CPHS Football: Dustin Kinard fired from Sand Springs after 13 seasons

Dustin Kinard speaks to a ref during the 2018 football season.

Charles Page High School Head Football Coach Dustin Kinard was fired Tuesday afternoon. Before being dismissed he was the second-longest tenured coach in town history, and the second-longest tenured coach in Class 6A.

Kinard is also the assistant principal at Northwoods Fine Arts Academy, and an assistant coach on the Sandite Wrestling team. His wife also works for the Sand Springs school district. He recently beat pancreatic cancer, beginning treatment prior to the 2018 seasons, and announcing he was cancer-free shortly before the 2019 school year.

The Sandite football team went 2-8 this past season, following a 3-7 campaign in 2018, and a 5-6 year in 2017. In thirteen years he took the Sandites to six winning seasons and seven playoff berths, and finished with a 65-75 record. Three of those losses were won on the field and forfeited due to ineligible players. He was 4-7 in the playoffs, 41-48 in district play, and 34-30 on the home field.

Kinard inherited a program that went 4-6 for three straight years, and he repeated that mark in his debut season. In 2008 he took the team to a 7-4 record, their best season and first playoff appearance since 1997. The next year it was back to 4-6. During those seasons he had future Oklahoma State quarterback Johnny Deaton and eventual Superbowl Champion Michael Bowie on the o-line.

2009-2011 saw three more losing seasons, including a 1-9 mark in 2010, their worst since 2003. In 2012 they once again broke into the postseason, going 8-3, and repeated in 2013 with a 6-5 record. The 2012 unit only lost to “Big Four” teams Owasso, Union, and Broken Arrow.

2014 was a pivotal year not just for Sand Springs, but for many of the state’s biggest schools. Class 6A-II was split, meaning Sand Springs no longer had to play the Big Four. This change helped Bixby to become the powerhouse they are now, and for a few years it looked like Sand Springs might also be experiencing a culture change.

The Sandites went 8-4 in 2014, winning their first playoff game since 1997.

In 2015 they went 7-5, but two of those losses were forfeits. They beat Nathan Hale 61-8 and Enid 33-7, but were forced to vacate the wins due to playing an ineligible transfer student. Their third non-district game was canceled due to excessive lightning delays after the Sandites had already worked up an 18-7 lead against Guthrie midway through the second quarter. The team could easily have been 10-3, which would have been their best mark since 1997. The storied team shutout Bixby 20-0 on senior night and made their first State Championship appearance since 1966, where Bixby got payback 38-28 at Union Tuttle Stadium.

In 2016 they went 7-5 once again, won another playoff game, and fell to Bixby in the semifinals. 2017 saw another playoff appearance, but this time they were eviscerated in the first round for their first losing record since 2011, at 5-6. In 2018 the school-best six-year playoff streak came to an end with a 3-7 record.

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Wins in past 20 games since 2007. The Sandites are currently 5-15 for the first time since 2012.

This year the team went 2-8, winning only one district game. The two teams they beat were a combined 3-17. The low-point of the year was a 75-0 loss to Bixby, the worst loss Sand Springs has endured since 1924. The top-ranked Spartans took a 45-0 halftime lead, and even their third string shut out the Sandite starters 14-0 in the fourth quarter.

6A schools have seen a lot of turnover in recent years. Out of 32 schools, only nine coaches entered the season with five or more years at their current programs. Kinard, Kirk Fridrich (Union) and Billy Brown (Shawnee) were the only coaches with ten years or more at their current school. Bixby’s Loren Montgomery just joined that club with his tenth year at the helm. Kinard had the second-worst record of any 6A coach with five or more seasons. The only coach with a lower mark was Southmoore’s Jeremy Stark (23-40), who resigned as soon as the season concluded.

A Change.org petition is currently circulating among Kinard’s many fans, who hope to see him reinstated. At press time it has 280 signatures, with proponents citing his recent playoff success as well as his personal impact on the students he coached.

Sand Springs Coaching History
2007-2019 Dustin Kinrd 65-75 (.464)
2004-2006 Brad Odom 12-18 (.400)
2002-2003 Tim Beacham 0-20 (.000)
2001 Mark Baetz 3-7 (.300)
1997-2000 Archie Loehr 23-20 (.535)
1983-1996 L.D. Baines 74-76 (.493)
1982 Chris Thurmond 2-8 (.200)
1980-1981 Gary Quimby 10-11 (.476)
1976-1979 A.D. James 27-17 (.614)
1972-1975 Jim Web 14-26 (.350)
1970-1971 Jerry Greenwood 2-18 (.100)
1969 Hugh McCrabb 4-6 (.400)
1967-1968 John Roberts 11-8-1 (.550)
1964-1966 Frank Tillery 22-7-3 (.688)
1963 Thurman Garrett 5-5 (.500)
1961-1962 Travis Rhodes 8-9-4 (.381)
1957-1960 Charles Prigmore 10-30-1 (.244)
1955-1956 Harold Wickersham 6-14 (.300)
1952-1954 Cecil Hankins 15-10-4 (.517)
1947-1951 Maurice Hail 31-23-1 (.564)
1944-1946 Lester Secrest 12-15-5 (.375).