Walker Christian Forrester played organized sports from age four through his high school graduation in Loganville, Georgia. When the playing ended, the watching didn't. His family names three teams he follows: the Atlanta Braves, the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Volunteers. Two of them are home teams for anyone from metro Atlanta. The third plays across the state line, in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Braves
Baseball was one of Walker's first sports and one of the two he kept playing in high school.
The Braves moved into a new ballpark in 2017. It opened as SunTrust Park, about 10 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta in the Cumberland area of Cobb County, and it became Truist Park in 2020 after the bank merger that created Truist Financial. The first regular-season game there was on April 14, 2017, against the San Diego Padres.
The team also built The Battery Atlanta around the ballpark: a mix of shops, restaurants, apartments and offices. Walker was photographed at The Battery in September 2018. The sports page has more about his years as a player and a fan.
In 2021 the Braves won the World Series, beating the Houston Astros four games to two. It was the franchise's fourth title and its first since 1995.
The Falcons
The Falcons got a new home the same year. Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened in downtown Atlanta on August 26, 2017, replacing the Georgia Dome. It has a retractable roof and is owned by the state through the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.
The stadium has hosted much more than Falcons games: Super Bowl LIII in 2019, the SEC Championship Game and the Peach Bowl among them. Football was the other sport Walker played in high school, and the Falcons are the NFL team he follows.
That makes 2017 an unusual year in Atlanta sports. Both of the city's biggest teams opened new stadiums within a few months of each other.
The Vols
Walker's college team is in another state. The Tennessee Volunteers play at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, one of the largest stadiums in the country, with an official capacity of 101,915. It opened in 1921 as Shields–Watkins Field, which is still the name of the playing surface. The stadium is named for Robert Neyland, who coached Tennessee in three stints between 1926 and 1952.
Tennessee plays in the Southeastern Conference. The program has won 16 conference championships and claims six national titles, including 1951 and 1998.
A fan from the start
Walker's own years in sports began when he was four. As a kid he played baseball, basketball, football and wrestling. In high school it was baseball and football, and he graduated as an honor student. You can read about those years in Age four to graduation.
The Braves and Falcons are the hometown teams. The Vols are the college football team he follows. Between them they cover the calendar: baseball through the summer and football every fall.