For the past six years, Jalen Supancic, has been the Fair Grove High School Cross Country Coach. Over those years Supancic has won the coach of the year conference award, while also taking his team to state for back to back years.
This past summer Supancic has learned a lot about coaching and allowing athletes to develop. He stated, “I have also reached out and gotten help from a lot of more experienced coaches that have given me great encouragement and advice that has allowed me to translate it back into our program.”
Supancic studied at Southwest Baptist University (SBU) in Bolivar, Missouri. He explained, “I originally did not plan to teach and coach, but after I graduated from college I realized that it was something I was being called to do.”
Damon Seiger, the Fair Grove High School Vice Principal and Student Athletic Director, expressed his views on Supancic’s coaching, “Coach Supancic is extremely consistent, positive, and intentional in how he builds athletes. He develops relationships first, teaches strong running fundamentals and creates a culture, where students feel supported and pushed to continually improve.”
Over the years, Supancic has increased participation during his time at Fair Grove, being a leader in other activities such as; FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) and DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) alongside teacher Casey Overstreet.
Just recently, Supancic has also become one of the middle school track assistant coaches. He will be primarily helping with the distance team, assisting Coach Michael Zanzie and Lindsay Martin in any way necessary.
Supancic recently changed what his team does in the team’s off-season. Andrew Farrar (11), a student on the team explained, “Changing the Cross Country workouts this year, giving us new workouts to do than what we did last Cross Country Season.”
For the past six years Supancic has been coaching he has reshaped the Cross Country team to what it is today.
Cinch Dowling (10), another student on the Cross Country team stated, “Soup is a good coach because he cares about each of his athletes and researches coaching tactics and training methods in order for his athletes to be better.”
