By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Baseball Beat Reporter // Photo Via SJSU Athletics
Standing just beyond the pitcher’s mound, Thomas Walker, San Jose State’s associate head coach, gazed at the sprawling pandemonium. His eyes drifted toward head coach Brad Sanfilippo celebrating SJSU’s first-ever Mountain West Championship with his wife Colleen and two daughters.
“It was just as special of a moment as it comes,” Walker said.
Just four years ago, Sanfilippo hired Walker and let him crash on his couch while he gathered the funds to afford a place to live. “I’m thankful that I didn’t have enough money to get to rent an apartment right away and I got to live on his couch,” Walker said.
Although only a few weeks, it “laid a foundation” for SJSU’s historic turnaround. The Spartans, under the Sanfilippo and Walker battery pack, went from calamity to reaching back-to-back Mountain West Championships. Last May, they hoisted the conference title and appeared in the program’s first NCAA Regional in two decades.
Back in the summer of 2019, Walker was three years removed from playing at UC Riverside. His ambition, charisma and high baseball IQ helped him transition from player to coach. Going from coaching roles at UCR to Golden West College and eventually field manager for the Rochester Honkers of the North Woods Summer League.
While Walker was leading the Honkers, Sanfilippo just wrapped his first full season as SJSU’s head coach and sought a second assistant coach to complete his roster for the upcoming 2020 season.
Drew Ramos, who helped Walker get hired at Golden West College, knew about Sanfilippo’s situation and floated Walker’s name his way.
“I was like, ‘Hey man, I got a guy who’s 25, no family and looking to get his feet wet,’” said Ramos, who’d known Walker since he was 15. “I just really believed in what Thomas could be.”
Walker’s life circumstance helped, but his time spent with the Honkers – managing the roster, in-game decision making and recruiting – is what compelled Ramos to reach out. It’s also why Sanfilippo took Ramos’ suggestion seriously.
So Sanfilippo reached out to Walker in June and the two began chatting weekly. Eventually in August, Walker flew to San Jose for a formal interview and met with Sanfilipp. It was their first face-to-face interaction, but their was an organic and immediate chemistry. A few days later, Walker received an offer and graciously accepted it.
“Me and Coach [Sanfilippo] got a special bond and special friendship. For me, it stems down to the fact that he took a chance on someone with little to no experience and he actually believed in it,” Walker said.
One problem: Where would he live?
With the season rapidly approaching, Walker lacked the funds to put a payment down for the first and last month on a lease for an apartment.
He was strained by the Bay Area’s outrageously high housing market – the average rent price in San Jose was nearly $1,500 more than the national average according to a Rent Cafe report – as well as the under-discussed reality of coaches struggling to break even in the early stages of their career.
Sanfilippo – acutely aware of Walker’s dilemma – offered him a place to stay while he awaited his first paycheck.
“I just knew how much of a struggle it was. I knew how hard it is to find a place and I knew it was all last minute so I knew that it would … make things easier,” Sanfilippo said.
Over the next few weeks, the two spent nearly every waking hour together. In the morning, they made the trek from Sanfilippo’s San Francisco home to SJSU’s campus while chowing down on “something quick and coffee.”
After the day’s work was done, Sanfilippo made dinner for Walker and his family.
“Cooking is sometimes my outlet. Whether we are barbecuing or making a big Italian meal. Thomas said he’d like salmon, so we cooked salmon some nights,” said Sanfilippo.
From the outside looking in, the dynamic was … peculiar. But Sanfilippo’s wife Colleen was receptive to it and Walker quickly grew close with Sanfilippo’s two daughters.
“It was as if you inserted an assistant coach into their family for three weeks. The kids didn’t miss a beat. His wife didn’t miss a beat,” said Walker. “It was definitely strange to me, but they acted as if it was no big deal.”
The time was foundational because Sanfilippo’s welcoming nature allowed Walker to see him as a trusted, “older brother” figure, which lent well to gaging, trusting and establishing each other’s vision for SJSU.
Following the 2019 season, Sanfilippo thought SJSU’s roster lacked physicality and offensive firepower, so they became focused on constructing a lineup that could compete in the Mountain West’s regularly-scheduled slugfests.
But the year Walker climbed aboard the ship, the Spartans began to sink.
In 2020, SJSU lost six consecutive games out the gate and was in the midst of a six-game losing streak before COVID-19 cut the season short.
Then came the six-win 2021 season.
“There was definitely moments throughout 2021 where I had bad thoughts and I was a negative coach and maybe I wasn’t the best version of myself,” said Walker, who was 11-42 in his first two years as an assistant coach.
SJSU wasn’t getting the results from key pieces who were brought on to provide power and run production. Making matters worse, Ruben Ibarra, SJSU’s lone bright spot in 2021, who led SJSU in batting average (.381), RBI (32), home runs (14) and OPS (1.353), was drafted in the fourth round by the Cincinnati Reds.
But in 2022, SJSU overcame its prior struggles. Walker citing that Sanfilippo’s “positive” energy kept their vision fully intact.
“When you work for him [Sanfilippo] you don’t get to dwell,” Walker said.
In 2022, sophomore second baseman Charles McAdoo shed his prior struggles and became a Collegiate Baseball All-American Second Team. Across the diamond, third baseman Dalton Bowling rose from his two-year slump and became a pillar of SJSU’s power-heavy lineup.
Sacramento State transfer Hunter Dorraugh, who was recruited by Thomas Walker, tied a school record with 15 home runs as SJSU slugged a team-record 66 home runs. “It was one of the few interactions where you go on a visit and talk to the coach and he’s actually who he is outside of the whole recruiting realm,” Dorraugh said of Walker.
While SJSU lost to Air Force in the 2022 Mountain West Championship, it was a sign Sanfilippo and Walker could lead SJSU out of a foggy abyss. That off-season, Sanfilippo inked an extension that runs through the 2025 season and Walker was promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.
All of it leading up to SJSU’s lauded 2023 Mountain West Championship and a spot in the NCAA Regional.
“When a head coach allows an assistant to live on his couch for three weeks until he gets off his feet and gets a place to live you’re going to organically see a family like atmosphere and thankfully that is instilled into the players and their culture as well,” said Walker.