Gil Walker was announced as assistant coach on July 18, 2023.
Walker brings 10 years of coaching and recruiting experience with him to the Bulldogs. He comes to Samford from 2023 National Champion IMG Academy in Florida. He has been the head baseball coach for the Junior National JV team (2022) and the Varsity Navy team (2023), while also leading the college placement team.
Prior to his time at IMG, Walker was the head assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Presbyterian College from August 2017 to September 2022. During his time at Presbyterian, Walker helped lead the program to its first Big South Conference Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021. The 2019 squad set program records for Big South Conference wins, runs scored and stolen bases.
Walker came to Presbyterian after serving as a volunteer assistant coach at Samford from August 2015 to August 2017. In both seasons Walker was on the Samford staff, the Bulldogs posted the lowest ERA in the Southern Conference. The squad also finished fourth in the nation in home runs in 2016.
Walker began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Lawson State Community College in Birmingham from July 2013 to July 2015. At Lawson State he served as the recruiting coordinator, hitting coach and infield coach for two seasons while placing 19 players at four-year schools in the process.
Overall in his career, Walker has coached 21 All-Conference players, two Freshman All-Americans, and had over a dozen players move on to play professional baseball.
As a student-athlete at Samford, Walker was a pitcher on both the 2011 and 2012 Bulldog squads. He was a key member of the program's first Southern Conference Tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2012. He posted a 2.91 ERA, allowing just 18 earned runs in his two seasons in a Samford uniform. He spent his first two collegiate seasons at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville before transferring to Samford.
Walker comes from a baseball family. His father, Tommy, had a long coaching career, including serving as the head coach at Samford from 1989 to 1997. Walker and his wife, Kathryn, have two children, Maggie and Rhett.
