Named head coach on August 1, 2016, Kirby Patterson Walker joined the University of West Alabama track and field staff as an assistant coach in March 2015. For two seasons she presided over  cross country, track and field and triathlon programs at UWA.
Walker's focus is now on track and field for both the men's and women's programs as head coach.
Since being named head coach, Walker has mentored two NCAA DII outdoor track and field qualifiers, three Gulf South Conference outdoor track and field individual champions, six NCAA Division II All-South Region cross country performers and three  NCAA Division II national cross country championship qualifiers.Â
A member of the NCAA Coaches Connection Track & Field advisory committee, Walker is also USATF Level 2 certified in Jumps and Throws.
As an assistant coach at UWA she helped guide the Tigers to the 2015 Women’s Gulf South Conference Cross Country Championship and the men's team to a runner-up finish at the 2015 GSC meet.
She was the top assistant on a 2015-16 UWA staff that produced the NCAA men’s cross country regionals individual runner-up, as well as an NCAA men’s cross country individual national qualifier.
Both the 2016 UWA men and women's track and field teams finished third at the GSC Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Meet. The Tigers had six individual champions at that meet.
A Track and Field record holder at the University of Mississippi as a collegiate student-athlete, Walker came to UWA from the Los Angeles area where she was Director of Athletics at Discovery Charter Preparatory School and Assistant Track and Field Coach at Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills, Calif.
Walker was an indoor 800 meter record holder and also set school marks outdoors as a member of the 4x400 meter relay team. She was a four-time outdoor scorer for the Rebels in the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Meet.
Walker was two-time Alabama Class 6A 800 meter record holder at Daphne High School. She still holds the Alabama 6A record in the outdoor 800 and is the former indoor record holder at 800.
Other stops along the way for Walker include working on the Track and Field staff at the University of South Alabama, where she was a part of two Sun Belt Conference championships. She was also Assistant Coach at Daphne High School where she helped produce 30 state qualifiers and a public relations executive at Stand Strong 3D, LLC.
