SSN Lacrosse Player of the Year: Dylan Jinks

It seems like just yesterday Dylan Jinks burst onto the scene as an ultra-talented freshman and scored 52 goals with 30 assists, showing just a glimpse of the player he would become over the next three years.

Now those three years have come and gone and Jinks’s high school career is over, and what a career it has been.

For the second straight year Jinks, a senior attackman for Southern Regional, is the Shore Sports Network Player of the Year. He once again led the Shore Conference in scoring with 76 goals and 40 assists for 116 points. He had the most goals and points in the conference and had the sixth-highest point total in all of New Jersey.

His career point total is among the highest in state history, but his signature moment of his senior season was leading the Rams to the Shore Conference Tournament title. The Rams, who finished 18-1 and as a top 20 team in New Jersey, defeated Rumson-Fair Haven 16-6 in the SCT title game to become the first Ocean County team to win the SCT. He had two goals and two assists in the historic win, erasing two years of frustration from coming up short against Rumson in the final.

When it comes to numbers nobody has scored more goals and only CBA's Tommy Duerr (431) has more points in Shore Conference history. After his 82 points as a freshman, Jinks scored 53 goals and added 33 assists for 86 points as a sophomore. He exploded as a junior with a state-best 93 goals and 43 assists for 136 points. It all adds up to a mind-bending 420 career points on 274 goals and 146 assists.

This season Jinks had five or more points in all but four of Southern’s 19 games while also notching a pair of 10-point games. He scored six goals six times, including a 16-14 win over Rumson in the regular season that proved to the Rams and everyone else they were the team to beat in the Shore Conference. During Jinks’s time at Southern, the Rams went 73-10 with three Class A South division titles, two NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV sectional titles and, finally, a Shore Conference Tournament crown.

Jinks was also selected as the Class A South Player of the Year and was a first-team All-Shore pick by the Shore Conference Lacrosse Coaches Association. He will continue his career at Division I University of Hartford.