Nearly 30 years ago, Fairview High School took a chance on a recent college graduate who had never coached in the high school ranks.

Kyle Jinks hasn’t disappointed. In 28 seasons, he led the Panthers girls basketball team to 13 state championships and reached a milestone few even dream of Tuesday night when he won his 1,000th career game.

The Panthers, the top team in the Class B power rankings at 18-2, held off a second-half rally to beat Midland 57-54.

“It didn’t really sink in last night, and then this morning it kind of did,” Jinks said. “It was kind of surreal last night, and then this morning I woke up and I’m at a 1,000 wins in 28 years.

“It feels real good. These guys took a shot on me. You know, they said, look, we’ll give you a chance, and I’ve been here ever since for 28 years.”

Jinks’ record is 1,000-140 with 25 district championships, 22 final four appearances, nine seasons over 40 wins and no losing seasons.

Basketball has always coursed through Jinks’ veins. He started playing at six years old and helped lead the Mustangs to the top 28 for the first time in 24 years under head coach Bryon Gibbs in his senior year, 1987. He tried college for a year but dropped out and went into construction. That wasn’t for him, and he admits he missed work sometimes to join in pick-up games set up by Gibbs.

“Absolutely hated it,” Jinks said. “I prayed for rain so I didn’t have to go.”

But it was Gibbs who suggested a different path, one that would include more basketball.

“He said, you know, if you go to school and get a degree, they’ll pay you to do this,” Jinks said. “You won’t have to miss work, and I thought about that.

“Me and a buddy of mine, Shane Thibodeaux, he graduated the same time I did, got together and said, look, we can’t do anything else. We don’t like anything else. Let’s go back, and we went back to college. I went back, and I was serious about it, and I graduated in four years.”

After he graduated from McNeese in 1996, Jinks attended a career fair in January of 1997 and was interviewed by Mike Doucet for job openings in Allen Parish. The interview was a little uneasy until the two realized they had played against each other in high school. Despite remembering that Jinks had knocked his team out of the playoffs in 1987, Doucet set up him with then-Fairview principal Wayne Cloud, who offered him a job.

“He (Doucet) busted out laughing, and we got to know each other pretty good,” Jinks said. “It kind of relaxed the situation.”

In his first season, the Panthers went 33-5 and reached the quarterfinals. He lost in the first round of the playoffs the next two seasons, before his first run to the top 28 in 2001. A 15-year run at the state tournament followed, including a state record eight consecutive state championships from 2007 to 2014. Prior to Jinks arrival, the Panthers had made several trips to the state tournament but hadn’t won a state title since 1986.

“I have kids that work really hard, and they got good athletes, and the most important thing is their parents let me coach the way I coach,” Jinks said. “They don’t try to make me be somebody I’m not.

“They let me coach with my own personality, and I’m just a little different.”

Jinks stands at 5-5 but quickly garners the attention of his players. He said his high school coaches, Gibbs and Richard McNabb, helped shape his coaching style.

“I’m loud,” Jinks said. “I’m hard on them, but they’re okay with that, and I don’t think I could do it any other way.

“If I went anywhere else, they probably would fire me. I mean when you do something and you’re good at it, you can’t change, especially at my age.”

Jinks and his wife Dena have seven children, including four daughters. The three oldest — Laynee, Rylee and Reesie, who led the Panthers with 37 points Tuesday — were part of state championship teams and named finals MVP at least once. Coaching his daughters has helped him find a balance between coaching and family.

“Man, I had to learn a lot from the first one,” Jinks said. “I took a lot of stuff home with me, and my wife sat me down and said, look, the game’s over. Let it go. She’s just a kid.

“So I learned a lot from her, and I learned to, when we lose, say what I got to say in the locker room and let it go, and just be a dad when we got home.”

At 55 years old, Jinks is not sure when he will retire, but may make a run at the national career wins record for high school girls basketball. Leta Andrews of Granbury, Tex., retired in 2014 holds the record at 1,416 over 52 seasons.

“I have to sit down and kind of assess everything, but I have to make some more goals to motivate myself,” Jinks said. “I’m going to keep going as long as I like it.

“I may go after Lita Andrews’ record. She has 1,416 wins, so 400 more ain’t that hard to get, I don’t think.  It’ll take me about 12 years, but I can get there. I’ll do it faster than her, too.”