TOPEKA – It’s been more than a decade, but Tiffany (Bias) Patmon still vividly recalls a lesson of playing high school basketball for Andover Central coach Stana Jefferson.
 
“You know high school girls,” Patmon, a former WNBA champion with the Phoenix Mercury, said Monday to the large gathering of coaches assembled for the 89^th Kansas State High School Activities Association Coaching School. “Sometimes we like each other, sometimes we love each other and sometimes we can’t stand each other.
 
“But she made for sure it was known that when we step on the court, we have each other’s back and that we’re a family.”
 
Patmon’s talents and Jefferson’s unwavering foundational piece helped the Jaguars post a pair of unbeaten records and win state championships in 2008 and 2010. Patmon, the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year her senior season, went on to a standout career at Oklahoma State, where she met her husband, Tyler, a defensive back for the Cowboys who went on to play in the NFL.
 
The Patmons, founders of the Dallas-based Camp Exposure – a youth development program designed to help underserved student-athletes discover their identities beyond sports – challenged coaches from across the state to assess their personal approaches within and away from their profession. The couple’s 90-minute keynote address, “Creating Championship Culture,” kicked off the two-day annual clinic, which featured more than 80 breakout sessions for coaches and sponsors of various sports.

 
As offspring of coaches who aided in their athletic and personal development, the Patmons coveted the opportunity to speak to clinic attendees. Tiffany’s father, Francis, coached her in summer basketball while Tyler’s father, Todd, is a longtime Texas high school football coach preparing for his first season as head coach at Del Valle outside of Austin.
 
During part of Tyler’s youth, his dad was a single parent in the early stages of a coaching and teaching career. That gave his son an up-close look at the pros and cons of coaching and how it impacted family relationships.
 
“I just remember as I started to grow up, I realized the juggling act my father was facing and the difficulty of it,” said Tyler Patmon, a three-year starter at Kansas before transferring to Oklahoma State. “Trying to juggle being a great father, trying to be a great husband as my stepmother stepped into the picture, trying to be a great friend, trying to be a great son, trying to be a great teacher, and trying to be a great role model for every young man and woman who stepped in that building.
 
“Not only did I see it, but I realized how it started to affect our own personal relationship. There was many a car ride home with a coach talking to a player rather than a father talking to a son. That impacted me greatly.”
 
The Patmons encouraged coaches to self-reflect, be adaptable and continually learn. After parlaying a free-agent tryout with the Dallas Cowboys into a five-year NFL career with multiple teams, Tyler Patmon spent one year as a football assistant at North Forney High School near Dallas before turning his focus to Camp Exposure, an organization the Patmons co-founded with Tyler’s former KU teammates, Jeremiah Hatch and Lubbock Smith.
 
Patmon’s lone season on a high school coaching staff further opened his eyes to the challenge coaches face to maintain a healthy work-life relationship.
 
“Not only did I witness it or go through it myself, but I started to listen to some of the veteran coaches around me,” he said. “They were talking about how they mismanaged the juggling act, how they wished they could go back and fix some of the priorities they had.”
 
Tiffany Patmon encouraged coaches to discover the foundational element that allows them to thrive in their professional and family roles. She said that element for her and Tyler is faith.
 
“How are you filling up your cup to continue to pour into others?” she asked. “As we talk about healthy boundaries and talk about time management, talk about your foundation. How do you find it? How do you be present every day for yourself, for your spouse, for your family? That all matters as coaches.”
 
Tiffany Patmon discussed the importance of coaches delegating to athletes with strong leadership qualities. She benefited from this as a WNBA rookie with Phoenix, when the Mercury rolled to a league-best 29-5 record and the title. While Patmon saw limited playing time, team leader and veteran Diana Taurasi complimented Patmon for pushing her each day in practice.
 
Taurasi’s praise wasn’t unlike the feeling Patmon got playing for Jefferson during her high school days.
 
“She made sure that everyone came together,” Patmon said of the Andover Central coach. “That’s a special thing for someone to be able to bring every type of character, every type of person together. She truly knows how to bring out the best in every person.”