‘Nothing else I could do’: Fairview’s Kyle Jinks finds path to coaching that’s resulted in over 1000 wins, 13 state titles
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Kyle Jinks’ mother said he had to find a job when his initial foray into being a college student didn’t quite unfold as hoped.
In fact, it was a disaster.
“I failed racquetball, basketball, all the classes you’re supposed to pass because I just didn’t go,” Jinks said. “I didn’t have the people behind me to make me go to class. I wasn’t disciplined enough in college to make myself go to school. I was an adult that acted like a 12-year-old.”
Because of his poor academic performance, Jinks lost his Pell Grant that enabled him to attend McNeese State, leaving him with only one road out of his hometown of Hackberry in Cameron Parish.
“I told my mom that I couldn’t do it,” Jinks said of college coursework. “She said I was going to work.”
Jinks’ first attempt at gainful employment, the west Hackberry Salt Dome, didn’t pan out and provided little enjoyment that led to two or three opportunities that included working at several CITGO plants in the Lake Charles area.
The only problem, though, was the four-day work weeks at 10 hours a day proving too much for Jinks to handle. Such work often got in the way of his weekly pick-up basketball games at Hackberry High, forcing his bosses to terminate him.
“I didn’t stay at places long because they would get rid of me because I wouldn’t show up,” he said. “I didn’t like it. I hated it. I would come for three (days) because I was playing pick-up on Thursday. My boss said they worked for four days; I said I only needed to work three. He turned me loose.
“I had people in that field wanting to teach me a journeyman job such as a carpenter’s helper, a welder’s helper,” he said. “I said you don’t understand, I don’t want to learn that. This is not permanent for me. I started thinking that if I don’t find something else to do, I would be broke for the rest of my life.”
Byron Gibbs, the high school coach of Jinks, often questioned Jinks when he showed up to play in pick-up games, but the responses of his former player never sent up a red flag.
“Coach would say, ‘I thought had you had work today, and I said no, I didn’t have to be there today,’” Jinks said. “I thought I could miss that and play pick-up.”
Then Gibbs, sensing a lack of direction from his former point guard, provided a path that may satisfy Jinks.
“He said if you go back to school, they’ll pay you for this,” Jinks said of coaching. “They’ll pay you money to do what you love to do. I thought about that for a bit.”
Jinks found himself facing an uncertain future along with another friend and classmate, Shane Thibodeaux when the two decided that basketball was still a driving force in their lives. In order to coach the sport, they needed to graduate from college and at the age of 24, were now motivated to accomplish that.
“We said let’s go and do what we were called to do,” Jinks said. “We knew there was nothing else we could do.”
Six years after his high school graduation Jinks returned to college with a greater sense of purpose. Four semesters later, he was halfway toward his degree and a sense of accomplishment.
Jinks and Thibodeaux both graduated from McNeese in December of 1996 attended a job fair there and were interviewed by Mike Doucet, a basketball coach at Fairview High representing the Allen Parish School Board.
Jinks instantly recognized Doucet, having faced Doucet’s team at Fairview in the 1987 state playoffs when he played for Gibbs at Hackberry.
Jinks’ team prevailed and he reminded Doucet of the encounter.
“I asked him if he remembered me,” Jinks said. “I said we kicked their butts in the playoffs and started laughing. He said they needed some good coaches in Allen Parish and asked how much experience I had.”
Aside from a stint of coaching the Little Dribblers for a decade, Jinks was a novice coach on the high school level but was driven to learn by his previous failures in the construction industry that left him empty and unfilled.
“I told them if you give me a chance, I promise I won’t embarrass you,” he said.
Three or four months passed when Fairview principal Wayne Cloud called to set up an interview with Jinks. That resulted in a follow-up interview two months later when Jinks was offered the position and accepted.
Twenty-eight years later, he’s never left where he’s created a legacy among the state’s greatest high school coaches. Thibodeaux has enjoyed his own level of success at Reeves, Hyatt and is currently at Singer.
