John Patton: Simply "The General"
- Coach David Heeb
- Jan 11, 2017
- 3 min read
"You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him to a heavy load."
~ Paul "Bear" Bryan, former football coach, University of Alabama
Happy Wednesday (HUMP DAY!) to the Just Win Today crew.
I hope you got to read yesterday's story about my good friend, Coach Robert Stein. If you didn't get a chance to read that, go check it out. It's a great example of how all it takes is a little time and effort to make somebody else's day.
Today's story is about a man I have a tremendous amount of respect for, John Patton, assistant boys basketball coach at Kennett High School. All of us who know John lovingly refer to him as "General" Patton. He does a little bit of everything in Kennett, from coaching softball in the summer to helping out anywhere else he is needed. He's just an awesome person.
Coach Patton had a lot to say about the positive influences in his life, and his words were so powerful that I'll let him take it from here...
After quite a bit of thought, I would say one of my biggest influences was my high school coach, Don Tomlinson. Coach Tomlinson was a tough coach. He played at Mizzou and was All Big-8. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers as a player.
He stayed on me all the time. I often wondered why. I often wondered, 'does this guy just not like me?' It seemed I could never make him happy. Then something happened... I got older. I started to realize why he used to ride me so hard. Because you run into things in life that are hard, and you have to be equipped to handle them.
Coach Tomlinson passed away last year. His son called me and asked me to be a pall bearer, to which I immediately said yes. My thought when his son called was, 'Coach must have liked me much more than I could have imagined.' His pall bearers were all former players of his. I was honored to be one.
I have had a pretty tough year. I was diagnosed with a life-threatening, rare disease. It's called amyloidosis, and it' s pretty serious. They treat it like multiple myeloma. I had 3 months chemotherapy during the season last year and a bone marrow transplant this past April at Barnes in St. Louis. I am recovering but doing well.
Many times during all of this, I thought about Coach Tomlinson and all those line drills he made us run and all the 'wall sits' we did. He was old school for sure! Coach Jim Vaughan asked me last year, 'what would Coach T say if he were here now?' He was say, toughen up! He would expect me to be a man, and he would expect me to win!
I am grateful for all the times he pushed and pushed me. He helped, along with my parents, prepare me for tough times and tough situations. During all this, I only missed two games last year. I simply didn't want anything to take me away from what I really love. I often told myself, 'if I am going to ask my players to never give up, not matter the score, then I must do the same.'
I guess I am 'old school' too!!
Let those words sink in for a minute...
Coach Patton was facing a rare, life threatening disease. He drew on the lessons he learned from his high school coach (don't quit, don't give up, be tough) to get him through this difficult time in his life. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever been in a situation where you were having a hard time finding light at the end of the tunnel? Have you ever felt like all your strength was gone?
I know I have. When you're in that type of situation, the right words from somebody else, whether that is a person in your life today or someone you haven't seen in years, can mean everything. It can literally get you through those hard times.
I really appreciate Coach Patton sharing his story. I'm glad to say that he is in much better health. He's still helping coach the boys basketball team at Kennett, where he is an assistant to Lennies McFerren, the Hall of Fame coach who has come out of retirement. Coach Patton said, "I am learning more than I ever could have imagined under Coach Lennies McFerren. Sitting beside him on the bench is a dream come true."
Trust me when I say those kids are truly blessed that John Patton is still helping coach at Kennett. Those kids are learning more than they could have ever imagined from him, just like he learned all those valuable lessons years ago from his coach.
I hope you enjoyed the story. Go help somebody today.
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