Providence Road Service Day-3196.jpg — The Hard Choices Are the Right Choices

Interview with Brian Kinchen

Dear Friends of Providence Road,

With all the huge efforts being made by so many individuals to support Providence Road we wanted to use this publication to share some of their "stories from the road"

Today we are excited to share board member, donor, and volunteer, Brian Kinchen's story.

Without the ongoing support of Coach Kinchen, there would be no Providence Road. A special shout out for his essential support over these many years!

-Coach J'

“The hard choices are the right choices.”

— Coach Kinchen

Transcript below:

Bold Erik, Italic: Kinchen

Tell me a bit about your story and how you came to Providence Road?

When I first got out of the league in the early 2000s, I wasn’t sure what to do. My whole life was about football, and then, all of a sudden, I felt like I didn’t have anything that gave my life meaning.

I poured myself into various non-profits around Baton Rouge, which I didn’t really connect with but spoke to the calling to do something.

I was going through the motions, and it wasn’t speaking to any significant part of me. It’s hard to maintain something when it’s not super real to you.

Did you feel like you were looking for something specific?

After investing in non-profits, I checked out for a while and tried to get back into coaching. I wasn’t looking for a job. I just wanted to have an impact. I started to look for head coaching jobs in Baton Rouge.

How did that go?

The reality is that people see you in the spotlight or hear about where you’ve been and have preconceived ideas about who you are. Unfortunately, if they have the opportunity to show you that you aren’t that important, they will. The first job I applied for, I never even got an interview.

But I continued to pursue coaching. I got my teaching certificate to teach in the public schools and was going around trying to find coaching jobs. After bouncing around several Christian schools for some time, I ended up at one of the local inner-city charter schools.

It was my first extended interaction coaching inner-city kids, and I was looking forward to working with them.

The problem was, the kids wouldn't show up to practice for off-season workouts because they didn’t have rides. Only about two or three showed up for practice. It just wasn’t working. And I was thinking, “How am I supposed to coach a team when they can’t even show up?”

So In 2013, I checked out again. I just felt that God didn’t have a plan for me other than to be and exist.

“We show up to serve youth, just to realize when we get down in it, that it’s as much for our hearts as it is for theirs.”

— Coach J' (Jon Odenwald)

Was that around the time you connected with Providence Road?

After stepping away from coaching, I got involved with PASS (Professional Athletes Supporting Students) and started speaking at schools with another friend of mine from the league. But we didn’t really get to interact with the kids.

At one of the events, I bumped into Jon O’, who was a grade behind me back when we were in school.

We reconnected, and he explained what he had been doing and the path he had taken since high school.

He was doing what I wanted to do with football but hadn’t been able to.

And I decided this is what I wanted to be a part of.

Did you jump on board right then?

I started with Jon O’ out at the school in Baker, trying to reach the hardest to reach kids with leadership qualities that would bring others along.

Jon O’ pointed out that most of the kids who would show up to programs weren’t the “troubled kids”. The kids who were struggling weren’t in programs, you didn’t see them, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have potential. It just meant they didn’t fit the model.

How often are you involved?

I’m there usually one or two days a week.

When you ask me what I’m doing over the weekend, I’m going to say that I’m spending time with my wife and my kids,

You ask Jon O’ where he’s going to be this weekend; it’s hanging out with his guys.

What part of the work speaks to you personally?

I realized a while ago that most days, they probably wouldn’t notice if I’m there or not.

But I think they would at least remember me for the one quote I always share with them: “The Hard choices are often the right choices”

Ultimately, I’m just there to love on them and let them know that someone believes in them where they are.

My motivational force as a football player, for my whole career, was that feeling that I was never good enough.

I grew up with two caring parents, in a loving and supporting family, and I think, if I struggled with this, or continue to struggle with this at age 55, I can’t imagine how hard it is for these guys coming from the environments they are in.

I was a works-based affirmation guy, I’m still healing from that, and that, all along knowing (in my head) that “Jesus loves me.”

I want to give these guys what I long for every day. The sense that my life matters and that Jesus accepts me right where I’m at.

So for me, it’s easy to get in the car and drive out the neighborhood and give these guys something that I know is significant. Let them know they are perfect the way they are and that someone loves them more than they know.

It’s one more person encouraging them and letting them know that they have support and they have someone who believes they can make better choices.