After seven years as head boys basketball coach at Faith Academy, Chad Applin is moving across Mobile Bay.

Spanish Fort athletic director Chase Smith announced Applin as the new coach of the Toros this week. Applin replaces Jimbo Tolbert, who left to take the Gulf Shores job.

“We were looking for someone with good experience, which he certainly brings to the table,” Smith said. “When you look at his resume, it’s very impressive. He has a state championship, a lot of postseason play experience. Then, when you get face-to-face with him, it’s just the right fit. A lot of the values he talked about were the values that are important to me and our school and athletic program as well.”

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Applin’s final Faith Academy team went 18-12 and lost to Vigor in the area tournament. He led the Rams to 20 wins in four of the seven seasons he was there, including a 22-9 record and state runner-up finish in 2017 and a 24-10 record in 2018.

“When I found out coach Tolbert was leaving, I just went ahead and reached out and they got back to me,” Applin said. “I don’t even know how serious I was about it at first. But the more we talked, the more excited I got about it.

“I just think it’s a great community. I think the middle school program they have is a perfect type of situation where you can build a program starting with younger kids. They’ve got great facilities. It’s a nice area. I have family on that side of the bay. There were just a lot of different factors involved.”

Prior to coming to Faith, Applin was an assistant coach at Randolph from 2014-2016. He was also head freshman coach and a varsity assistant at St. Paul’s from 2010-2014 and head varsity coach at Cottage Hill from 2003-2010. His 2005 Cottage Hill team went 25-2 and won the AISA state title.

He is a graduate of UMS-Wright and the University of Mobile. Applin led tryouts at Spanish Fort Monday. They will continue this afternoon.

“I met a lot of returning players, and I was really impressed with their character, work ethic, overall attitude and the way they competed,” he said. “It made me even more excited to get over there and get started.”

Applin said his goal is to establish a style of play that starts at the younger levels and spans into the varsity program.

“Hopefully, we will have everyone on the same page where we are all running very similar schemes on both ends of the floor,” he said. “That will take some time. We’ll do camps in the summer and slowly build a program where hopefully the kids in the lower levels will be excited about wanting to come to Spanish Fort and play basketball.”