Trent Walker is coming home once again.

The 2005 Cullman High graduate officially became the new football coach of his alma mater following approval on Friday by the Cullman City Schools Board of Education and will now return to Oliver Woodard Stadium after guiding Class 5A Lawrence County for the past four seasons.

Walker replaces Danny Stiff, who stepped down in January following a 12-10 record in two campaigns.

“This is tremendously humbling,” Walker said. “Honestly, it hasn’t sunk in yet. We’ve been working so hard in Moulton doing what we have done there, but then this comes open and that process starts. You start thinking about being home and coming back to a place where you were born and raised, played, coached at. The opportunity for me and my family was something we felt called to come back for this time.”

The Red Devils went winless in Walker’s debut season but steadily improved from there, corralling three victories in 2022 and six in each of the next two campaigns — both of which resulted in playoff berths after Lawrence County had reached the postseason just four times in the 15 seasons prior to his arrival.

Before his time in Moulton, Walker served a variety of roles at Cullman under former head coaches Mark Britton, Matt Plunkett and Oscar Glasscock. The Bearcats notched 30 wins and four playoff appearances during that five-year stretch.

Walker expects a seamless transition at his second stop, especially given his familiarity with the program and staff.

“That’s one of the things that excites me,” he said. “I’m bringing four years of experience as a head coach, but I’m also stepping into a room with men I’ve coached with before. I think getting things up to speed is going to happen faster than it did in Moulton, where I was an unknown person and personality. I know these coaches have been keeping up that standard we want, so this is not starting over; it’s really continuing a proud tradition. I’m a familiar face and familiar person here. I’ve grown up a bit … got a few more gray hairs (laughs) from all the stress of being a head coach, but I’m excited to get this thing going fast.”

The first step will be instilling four key cornerstones: hard work, consistency, accountability and togetherness.

“That was the process at Lawrence County,” Walker said. “It took us time to get going, but once the buy-in was there, the results began to pay off. I call it the slow-cooking method, but I think we’ve got the resources here at Cullman that can help accelerate the process. We are going to focus on doing things the right way for a long, long time. And at the end of those days, we’ll see where we’re at.

“I believe in being a physical football team as well. I don’t think you can win here without being physical. We’re also going to be disciplined and smart. When we come off the field on Friday nights, I want people in black and gold to be proud to be associated with the young men on our football team.”