Parkway North Strength & Conditioning Coach Heads to Burroughs

Peter Tasker, athletic director at John Burroughs was mulling over the idea of beefing up the strength and conditioning program for his student athletes.

By way of discussions, he heard recently retired strength and conditioning coach Kevin Kinney was a master of that discipline.

He called Kinney to chat and pick his brain. One thing led to another.

“He (Peter) thought that hiring a strength and conditioning coach would be a notch in his belt for Burroughs. I told Peter that I’d like to fill that position,” said Kinney, 54, who retired after 30 years at.

Head of School Andy Abbott agreed to the concept.

“We want all our students to be fit and have the opportunity to learn skills in lifetime sports. We just decided to hire Kevin for a part-time position, and our coaches are all very excited about the news,” Abbott said. “We want to teach good form and safety with our middle school students on, so we created the position. We have many coaches with differing philosophies about the use of weight training and conditioning, and Kevin will unite all of that for us.”

Kinney graduated from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1979. He then worked for the Orchard Farm School District before moving on to Parkway North. He coached alongside longtime coach Jim Cook.

Kinney launched his career in the social studies department at Parkway North before moving onto physical education.

“Denny Staub was our football coach. He came to me and asked me to do some things to develop the speed and quickness of our athletes, especially football players,” Kinney said.

Soon, the girls basketball team latched onto Kinney, and the fitness training program burst wide open in the 1980s at the athletic facilities on Fee Fee Road. “I spent about a decade focused on making our football team a faster one,” he said.

Kinney misses some things at North. He was assistant to his son Jeff, 30, the Vikings’ head track and field coach for years. The father and son have run a sports strength and conditioning summer camp for 13 continuous years.

These days, the Kinneys reside in Old Town St. Charles, just a stone's throw from the sprawling Lindenwood campus.

His wife, Karen, 1979 graduate of the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing (currently Barnes-Jewish Hospital), has worked at l for 32 years. Their children are Jeff, 27-year-old Michael and Jennifer, 22, a recent graduate of Texas Christian University with a dual degree in French and Spanish. The two older boys were fraternity brothers and graduates of the University of Missouri. They played football for Duchesne High in St. Charles. Kinney earned his master's degree in education from Lindenwood in 1989.

Kinney has simple goals to begin his new career at Burroughs. “These are wonderful people to work with, and they have high expectations. My only real objective is making kids better. We have a voluntary strength and conditioning program two hours a day this summer, and nearly 400 kids have signed up.”

Kinney believes in tapping about any resource to get the job done. “I have strong relationships with coaches and trainers at Mizzou, with the Rams and other organizations. I work with Norris Stevenson (former coach at St. Louis Community College, Florissant Valley) on plyometric training."

The operative word around Burroughs will be "new" this fall. Former Rams quarterback Gus Frerotte takes over the Bombers’ football program and Kevin Kinney will be angling to make those athletes and others quicker, stronger and more agile.

Summing it up concerning this new opportunity, Kinney said, “I am excited, humbled, honored to be part of this team.”