After 42 years as either a baseball player or coach, Wes Brooks is stepping into a new role this fall.

The coach who led Oxford to the Class 6A baseball title this spring is taking an administrative job at the school.

Brooks’ new title will be supervisor over safety, operations and athletics for Oxford City Schools. He told AL.com that a huge part of his new role will be scheduling events in Oxford’s new state-of-the-art Champions Athletic Center.

“With my background in multiple sports, I’m the right guy for this job because of my relationship with the other coaches,” he said. “This is a $21 million facility or something like that. Multiple teams will need to be in there. We need someone who can schedule and have relationships with the other coaches and make things fit and make everyone happy with the resources we have.

“At the end of the day, it makes sense for me to be in that position.”

Brooks played high school baseball and nearby Walter Wellborn and play four years for legendary coach Rudy Abbott and Jacksonville State. After one year in minor league baseball, he returned to Wellborn as an assistant baseball coach and head girls basketball coach.

He took over as head baseball coach at Wellborn in 2002 and remained in that position until 2005 when then Oxford football coach Josh Niblett convinced him to join the Yellow Jackets.

“Thirty minutes into the interview, I knew this is where I wanted to work,” he said.

He’s been the head baseball coach at Oxford for the past 18 years.

“That may not seem like a long time, but I think about it this way,” he said. “My oldest daughter was seven months old when we came to Oxford. We just moved her into her dorm room at the University of Alabama last week. When you look at it from that perspective, it’s a long time.”

Brooks led Oxford to a state baseball title in 2012 and added another this spring. His Yellow Jackets swept Spanish Fort in the championship series and finished 39-6 overall. His star player, Hayes Harrison, was named the state’s Mr. Baseball.

“My talk with the baseball team was tough,” he said. “They know what I’ve taught them and know how to do it, and now it’s time for them to own it. I told them I felt like a parent who had been telling them how to do it for years. Now it’s time for someone else to come in and put their spin on it and continue to go out and compete for championships.”

Brooks said he would have a role in choosing his successor. The search for a new coach will begin immediately.

Oxford graduated nine seniors from its championship team, five of whom will play college baseball this year. Brooks said “4-5″ starters return, including star shortstop Carter Johnson. He said the junior class is also top notch.

“We have enough pieces that we will be in the thick of it next year, too,” he said.

Brooks said he will continue to coach the Oxford girls flag football team, at least for this year. He emphasized that he will miss baseball but feels like this is the right time to make a move.

“As long as my family is good with me in this role, then Wes Brooks is good,” he said. “The older you get the more you realize family trumps everything.”

It’s certainly been a good ride, he said.

“When I first started coaching, it was all about winning. In about 2013 or 2014, it hit me like a ton of bricks,” Brooks said. “I had to coach the man, the student, the person first. Once you get a better person, you get a better player. When you figure that out – even if you have a .500 year – there are tears of joy at the banquet.”