Earlier this week on Monday, Spanish Fort athletic director Chase Smith announced Chad Applin as the Toros’ next head boys’ basketball coach.

The former head coach of the Faith Academy Rams and Cottage Hill Christian Warriors brings 20 years of coaching experience and four trips to the state finals where Cottage Hill won the Alabama Independent School Association’s title in 2005.

Applin’s most recent run to the championship contest was in his first year at Faith Academy in 2017 when the Rams fell to Mae Jemison by eight points in the Class 5A finals. Applin’s teams won four area crowns in seven years at the helm of Faith Academy and collected three Sweet Sixteen wins in the first four seasons.

The Spanish Fort post was vacant after former Toro head coach Jimbo Tolbert left to take the same job at Gulf Shores High School March 24. Tolbert spent five years at the helm on the Hill where the Toros made two trips to the Elite Eight which sandwiched a Red Map trophy from the 2020-2021 season as Class 6A state runners-up.

Last season, Spanish Fort took the No. 2 seed from the Area 2 tournament into the state bracket where it fell to Blount in the sub-regional round.

Applin is a graduate of UMS-Wright Prep where he was named all-state honorable mention on the basketball court in 1990 before joining the 1,000-point club at the University of Mobile by the time his college career finished in 1995.