470 wins, six district titles, and fourteen playoff appearances, that is Patty Jones’ coaching resume, but it almost never happened. When women’s sports were brought to LISD Jones was given a choice of three different teams to coach,

“volleyball, basketball or track and I said why not why not volleyball and to this day I still don’t know why I said that other than god just directed me that way. I just thank him for that because it was incredible I had never played it, I had no idea what I was doing when I started,” said the coach who spent 26 seasons at Coronado.

Coach Jones was a quick learner, in their first four seasons the Mustangs won four straight district titles. One thing she was big on was discipline,

“I was hard on them and I wanted them to be the very best that they could be. We’re our worlds greatest enemy whenever it comes to doing your own skills because we limit ourselves by our own mind,” said Jones.

Part of that discipline included a two mile run once a week but all that hard work paid off when her students graduated. Coach Jones sent 52 players to the collegiate level, a number she’s incredibly proud of.

“It helped there were a lot of kids that were never going to get to go to college. They would not have had that opportunity had it not been for volleyball so that was really a fun thing to watch them grow,” Jones said.

Although Mrs. Jones said she doesn’t miss coaching, she does miss the special relationships developed with her players. The coach recalled an especially poignant moment after a playoff loss,

“three of my seniors were sitting in the back crying and after a long period of time I finally went back and I said guys I understand why you’re crying and I wouldn’t ask anymore from you. They go that’s not why we’re crying it’s not about us, I said what is it about and they said we wanted to take you to Austin.”

In 2013 she was inducted into the LISD Hall of Honor, an acknowledgement she never saw coming,

“you just go to work every day and you do your job, you don’t think about that kind of thing and when they did that I was like what in the world. It was an incredible honor, it was an amazing evening and you know you just can’t put into words what that means to you it’s just so special.”