“They took a chance on an underdog like me, and it paid off,” Jinks said. “It could have gone the other way, but I knew I couldn’t do anything else. I didn’t know at that time I would be where I am now, but I knew I was going to work hard. I hated losing. I hate losing more than I love winning.”
Rising to the top of his profession
The 55-year-old Jinks has become a larger-than-life figure, belying his 5-foot-5 stature. He’s now a giant in his field at the Allen Parish school located in Grant with 1,002 career wins (in 1,142 games) and 13 state championships.
“I was very fortunate and blessed with coaches and some super, great players and great players make coaches look great,” he said. “I’m blessed in that area.”
Jinks, who guided Fairview to the Division V non-select state title over Hicks last season, entered the 2024-25 season – his 28th at the school –18 wins shy of reaching the rarified plateau of 1,000 career wins.
For someone who launched a career devoid of any coaching experience, Jinks set the bar high for himself at Fairview where it was his ambition to win 1,000 games and 10 state championships.
He’s still pushing both of those standards upward with Fairview, the state’s No. 5 overall ranked team and No. 1 in Class B, with a 20-2 record heading into Friday’s Barbe Tournament in Lake Charles.
“I’ve always been a competitive person in sports,” Jinks said. “I’ve loved sports all of my life. I thought there wasn’t a lot of people to get it, let’s set that goal. At the time I thought maybe it was a little out of reach, then I set a goal of winning 10 state championships which one was hard to get.”
The thought of Jinks hanging around to win 2,000 games may be a number that’s out of reach, even if he coaches his youngest daughter, currently a sixth grader, to the finish line.
“I have a son that’s a sophomore and another son that’s eight,” Jinks said. “I’m going to be doing this until I’m 100. I can’t retire.”
Fairview won its first eight games this season before a 68-63 loss to fellow Class B power, Oak Hill on Nov. 16. The Panthers won another five games until a 68-62 loss on Dec. 5 to Division I select runner-up Woodlawn of Baton Rouge.
Four straight wins followed, setting the stage for Fairview’s home game on Dec. 17 against Midland which led for a great majority of the game until Jinks’ daughter, senior guard Reesie, sparked a comeback with 38 points and led the Panthers to a 57-54 victory.
Jinks’ wife, Dena, created a trophy and the team surrounded their beloved coach for a picture, amid a banner with a ‘1,000 wins’ to commemorate the occasion.
“It was nice, I’m excited that I got it,” he said. “I’ve been really blessed to have some great coaches and players to achieve this.”
Reesie Jinks became the third member of her family, joining older sisters Laynee and Rylee, to earn tournament Most Outstanding Player honors in last year’s state title. The Class B All-State selection remains one of the driving forces on this year’s team with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 rebounds.
The Panthers, who average 5-feet-7 amongst their starters, are a carbon copy of Jinks’ previous team that is focused on controlling a torrid tempo with their rebounding and defense.
Senior AJ Williams and eighth-grader Andi Turner both average 12 points, while Williams is also regarded for her prowess on the boards and defensive end. Junior Andee Stelly and senior Madison Turner are also key members who have contributed to this year’s team’s success.
“I like our chances,” Jinks said of another state crown this season with Oak Hill, Bell City, Anacoco, and Pitkin providing potential roadblocks. “We’ve got kids that fight hard. I have a lot of speed, maybe the fastest team I’ve ever coached. We defend well. Sometimes we’ve got to be more consistent in that area. We’ve got to rebound consistently. We don’t do that well sometimes.”
Developing an identity built on grit
The direct traits Jinks has instilled in his players are a direct result of his playing experience under Gibbs and assistant coach Richard McNabb at Hackberry.
Jinks was the point guard on Hackberry’s first team to reach the Top 28 in 24 years under Gibbs.
