Monday and Tuesday of last week I went and worked at a conference called Leadership on and off the field in Topeka, Kansas. While I was there I met many people but the main three I’m going to talk about were the Keynote speakers during the conference.
Patti Phillips, an advocate for women and girls in sports, is the Director of the Women’s Intersport Network of Kansas City (WIN for KC). Previously, Ms. Phillips worked for the NCAA as the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program Coordinator in Education Outreach. She provides color commentary for several networks of high school and collegiate women’s basketball games. Ms. Phillips’ coaching career includes leading the Ottawa Lady Braves of Ottawa University as the head women’s basketball coach from a losing program to a national ranking.
Patti’s organization is tries to stress the importance of women and girls in sports. She had a really great message for all the student athletes in the audience. She talked about how student athletes are ahead of the game when it comes to working in a business because all projects in business has changed from an individual task to a team task. She gave them ideas on how to relate what they have learned while playing to their real lives and how to convert them to resume boosters.
Mr. Hayes serves as the Executive Director of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. He is very passionate about perserving the history of athletics in Kansas. Mr. Hayes strives to fulfill the mission of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame which is to honor, inspire, and educate the citizens of Kansas.
Ted had really interesting stories about the different athletes from Kansas how have been inducted to the hall of fame. My favorite story was about a 3 time gold Olympic medalist in the discus. He talked about the Olympic meet when this man was going for his 3rd gold medal in a row. He was going to do is final throw during that meet and he was in 5th place; his teammate was in first by about 12 ft and would have had the gold medal in the bag until he gave his teammate a tip that his shoulder is to low while he is throwing. So, the 2 time gold medalist goes up to throw his final time and took his teammates advice and beat him by 20 ft. He ended up with his 3rd gold medal in a row thanks to his teammate. That story really related the idea of ” there is not I in team” to the student athletes.
Kendall Gammon , a Kansas native and 15 year veteran of the NFL, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers following his college graduation. During his tenure with the Steelers he played in seven playoff games including Super Bowl XXX and was selected as a Pro Bowler in his fourteenth season while playing for the Kansas City Chiefs. Gammon received his B.S. in Education from Pittsburg State University with a goal of teaching and coaching at the high school level. At Pittsburg State he captained the Gorillas football team and led them to a NCAA Division II National Championship. Gammon was voted most inspirational player by his Gorilla teammates.
Kendall’s main point was that even though he wasn’t the most glamorous position on the team he could still make a huge positive impact on the community. He used the acronym SNAP to relate how to be a leader to the athletes. (S-Set Goals N- Notice Strengths A- Appreciate Others P-Practice Persistence) My favorite story he told was about when he was first called to go to the NFL combine. He was the first long snapper to be invited to that event and he wanted to make a stronger impression so he practiced persistence by snapping the ball at the wall for hours at a time because no one had time to catch the ball he was snapping. It paid off because he was drafted and stayed in the NFL for 15 years.
Getting to hear the stories from these strangers really paid off for me because I learned many life lessons for the life lessons of others.
