Kirby named new Nixon-Smiley AD as McKinney retires

Longtime Nixon-Smiley CISD athletic director and basketball coach Carlton McKinney has retired and head football coach Paul Kirby has been appointed to take his place as the AD full-time, Superintendent Jeff VanAuken announced.

Kirby returned to Nixon-Smiley High School in 2024, succeeding Paul Moses as head football coach after spending a year at La Vernia as the head offensive line coach. Prior to that, he had been the offensive coordinator for two years for the Mustangs after having served as assistant football coach for the Gonzales Apaches.

Kirby is also the head coach of the Nixon-Smiley powerlifting team. The boys squad won five straight meets they attended and sent eight Mustangs to the state meet, while the girls team produced five state qualifiers, including state champion Zulema Rodriguez, as they finished fourth overall at state.

"Coach Kirby is an incredibly passionate young man who has a genuine love for athletics!” VanAuken said. “We feel very fortunate to have an individual in house that is ready to put his stamp on our athletic program. His energy and enthusiasm for teaching and coaching young men and women is incredible and we look forward to watching our student athletes grow as athletes and even more importantly, as young adults.

"We are very proud of what Coach Kirby has been able to do with our powerlifting program as well as our football program and look forward to having him guide our entire athletic program!"

McKinney, a 1983 Nixon High School graduate, had been the longest tenured coach on the Mustangs’ staff, having returned to his alma mater as head basketball coach in 1999 after a brief coaching stint at a Seguin private school.

As a player, McKinney played under then-Coach Nolan Richardson at Tulsa before transferring to SMU, where he received first-team All-Southwest Conference honors in 1988 and led his team into the NCAA tournament. He played professional basketball for a number of years in the NBA, in the CBA and overseas.

McKinney became Nixon-Smiley’s interim athletic director in 2009 and full-time AD in 2010 and finished his career at Nixon-Smiley with 25 years coaching, 16 of that as athletic director and head basketball coach and nine as head football coach.

Upon McKinney’s retirement in March, Kirby was promoted to interim athletic director before being named to the position full time last month.