll miss them and want to thank them for all they have done. From the earliest days to now, welcoming us and taking care of us, the parents in Spanish Fort are just the best and they helped build the program into what it is and I believe things at Spanish Fort will be fine and in good hands."

With immediate and extended family as well as other ties in the Birmingham area, Walker said he and his wife, Helen, had planned to move back to the Magic City at some point.

"Spent the first 18 years of our marriage in the Birmingham area. And our plans were to retire there eventually, to grow old there together. But this opportunity kind of rushed it because we're not ready to retire, just yet. But if I was ever going to take another high school coaching job anywhere, it would have to be Vestavia with such great, rich baseball tradition. So that kind of helped us decide. Both our sons are in the area now, my wife's sister and her family. It all kind of came together in a hurry, but we feel like, for the best."

Walker's earliest Toro teams played 2A varsity with sophomore, freshmen and eighth-grade player rosters without a home field right off the bat in 2005 and never had a losing season even after jumping three classifications to 5A two seasons later. They made the 2A state playoffs in their second season and each season since in 5A, (six straight) including the last three, to become the three-time defending state champs. In that time numerous SFHS players have signed college scholarships at every level from community colleges to Division I programs.

Fairhope coach Stu Fuller, whose 2012 team traveled to the 6A state championship round with Spanish Fort's 5A team and had often paired up with Walker for charity games for heart health and breast cancer, said the Toros' leader would be missed beyond the SFHS school district.

"What can you say about him in light of what he's done there at Spanish Fort. The three state championships of course and all the winning years he's had from the first year he started the program. I think his record speaks to his coaching, but he also cared deeply about his kids and that's so important. I know it was tough. But they had wanted to get back to Birmingham eventually, so I'm glad it worked out. I know we will miss him in the county. It was always fun playing his clubs. The competition level was very high and we just wish him and his family all the best up there. I'm sure he'll do very well."

Walker leaves a 201-62 record as well as the three state championship trophies he helped produce as the first and founding coach on The Hill. He took a year off from coaching before taking the Spanish Fort job, in part to reflect on whether the call to coaching was one he should keep answering.

"I had been coaching, then took a job teaching math at Hoover to take a break from coaching. And it turned out to answer that question sooner than later. Well, before the end of the year, I was sick of being called Mr. Walker. I just realized that I am a baseball coach and coaching is what I'm meant to do. And the experience at Spanish Fort really reinforced that feeling, for sure."

'Coach' Walker will teach math and baseball at Vestavia Hills.