Jack of all Trades

If you visited a Seminole track meet, you might not realize the humble, unassuming 70-something-year-old middle school coach with a subtle and soothing Oklahoma drawl was once a bodysurfing teenager on the beaches of Orange County, California.

Jack Tinsley would have never predicted how his life and career would unfold, but he has enjoyed each development due to his adeptness in adaptation. After spending his youth swimming, surfing, and playing water polo at Huntington Beach, Tinsley and his family moved to Oklahoma, where the nearest beach is an eight-hour drive away.

As a boy, Tinsley always imagined himself attending nearby Southern California University. However, he adapted to his new surroundings and quickly immersed himself as a student at Northeastern State University.

“I was getting ready to go start my master’s work. It was a midterm, so I was living with two coaches there in Tahlequah and I get a call from a vice principal, and he says, ‘Jack, do you want a job?’”

Tinsley assumed they meant to perform odd jobs around the building.

“I thought I was going to help with the grounds and then he tells me he’s offering me a position as a teacher.”

57 years later, Jack is still teaching.

In that time, Tinsley has taught physical science, social studies, United States history, world history, Oklahoma history, geography, English, economics, and physical education. He has also coached basketball, football, track and field, and cross country.

One night early in his career at a Tahlequah football game, Jack noticed a young lady in the crowd and decided to spark a conversation.

“We got to talking a little bit. And when I went back to school that Monday, her sister said, ‘Do you think my sister was pretty, Coach Tinsley?’ I said, “Yes, she’s very pretty.”

In April 2024, Jack and Lajuana Tinsley, both Cherokee citizens, celebrated their 55-year anniversary.

And despite a nine-year stint together in California, where Tinsley was earning three times the salary teaching, the couple returned to Oklahoma where Jack could be a social studies teacher and coach. “My wife is an Oklahoma girl,” Tinsley admitted, “She was getting tired of California and the beaches.”

“Well, she didn’t get tired,” Tinsley corrected, “She’s just into small town stuff. She liked (California), but her family was back (in Oklahoma). So, we got offered a good job, got a good house.”

48 years later, they still live in that very same house.

After realizing Seminole had no girls cross country team, Tinsley created one. As head coach, he led them to a state title in the program’s third year of existence.

“That was a special group of girls,” Tinsley recalled, “They were tough. They were the type that didn’t want to lose.”

Tinsley claims he has taken a step back from coaching in order to spend more time with family, but he still coaches the Seminole Middle School cross-country team and even helps the football team as a trainer taping up players.

Tinsley attributes his success across trades and decades to his most important attribute.

“I’m a good teacher in the classroom, and that’s what’s the most important thing.”

And what makes Jack Tinsley a good teacher?

“Number one, you must know what you’re teaching. The students also must know you care about what you’re teaching,” Tinsley answered, “Everybody has a different way. You can’t say there’s this way to teach. You’ve got to be just you.”

When you are passionate and dedicated to teaching as your authentic self, the students notice, and they never forget. When that happens, they are your students forever.

“I’ve been out of California for 48 years. I still have students from California who text me, call me, and I’ve had come stay with me for a week or two. I still hear from the kids from when I first started teaching there at Seminole. Every time I go to the store, a former student comes up to me.”

Even when taking a somber moment at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. to reflect on those he knew who passed away, Tinsley was hit by the unmistakable call of a former student.

“I hear, ‘Coach Tinsley!’ And it was somebody on the clear other side, saw me, yelled and came running over.”

“And I’m going, ‘Shoot, I can’t go anywhere.’”

Tinsley narrowly avoided being drafted into the Vietnam War himself.

“I came real close. They cut off at 252 and I was 253,” Tinsley reflected, “It was scary. That was a very tumultuous time in American history.”

From his classroom window, Tinsley has witnessed that history evolve along with the passing generations of students in their desks. And while he describes himself as “old fashioned,” Tinsley has been able to evolve right along with the times.

“You have to just try and understand the students as much as you can,” Tinsley said, “And you have to have technology in today’s world. For me it’s been a challenge, but (technology) is great and it definitely helps me do things in the classroom I couldn’t before. I’m adaptable.”

That flexibility is something the man who taught every course and coached every sport hopes his students take away from his tutelage.

“Have the idea of moving. Don’t be so rigid in your beliefs,” thought Tinsley, “That way you have a chance of seeing things. Because if you get rigid – I don’t care if it’s a Liberal, Conservative – you get that rigid you’re not learning, and you’re not going to have compromise.”

How much longer Tinsley’s career continues may not be up to him. At this point, it appears to be in the hands of a high school sophomore on the Seminole pom squad – his granddaughter, Emma.

“She said, ‘Papa, you taught your daughter, you taught your son, you taught my sister, and you are going to teach me,’” Tinsley recited, “And she’s the boss. That’s two more years, which would put me at 60 years. That sounds nice.”