Jordan’s new head football coach was promoted from another Muscogee County school
Jordan Vocational High School’s new head football coach comes from within the Muscogee County School District.
Kadale Jenkins, the head football coach at Richards Middle School, has been promoted to Jordan, MCSD announced Wednesday.
“Coach Jenkins is the right coach to lead us in rebuilding our football team,” Jordan principal Ryan Hutson said in the news release.
Jenkins takes over a program that hasn’t had a winning season in 29 years and has gone through seven head coaches since then. The most recent one, Dale Overton, didn’t have enough players to finish the 2021 season, so the rest of the schedule was canceled after the Red Jackets lost the first four games by a combined score of 109-6.
Jenkins is undaunted by that history. Instead, he welcomes it.
“It’s easy to go somewhere where the program is already a powerhouse and winning football games,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer. “… But I want to go somewhere where the administration believes we can rebuild a program and where my coaches believe we can rebuild a program.”
Jenkins described his coaching style as firm but fair.
“I want to coach student athletes, not athletes,” he said. “So the first thing we’re going to take care of is our grades in the classroom.”
Then on the field, he said, “We’re going to be quick, we’re going to be fast, and we’re going to be disciplined.”
Jenkins has been head coach for two seasons at Richards, where he led the team to records of 2-2 in 2020 and 6-1 in 2021. He previously was an assistant coach for two seasons each at Double Churches Middle School, Aaron Cohn Middle School, Kendrick High School and Shaw High School.
Jenkins, 37, played baseball, not football, at Carver High School, where he graduated in 2002, so he knows what it’s like to participate in a program without a winning tradition.
“I’m going to be able to relate to these kids,” he said. “I know it’s hard when you’re working all summer and you go 1-9 or 0-10. I know it’s hard. … I’m going to get in there and build their trust. Once I build their trust and they believe me, then the program is going to excel from there.”
That’s why Jenkins plans to emphasize the program’s long-term process instead of short-term results.
“I want them to graduate, No. 1,” he said. “I want them to be a successful man in the community and in the school. And I want them to start something and not quit.”
Jenkins is a special-education teacher. He earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood development from Kaplan University online and a master’s degree in education from Purdue University Global online.
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 12:00 AM.
