Daily News file photoNow former Western Kentucky baseball coach Chris Finwood (right) argues a call last season with umpire Jordan Ferrell during a game against Vanderbilt in Nashville.

Chris Finwood is leaving for a familiar place – and a familiar face.

Finwood, WKU’s baseball coach for the past six seasons, has resigned and will accept a head coaching position at Old Dominion. The move reunites Finwood with former Hilltopper athletic director Wood Selig and brings him back to his home state of Virginia.

The story was initially reported Tuesday night by The Virginian-Pilot.

WKU athletic director Ross Bjork issued a statement this morning confirming Finwood’s departure.

Finwood and Bjork discussed Finwood’s future with the program after the past season, Bjork said. The university offered him a contract extension “that provided more financial and long-term security for him and the program” and an increase in the assistant salary pool.

“In the end, we did everything in our power to retain coach Finwood, but we could not compete with his deep family ties and previous coaching experiences within the state of Virginia,” Bjork said.

Bjork explained how he respected Finwood’s decision, how the former coach did “an outstanding job” with the Hilltopper program and that he wished him all the best.

He added that the search to find a replacement will begin immediately.

Finwood explained in a statement that he couldn’t pass up a chance to move back home.

“The six years I spent as the head baseball coach at Western Kentucky were in many ways the most rewarding years of my career,” said Finwood, whose high school alma mater is Hampton High School in Virginia – roughly 30 minutes from ODU’s campus. “He offered a very fair extension to me and has a vision for continuing to improve the baseball program, and my leaving is in no way a reflection on anything at WKU. This is just a unique opportunity for our family that we cannot turn down.

“We did some special things, and none of it would have happened without a tremendous assistant coaching staff, players who bought into the right way to do things, and a loyal and hard working support staff. Our fan base increased each year, and I cannot begin to thank our fans and the wonderful people in Bowling Green for everything you have done for our family.”

Finwood’s departure reunites him with Selig, who resigned as WKU’s AD in February 2010 to take the athletic director spot at Old Dominion. While at WKU, Selig hired Finwood to be the program’s baseball coach in May 2005.

Last August, Selig named former Monarchs assistant Nate Goulet as Old Dominion’s interim baseball coach. Goulet replaced former ODU coach Jerry Myers, who left the program after the 2010 season to become the pitching coach at South Carolina.

In his only season at ODU, Goulet led the Monarchs to a 30-26 record and a second seed in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament before eventually losing in the tournament final. Goulet was also named CAA Coach of the Year.

The Pilot reported that Goulet again interviewed for the full-time coaching position after this season. But in the end, Selig chose Finwood to lead his program, which hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2000.

Finwood will leave the WKU baseball program in better shape than he found it, as he compiled a 190-54 record in six seasons on campus, including NCAA Tournament appearances in 2008 and 2009, and the program’s first Sun Belt Conference regular season title in 2009.

Finwood’s 2009 team also had the program’s first 40-win season in 21 years while earning the first NCAA Tournament at-large bid in Hilltopper baseball history.

Finwood brought in and churned out plenty of talent during his tenure at WKU, as WKU has had 15 players, including six this past season, drafted by Major League Baseball teams over the past three years. The Hilltoppers also have had five players earn All-America honors during Finwood’s tenure, along with 10 All-Sun Belt nods.

Finwood’s first season in 2005 marked the biggest one-year turnaround in Sun Belt history, as he took a WKU team that had won five league games the year before and led the Hilltoppers to a 15-15 record.

A graduate and member of the Virginia Military Institute Athletics Hall of Fame, Finwood came to WKU after five years as an assistant coach at Auburn. He also served as an assistant coach at Radford, VMI and Virginia Commonwealth, and had his first head coaching job at his alma mater from 1992-94.