WOODSFIELD - Tyler Kinchen is scheduled to play in the 65th annual Rudy Mumley Ohio Valley Athletic Conference All-Star Charity Football Classic on July 29.
But that's probably not going to happen.
"He'll have to opt out of the OVAC game," said veteran Monroe Central head football coach Jay Circosta of his former standout quarterback, "because he'll be working out in Mississippi in July."
Article Photos
PAUL KRAJNYAK Special to The Times
Monroe Central’s Tyler Kinchen (13) runs to daylight during a prep football game against Shadyside last fall. Kinchen will be continuing his education and playing football at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College this upcoming season.
The 6-foot, 230-pound Kinchen, who helped lead the Seminoles to a playoff berth last fall, has decided to continue his education and play football at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, located at Perkinston, Ms.
MGCCC, the only community college in Mississippi, Alabama and Lousiana, is considered one of the top associate degree producers in the country. The school also fields a pretty competitive Bulldogs football team, which went 10-2 and won a second consecutive Mississippi Bowl last season.
Several of the Bulldogs have gone on and signed with NCAA Division I programs.
"This is a great opportunity for Tyler to get an education and play some football - and maybe later catch on with a Division I school," Circosta said.
At MGCCC, Kinchen is being looked at as linebacker, Circosta said.
While Kinchen will probably bow out of the OVAC event in late July, he did get to compete in the 19th Annual Battle Against Cystic Fibrosis (BACF) Football Classic at Don Drumm Stadium on June 8. At QB, he ran for two second-half touchdown runs of 7 and 21 yards in a 48-0 Ohio rout of West Virginia.
Last fall, Monroe Central was the only prep football school in The Marietta Times circulation area to play in the postseason. The Seminoles (9-2) suffered an early exit, though, dropping a 34-12 decision to visiting St. Thomas Aquinas in the opening round of the playoffs.
Kinchen, The Marietta Times Player of the Year in football, finished with 1,082 rushing yards on 178 carries and 14 touchdowns. As a passer, he completed 77 of 149 throws for 1,086 yards and 12 TDs.
According to the Monroe Central coach, Tyrone Kinchen, Tyler's twin brother, will be taking a different path.
"Tyrone's going into the Marines," Circosta said.