“Both were competitive people who understood how to build tough kids,” Jinks said. “If you weren’t tough, you weren’t going to make it. You might as well find something else to do. They were going to find a way to put you in a corner and say, ‘You’re going to have to fight as hard as you can, or you’re going lay down and quit. It’s up to you.’”
Jinks’ persona may rub some outside the Fairview community the wrong way. He’s unapologetic for his “tough love” and is simply trying to get the maximum amount of ability out of each of his players.
“I try not to be mean, but it’s a way to get the kids to be tough,” he said. “I don’t think we have that these days. I think kids are softer than they used to be, but I’m old school. We go out and play the toughest teams we can play every year.
“We don’t just play just (Class) B-C schools,” he said. “We try to play the best teams that we can play and at the end of the day, win or lose, just as long as you play hard and fight, I’m going to be OK with that because that’s going to prepare us for March.”
Jinks realizes he’s an acquired taste where in the blue-collar community of Grant, he’s respected and appreciated for his tireless efforts in molding young girls into fearless women with an unquenchable thirst for winning.
“I can’t do what I do, the way that I do it anywhere else. I’m me,” he said. “The good, the bad, the ugly. You’re getting all three of them. Don’t try to change me or clone me into being somebody I’m not. Everybody wants me until they get me. These guys here have accepted that.
“They understand and the parents know I love their kids just like they’re my own,” he said. “I’m just pushing them to be the best and who doesn’t want their kid to be the best? Sometimes you have to push the envelope a little bit and I do that and they’re OK with it.”
It didn’t take long for Jinks to realize he stumbled into his own basketball nirvana.
Fairview’s gym, which at capacity holds 510 people, has become a tremendous advantage when the Panthers are home.
The area is well known for the Grant Christmas Tree Farm which sits four miles away from the school and ranks among the biggest tourist destinations in a town with one caution light, a gas station, and a Dollar Store.
There’s been no bigger drawing card than Fairview basketball under Jinks where warm-up drills provide a glimpse into the team’s fast-paced, up-tempo style – a challenge most opposing teams are not up to.
“Anywhere else it would be a playoff game,” Jinks said of the homecourt buzz that awaits his team each game. “People come out to watch us play and they support us. They’re loud. They’ll come to watch and support us. Small school basketball, they love it.
“When you watch us play, that’s exactly how our practices go and how fast we practice in every drill and how we play in every drill,” Jinks said. “What you see on Tuesday and Friday nights, I see every day in practice in every drill. Everything is game speed. If you win, you win. If you lose, there’s consequences like push-ups or burpees. I want to instill in them that no matter what you’ve got to do what it takes to win in every drill.”
Jinks’ first team at Fairview went 31-5 and reached the state quarterfinals.
“I inherited a pretty good team that lost to the eventual state runner-up,” he said. “The second year, we lost a bunch (players) and were kind of rebuilding but were still pretty good. We lost in the first round of the (Class B) playoffs and the next year we lost in the first round again.”
An era of dominance
An overtime victory over Athens in the state quarterfinals in 2001 represented Jinks’ watershed moment when Fairview advanced to the state tournament.
There was still plenty of heartache – four straight semifinal losses – until an indelible moment in 2005 with a Class C state championship over Calvin, 49-41.
“Every year we made it and lost in the semis, I thought we may never make it there again,” Jinks said. “You just keep thinking there’s no way we can make it again and then in 2005 that was the breakthrough and that was hard fought against Calvin in the finals.”
A move to Class B provided Fairview with incentive after a loss to Holden in the state final.
The Panthers embarked on a state record – for both boys and girls – with eight consecutive state championships between 2007-14 when a loss in the semifinals stopped the streak.
Moreover, it halted an impressive span of 10 straight appearances in the final game of the season.
“After that, I lost a bunch, and everybody thought it may take us a while again,” Jinks said of the loss to Holden. “I had a young group of kids that were willing to work hard. Only four were in high school and the rest were junior high kids with three starters in the eighth grade and one senior.
