[4] Following his 8th grade graduation from St. David's, Hankinson continued his education and soccer playing in Upstate New York at The Storm King School, then at the University of South Carolina (USC).
In his two seasons at the helm, Hankinson's sides compiled an impressive 37–5–4 (W-L-D) record and made a pair of appearances in the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship finishing 3rd in 1980 and 2nd in 1981.
[9] He later returned home to the U.S. and in 1992 helped found the Charleston Battery club which competed in the USL (known then as the United States Interregional Soccer League (USISL)).
[1] Hankinson then spent the 1995 season as the general manager of the Raleigh Flyers[citation needed] before joining the nascent MLS as their first Director of Player Development.
[10] From 1996 to 1998 Hankinson led scouting and player development as the league worked to establish itself as both a viable enterprise and the top level of soccer in the United States.
During this same period, Hankinson was the head coach for Project-40[11] where he worked with future MLS stars such as Ben Olson and soon-to-be U.S. national team regulars like Tim Howard.
[17] Choosing to stay in Latin America, in 2006 he joined the Guatemala Football Federation as the U-17 men's head coach[18] where he led the side through International "friendlies" and a competitive, but ultimately unsuccessful, 2007 World Cup qualifying campaign.
[19] In just two seasons (2007 and 2008), his teams went 32–8–4 (W-L-D), won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) twice, advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament twice[20][21] and, at times, were nationally ranked #1.
[5] Following a productive year with Broomfield SC, Hankinson was appointed the first head coach for San Antonio Scorpions of the North American Soccer League (NASL) on September 14, 2011.
for a short, but successful stint, compiling a 7W-4D-2L record during the first half of their 2015–16 season from August through mid-November when Hankinson was lured back to the NASL and announced as the new head coach of Indy Eleven on December 2, 2015.