God's Plan

A doctor or a lawyer—Joachim “Joe” Walker ’04 had been told from an early age that he’d grow up to be one or the other. He always knew he wanted to help people, and he was proud that his parents believed he could succeed in such highly respected professions. So, he began interning at a family law practice in high school. He went to George Washington on a soccer scholarship to study criminal justice and sociology, becoming the first in his family to graduate college. He continued his education at the University of Baltimore School of Law, following so diligently the plan that had been laid out for him.

But one month before graduating from law school, that plan was flipped on its head. Joe was in a car accident that fractured his neck, leading to a year and a half of rehab and recovery. During that time, he was able to earn his Juris Doctor degree, but something in him had shifted.

“I found out that I was this close to being paralyzed, and that changed my perspective on how I wanted to put my energy out into this world,” he says. “I knew I wanted to give back, and before I thought my way of giving back was by becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but after the accident, I felt as if my calling was somewhere different.”

He had started coaching soccer at Mount Saint Joseph during law school, and after his accident, he decided to pursue a career in coaching at the collegiate level. After a stint as the interim head coach at Archbishop Spalding High School, Joe had the opportunity to coach with his brother at Meade High School in Anne Arundel County, while also serving as an assistant coach at Mount Saint Joseph.

He landed the women’s head coaching position at Frederick Community College in 2017 and quickly helped the team to a number of accolades. He still holds the record for most wins in a single season by a head coach (12). In fact, every current team record was set during his tenure. When COVID hit, Joe was asked to take on more of an advisor role, checking in with students about their schedules and plans for the future. He found that he enjoyed being able to help students beyond what he was doing on the field.

Joe was still close with Coach Mike St. Martin at Mount Saint Joseph, and he expressed to him his desire to be in more of a faculty position at the college. “Have you ever thought about doing that here?” Mike asked. Joe considered this and signed up to receive job notifications from The Mount, not thinking much of it at the time.

After a few years with the Frederick Cougars, Joe was offered collegiate coaching positions in Wisconsin and Idaho. Torn between wanting to move up the collegiate coaching ranks and wanting to stay closer to home in Maryland, he turned to prayer. “I said to God, ‘I really need a sign.’ And within that week, I got an email from Mr. Peace saying there is a school counseling position open at Saint Joe.”

When Joe received the job offer from his alma mater, it was a no brainer. “I had the opportunity to give back to the school that gave so much to me,” he says. “As a student, Saint Joe allowed me, an African American boy who was very insecure, to feel powerful, valued, and appreciated.”

He thinks back to faculty members, now colleagues, like Coach St. Martin, Fr. Mike Murphy ’82, and Mrs. Nikki Kelley, who all made a tremendous impact on him and how he viewed himself as a young man. Now, he gets to help students navigate their own life experiences. “Being a school counselor is so rewarding in the sense that the conversations that I’m having with students, the impact that I am having, it’s all just really meaningful,” he explains.

Joe is back in school, taking evening classes to earn his graduate degree in school counseling from Bowie State. He can also be spotted on the sidelines or in the stands at all of the Gaels’ big games as a coach and moderator of the Student Section. He never misses an opportunity to let the students know he is rooting for them to succeed, both on and off the field.