ST. LOUIS -- Jimmy McKinney made it out, and with the door long closed on his playing career, he wanted the current generation to follow suit.

The former three-star recruit in the early 2000s left St. Louis (Mo.) Vashon for a four-year career at Missouri, where he started as a guard for his home-state Tigers, but when he wrapped up his professional career overseas, he saw opportunities to give back.

Vashon, an inner-city public school nestled on the outskirts of downtown St. Louis, became a beacon of promise for underprivileged teenagers. Driving down Cass Avenue, the cracked bones of former homes lied desolate. Boarded up windows hid the past from the present.

But within the Vashon community, the boy's basketball program holds an opening for opportunities beyond what's obtainable in high school, and McKinney wanted to hold that goal to the highest level for his athletes, even the ones not bound to play in college.

"When they come in, they're young boys, but when they leave out, they're young men," McKinney said. "We're in the inner city, they don't have much to see. They don't have much to look forward for. All they have is this basketball program, and this basketball program is teaching them life lessons and life skills."

Vashon basketball offered McKinney and his friends an escape from any troubles outside of school hours, and while it paved way to collegiate and professional careers, it also set up his close friends and now current and former players with an understanding of success after high school.

"When you leave this program, it's not about making the NBA," McKinney said. "It's not about making millions and millions of dollars. It's about success, and whatever you think success is is that in your life you're making sure that you're not robbing, you're not killing, you're not stealing. You make sure you're a young man, and you grow up to be a great human being."

In between his six seasons as an assistant for his alma mater, McKinney served as head coach of Kirkwood (Mo.) High for two years. This past season, though, he stepped into the head coaching role for Vashon, replacing Tony Irons, the son of longtime head coach Floyd Irons.

"I learned a lot from him," McKinney said. "So I really didn't have to change anything. The machine was already turning, so I just had to really make sure that I didn't mess anything up."

In his first year leading the program, McKinney led the Wolverines to a 27-2 record and a 81-45 rout of St. Joseph (Mo.) Benton on Saturday for the MSHSAA Class 4 state championship, 16th in school history.

"The most important thing is that just trying to keep the standard, the standard, and keep the wheels turning," McKinney said. "I just wanted to manage it and just really make (Floyd and Tony) happy and making sure that what they left is still going in the right direction."

McKinney grew up with classmates that wanted to be in his shoes with an opportunity to play for the basketball program, but he acknowledged not all of his players right now might recognize that impact just yet.

"But when you step back and you come back, it really opens your eyes," McKinney said. "Nick Kern (Jr.), Keshon (Gilbert), Phillip Russell, Mario McKinney, Cam'Ron Fletcher, Kobe Clark, it's just names and names that you can just name that's playing college basketball, that's making a name for themselves, and also just most important, graduating from college.

"I'm not probably all the way accurate but I am very, very close. I think (the percentage of) this program that graduated from college is like 98%, and that's a really big deal. It really sets our program apart."

McKinney's son, Jimmy McKinney III, wrapped up his sophomore season at Vashon this past Saturday with his second consecutive state title. A program that played just two home games -- ones without fans -- and overcame transportation limitations won its fifth straight state championship.

"I've been there for a couple years as well as an assistant coach," McKinney said, "but just being in a different seat, the next seat over, and then also doing it with my son, I think that was just the real, surreal moment."

"It was a big role, because Coach Tony and Coach Floyd, they're already legends," McKinney III added. "So it was a big role for him stepping in and being the head coach and winning another state championship and continuing on legacy that they built."

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