For the first time in almost 20 years, Sulphur has a new girls basketball coach.
Chad Walker was recently named as the new head coach after longtime leader of the program Toby Todd announced his retirement.
Walker comes to Sulphur from Altus after one year, but brings 27 years of coaching experience with him.
“I have a lot of friends in Sulphur and much respect for Coach Todd,” he said.
Walker is excited to work with the young squad he inherited, working to build fundamentals and go from there.
“I know the program graduated a lot last year and we have a young squad coming back without much varsity experience so we will be instilling mass fundamentals throughout the program in order to build from the base upwards,” he said.
Walker is originally from Weatherford where he graduated high school in 1990. He attended Southwestern, where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1995 and his Master’s Degree in 2004.
He coached at Hubbard, TX before taking the Tahlequah girls job in 2009. He led the Tigers to a state tournament berth before leaving for Clinton in 2013.
Walker coached at Plainview following that until 2018, winning 75 games during that span.
He coached at Minco in 2022 before taking the Altus job.
Walker is hitting the ground running this summer, hoping to ingrain himself into the fabric of the program.
“This summer will be a huge opportunity for the girls to get to know me and for me to get to know the girls,” he said. “I want to see where their skills are and answer many questions about which direction is best to move towards.”
Things will have to happen fast, as Walker was just able to meet his team this week.
“I just met the girls this morning so we are already behind the 8-ball, so to speak, with a late start,” he said.
Walker and his team will have a busy summer ahead, including a team camp hosted in Sulphur in the intermediate gym.
“We will be attending four camps this summer with one of those being in the intermediate gym with me working with the girls hoping to teach them how I do things,” he said.
Walker and his wife, Tonya, have three children.
“We have two girls and a boy,” he said. “Our oldest child is Morgan. She works at the BCM on OU’s campus. My middle daughter is a kindergarten teacher in Clinton. Her name is Courtney. And our son works in the oilfield in Alaska. His name is Tim.”
Sulphur was 6-19 last season.
