BATESVILLE — Kevin Jenkins emerged through the doors of Becknell Gymnasium with a smile on his face and an outstretched arm. Shaking a lot of hands — that’s what coaches do, right? Over the past 27 years, Jenkins has shaken many hands, and after reaching his 200th win last season at Lyon College, he’s smiled a lot, too.
Lyon College began it’s basketball season Tuesday with a game against Mid-Continent University in Mayfield, Ky. with a 90-89 victory.
Although Jenkins has been a coach at the college for 27 years, his Lyon roots go deeper to his time as a student there.
“He was one of my students,” Lyon College President Donald Weatherman said with a laugh. “I taught for 16 years, and he took a couple of classes from me. He’s been a fixture here for decades, and he’s a really good fit and a natural at what he does.”
While Jenkins was attending Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo., on a basketball scholarship, then Coach Terry Garner recruited Jenkins to play for the then Arkansas College Scots.
Jenkins graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business management, and he went on a job hunt. After several job interviews, Jenkins said he realized that the business life wasn’t for him. So he went back to Alton, Mo., to the family farm.
“My dad put me back on a tractor, then Coach Garner called me,” he said about going to work as assistant coach at Lyon. “I thought I might do it for two or three years and them move on to something better.”
Well, apparently, nothing better came along because Jenkins is still at Lyon, but he has moved his way up to head coach and athletic director.
But in the transition from being a student to becoming a staff member, Jenkins moved into a residence hall, which is where he lived as a “house dad” for six years. He said the transition from student to authority figure wasn’t that difficult because the men in his hall were freshmen.
The transition was easier to go from student to “house dad” than it was to go from player to coach.
“The biggest challenge was helping them get through home sickness and time management,” he said. “I had to make sure they were making good choices. I was not too far removed from being a student. … But I went from a senior athlete to assistant coach, and some of the players I had played with the year before were still on the team.”
Not only are his career and education rooted deeply at Lyon, but he met his wife Kristie there, too. The Jenkins were married in 1992, and they have two daughters, Kessie, 13, and Kamie, 7.
“Our players are kind of like family,” he said. “Our daughters feel like they have 18 big brothers.”
Kristie also played on the women’s basketball team at Lyon, and she coaches tennis at Southside schools in Batesville. They are both in the Lyon College Athletic Hall of Fame.
“We both have basketball in our blood,” he said about his wife and himself.
Jenkins is the fifth head men’s basketball coach at Lyon, but he has been there the longest of them all. Although athletics is his passion, he also understands the importance of education.
“Lyon is a very good academic school,” Jenkins said. “The student athletes are a good group of kids — very intelligent. And they get to play a sport they love and get that degree. The priority is education.”
Jenkins said a good way to judge how good a teacher was is to wait about 10 years and see where that former student is in life.
“He understands where athletics fit into the college relationship between education and sports,” Weatherman said.
The biggest challenge of his career, Jenkins said, was when he moved from assistant coach to head coach.
“I just moved one seat over, but it all fell on my shoulders,” he said about the responsibilities of a head coach. “Then moving to the athletic director role, I had to prioritize and budget my time wisely.”
But along with the challenges, there are rewards.
“When you see them come in and mature and grow, then at the end of basketball season, seeing them walk across that stage and graduate is rewarding,” he said.
Jenkins coached his 500th career game on Nov. 1, and his overall record at the end of last season was 201-297 in 17 seasons as Lyon’s men’s coach. Jenkins has also served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Basketball Coaches Association and is president of the TranSouth Conference Basketball Coaches Association. He was also selected as the TranSouth Coach of the Year for Men’s Basketball in 2006.
Since coming to work at the college, Jenkins has held numerous positions, including residence hall director, women’s basketball coach, men’s and women’s track coach, instructor of physical education, sports information director, cross-country coach, assistant men’s basketball coach, compliance officer and adviser to the Student Athlete Advisory Organization.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.