“It’s not me,” Jinks said. “Jesus has blessed me to be where I’m at and all of the people around me. The parents, the kids that work hard. This is really everybody’s doing. It’s not me. I have great fan support.”
Jinks’ system of play and strict attention to detail are credited as hallmarks for Fairview’s winning ways.
The Panthers regularly dominate all-district and all-state teams but rarely produce major Division I recruits. Players have been fortunate to play at McNeese State and junior college levels such as LSU Alexandria and LSU Eunice, but former standout Rylie Cloud is the only product of the program playing at the Power Four level where she’s a junior utility player on Arkansas’ softball team.
“I’ve been blessed with the kids that have been willing to work hard, but they’re also pretty decent athletes and their parents allow me to be me,” Jinks said. “You can’t just go anywhere and coach the way I coach. I’m 55 and have been coaching for 28 years. I’m not going to change. I’m hard on my girls. I love them and at the end of the day, their parents know that I love them.
“They know what it takes,” Jinks said. “A lot of people want to be winners and win at the level we win it, but very few of them want to do the work it takes to win at the level we win at. I’ve been blessed to have kids that are willing to do that, and I push them.”
Jinks also pointed to the team’s culture of hard work that funnels into the classroom.
He joked at last year’s team banquet having to shell out plenty of money to cover the expenses of his entire team earning the LHSAA’s All-Academic honors with perfect 4.0 grade point averages.
“I never have to worry about grades,” he said. “That was the first time that’s ever happened. Sixth to seventy percent of the team takes college classes. Their parents also push them to have good grades as well. It makes my job a lot easier.”
Fairview remained a fixture at least at the state quarterfinal level, including a pair of state semifinal showings, when the Panthers pushed through with a title over Hathaway in 2020, 66-55.
Making the game even more poignant was Jinks being able to send his daughter Laynie, a senior, out with a state title after the Panthers had incurred a six-year dry spell.
“We kind of built that monster and expectations had changed,” Jinks said. “If you’re not in the finals, you didn’t have a good year. That’s how we think. My oldest daughter had never won a title, and I was telling my wife, ‘I’ve got to win one that year.’ She was a senior and wasn’t going to have another shot at a ring and she was MVP in the game.”
This triggered another stretch of state championship success.
Fairview defeated Hathaway for the Class B title in 2021 (55-51), and Oak Hill in ’22 (82-66), but lost to Hathaway in the ’23 final (64-54).
Fairview responded last season and as the No. 2 seed, going 31-6, final mark that included redeeming itself against No. 1 Hicks, a team they lost 75-68 three months earlier, with a 72-68 victory in the final.
“When March comes around, that’s when winning and losing matters,” Jinks said. “When we get in the playoffs, that’s what we’re fighting for. We’re just trying to prepare ourselves for that moment.”
Jinks shared some of the postseason spotlight with his daughter Reesie, the Class C Outstanding Player, with another Coach of the Year honor.
The Panthers have been one of the state’s models of consistency where under Jinks, they’re shining examples of what hard work and determination, not just talent, can accomplish.
The same guy that couldn’t decide on an occupation more than three decades earlier, has found his true meaning as a person who has impacted more than just generations of young women.
Jinks has left his imprint on a school, community, region, and game that’s benefitted from his hard-nosed approach where he’s won 87.7% of his games, averaged 36 wins a season, won 22 district titles, made 22 Final Fours, captured 13 state titles and endured no losing seasons.
Jinks has also been recognized at both the statewide and national levels within a few months of each other in 2023. He was inducted into the LHSAA’s Hall of Fame in March and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA) followed four months later with its national coach of the year award.
“We make you play faster than you want to on defense and we force you to play faster on offense than you really want to play,” Jinks said. “If you can play that fast, the next question is how long can you handle that? Most teams who are in good shape aren’t in Fairview shape.
“There are some teams that just beat us,” Jinks said. “But if we’re going to get beat, we’re going to get beat playing the way we play.”