PHOTOS: A Look Back To Where It All Began For Alabama's Nate Oats

TUSCALOOSA, AL — It's been a surreal last few days for fans and supporters of the Alabama men's basketball team, with the Tide arriving back in Tuscaloosa on Easter Sunday after punching a ticket to the program's very first Final Four appearance.

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Wrapping up his fifth season leading the Tide, head coach Nate Oats has brought unprecedented success to the program.

Indeed, Oats is one of the hottest coaches in college basketball right now, but everyone has an origin story and his head coaching odyssey can be traced back to Romulus High School in the Detroit area.

Oats was a three-year starter at Maranatha Baptist University in his hometown of Watertown, Wisconsin, before briefly becoming an assistant coach for his alma mater and then at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

From there, Oats secured his first head coaching job at Romulus High, where he would make his mark for over a decade — good enough, in fact, to garner looks for Division One college jobs.

During 11 seasons at Romulus High, Oats' teams posted an overall record of 222–52 record and reached the state semifinals five times.

Oats in 2013 then coached the Eagles to a 27-1 record and Class A state title, before impressing Buffalo head coach Bobby Hurley.

Hurley hired Oats as an assistant and the rest, as the cliché goes, was history.

As Oats and the Tide gear up for the Final Four, Tuscaloosa Patch took a look back through the yearbooks during Oats' high school head coaching career to give a glimpse into the man who would eventually turn the Crimson Tide into a bonafide competitor:

Where It All Began For Nate Oats