The world of coaching college athletics is undeniably glamorous. The sheer unadulterated joy of victory in front of thousands of screaming supporters, the mind-numbing agony of defeat, the thrill of watching talented young athletes, and those fabulous six-figure salaries of head coaches all contribute to the glamour. Becoming one of those coaches requires a magical combination of knowledge, skill, experience, and certain character traits that only a few possess. Barry Hinson, head basketball coach at Southwest Missouri State University, is one of the few. Hinson is also one of Oklahoma's Career Tech Champions. Career Tech Champions are alumni of the system's programs or student organizations who have found success in a career and attribute much of that success to their occupational experience. Hinson attributes his experience in agricultural education and the occupational student organization FFA with helping him develop the skills that led him to his lofty perch. And from where most people sit, that is a most enviable place to be. Hinson's FFA experience taught him the importance of setting high goals. Not only setting goals - but committing them to paper - helped propel him to coaching a major college basketball team. "Those who commit their goals to paper out-perform those who do not, 1,000 to one," Hinson says. Coach Hinson's journey began in the tiny Oklahoma community of Marlow. As a high school freshman, he met a high school instructor that literally changed his life. . .agricultural education teacher Ernest Muncrief. "It was Muncrief," Hinson said, "who instilled in me the importance of hard work, dedication and commitment. I also learned an appreciation for life and improved my self-esteem." In his high school agricultural education classroom, Hinson honed his public speaking talents, and developed the kind of skills that would later prove so essential in dealing with a wide variety of people. "I discovered my career path through agricultural education and FFA," said Hinson. That career path lead directly after graduation to Oklahoma State University where he worked in the athletic department under the college work/study program painting houses and delivering office supplies. He also became good friends with Bill Self, a former OSU basketball player and assistant coach. Self later played an integral part in providing the opportunity for Hinson to coach at a major college. Following college graduation, Hinson began his basketball-coaching career at Stillwater Junior High School from 1982-85, moving to the high school level in 1985-86 as assistant basketball coach. From there, he moved to Edmond Memorial High School as assistant coach, then on to Tulsa Bishop Kelley High School in 1987 as head basketball coach. In 1993, Hinson landed his first university-level post as one of Bill Self's assistant coaches at Oral Roberts University. He was named to succeed Self as ORU's head basketball coach in 1997, leading his team to the Mid-Continent Tourney semifinals in 1998 and to the finals in 1999, the first conference championship at ORU in fifteen years. He was named head coach at Southwest Missouri soon after. Hinson also keeps a busy schedule as a professional public speaker, a parallel career he began in 1980. There, too, he credits his FFA public speaking experiences for inspiring him to develop and use that gift. For a person still in his '30s, one can only wonder how far the goals that Hinson learned to set during his high school agricultural education class will take him. As a young man who is living out his dream, his advice to young people is, "Never quit - always dream - and work hard."
	posted 1/4/01	Story by: Vicki Marton Communications and Marketing Email: vmart@okcareertech.org

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