Melvin Kinslow: Americus High School
Kinslow was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2000.
State championships were part of Melvin Kinslow's resume during his coaching career. The Americus High School coach was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame after a celebrated coaching career.
A three-sport athlete at Americus High, Kinslow played football, basketball and baseball in high school and received a basketball scholarship to Tusculum College. He later transferred to Georgia Southwestern, which was then a two-year college, before graduating from Mercer in 1957. Kinslow is part of the Georgia Southwestern Hall of Fame as well as the Mercer Hall of Fame.
He became the head baseball coach at Americus High in 1959 and coached until 1969. He led the Panthers to five state championships, including three straight from 1964-66. He also won titles in 1961 and 1969.
Kinslow was named state baseball Coach of the Year in 1966 for all classifications.
During his time at Americus, he was also defensive coordinator on the football team and he played an integral role in helping the team win state football titles in 1962 and 1965.
In 1966, Kinslow also coached the Americus girls to a state basketball championship and a 21-0 finish, the only girls basketball title in Americus High's history (Americus and Sumter County merged and Americus-Sumter won a girls title in 2016). He was Class A state Coach of the Year in 1966.
Kinslow left coaching in 1969 and went into administration in the Americus City School system before he took over at Southland Academy in 1970 and served as the school's headmaster for 25 years.
At Southland, Kinslow took the boys basketball team to a Georgia Independent Schools Association state title in 1983 where he was the GISA state Coach of the Year. He also coached Southland to five boys golf championships.
He was also was an assistant coach on several Southland teams. After he retired from Southland, he continued to be an assistant baseball and football coach at Deerfield-Windsor Academy in Albany.
"I told somebody years later that when we won those titles, I never took time to smell the roses," Kinslow said. "I always felt like we had to figure out a way to defend our title because everybody was going to be after us the next year."
In addition to Kinslow's busy coaching schedule, he was also a well-respected basketball official and often officiated college basketball games for 35 years. He officiated basketball games in the Southeastern Conference for 10 years.