Jerome Jenkins has spent a long journey throughout the college basketball landscape. He played at 3 different colleges during 4 years, then was an assistant coach at 4 different schools during the next decade before being named head coach of the Hornets in 2000. He spent 8 years on the sideline before heading south to Santa Monica College in 2008. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Jenkins about being an all-conference PG and the key to playing great defense. Today is Coach Jenkins’ 54th birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!
At Fairfax High School you were a 2-time All-City player and won a city title in 1985: how good a player were you back then, and what was it like to win the title? I like to think that I was very good and made a good name for myself. We came up just short of the city title during my sophomore and junior years so it was gratifying to finally achieve that goal during my senior year.
You were an all-conference PG at both the JC and college level: how far did you think you could go as a player? I had hoped to make money playing pro basketball, but reality clicked in because I was just not tall enough so I just used basketball to get an education.
You got your degree in criminal justice: why did you choose criminal justice, and what did you do with your degree? I really did not know what I wanted to do, but growing up in LA and hanging out in the streets I just tried to stay out of trouble. I knew a lot of young men who were in and out of jail so I was just interested in going into criminal justice. I started out as a psychology major, but once we got to statistics I switched to criminal justice.
You took a 2-year break after college to work as a youth group home manager in Pittsburg, CA: why did you decide to do that, and what were you able to accomplish? It opened up a lot of doors for me. I thought that I could get a college degree and conquer the world but there was a hiring freeze in the government at the time. I did not want to work at McDonald’s so I got a job working with mentally disabled kids in a group home. I was able to pay my bills and then later I got into coaching.
You later became associate head coach at Diablo Valley College, where you advanced to the Final Four in 1997: why did you choose to go back into coaching, and how close did you come to winning it all that year? It was always my goal to get into coaching. Even in high school my teammates told me that I was like a coach on the floor because I was always on them. My friend David Carter at Reno helped me get the job at Diablo and then he paved the way for me to later head to Eastern Washington. We went 32-6 that year at Diablo, which helped me get a D-1 assistant job.
You coached at Sacramento State from 2000-2008: what is your favorite memory from your time there? My favorite memory was watching the Lakers beat the Kings in the 2002 Western Conference Finals: it was a great rivalry.
Your team led the conference in steals almost every season: how much importance do you place on defense, and how was your team able to get so many steals? I try to make the game fun for the young men so I tell them to get in the passing lanes because defense creates offense. When we fast break and get out in the open floor the guys like to play that way. I am a hard-ass on defense but I do not teach a lot of offensive sets, so if you work hard on defense then you are allowed to be creative on offense.
You later coached at Santa Monica College: how did you like the gig, and what is the biggest difference between a D-1 program and other programs? I was happy to have a job and be back home with my wife and kids in LA.
What do you hope to do in the future, and would you ever leave coaching to do something else? To be honest, I would like to get back to the D-1 level someday as a head coach or even an assistant coach. I hope to not do anything else because I want to retire 1 day as a basketball coach.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I hope that I am thought of as a hard-working guy who wanted to have his players succeed. A lot of coaches can win on the court but do not care about how their players do in the classroom: I am proud that I graduated most of my players at Sacramento. I do want to win but I also want to give my guys a chance at succeeding in life.