Hutchinson Community College Men's Track & Field

One of the longest-tenured and most-respected track and field coaches in junior college history, Hutchinson Community College assistant coach Steve Jones continues working with the Blue Dragon program in a partnership that moves into its 46th season in the 2024-25 season. Known for his calm, yet intense demeanor, Jones is the jumps coach for the Blue Dragons. He has a long-standing and well-earned reputation for being a master tactician in field events where a small adjustment can make a world of difference to an athlete. Jones was recognized for his body of work in 2005 at the NJCAA Indoor Championships when he was named the National Assistant Track Coach of the Year. Jones has coached four NJCAA high jump national champions – Tracy Gisel in 1984 and Kristi Rinehart in 1997, Cassie Wiley in 2012 and Richard Newman in 2018. With Wyatt Thiel and Zak Biel earning All-America honors in the 2021 NJCAA Outdoor men’s pole vault, Jones now has 102 Blue Dragon All-Americans in the high jump, long jump and triple jump on both the men’s and women’s side of the ledger. The 2018 season will go down as quite a memorable year as Newman finished as the indoor national runner-up and outdoor national champion with a school-record 7 feet, 3 inches. The long-time Blue Dragon aide also helped develop arguably Hutchinson’s best track and field athlete in program history when he helped Steve Fritz win the 1988 NJCAA decathlon national championship. Eight years later, Fritz finished fourth in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics decathlon. Jones is a Hutchinson native who continues to hold track and field records at Hutchinson Trinity Catholic High School. He is a University of Kansas graduate. In addition to helping with the family trucking business, Jones has also taught and coached at Hutchinson Trinity and in the Hutchinson Public School system.

Ermalinda Spies is in her sixth season as the jumps coach for the Blue Dragon Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Teams. Spies is married to Blue Dragon head coach Robert Spies. The Blue Dragons have six All-American, 10 national qualifiers and a national runner-up in the jumps in her tenure. The 2023 season saw Blue Dragon jumps specialist Brooke Hawkins finish as national runner-up in the women’s outdoor triple jump. Hawkins earned three NJCAA All-America awards – first team in the outdoor triple jump and honorable mention in the indoor triple and long jumps. Hawkins also broke school records in both the indoor and outdoor triple jumps in 2023. Previous to coaching at Hutchinson, Spies coached eight seasons as the jumps and sprints coach at McPherson College. The Bulldogs recorded 21 first-team all-KCAC and two NAIA All-America honors and broke six school records. Prior to McPherson, Spies spent seven years as an assistant at Pittsburg State University. The Gorillas produced three NCAA Division II national runners-up, 18 All-Americans, 62 national qualifiers, 13 MIAA individual conference champions and 12 school records broken. As a team, Pittsburg State won the 2005 MIAA championship and finished among the top 20 six times at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. Prior to Pittsburg, Spies was the horizontal jumps coach at Virginia Military Institute for three seasons. During her tenure, she coached three triple jump conference champions, five sprint champions and 10 All-Big South performers. As an athlete, Spies represented her native country of Albania for five years in European and world events, including representing the nation in the 1994 World Championships and the 1994 European Junior Championships. She was a four-time NCAA Champion in the triple jump and nine-time NCAA Division II All-American in the long jump and triple jump at Western State University. Additionally, she was named the 1999 NCAA Division II Athlete of the Year and Western State inducted her into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2015, Spies was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame for her accomplishments as an athlete. Spies earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Western State in 1999. Spies earned a Master's degree in exercise physiology from Fort Hays State. The Spies’ have two children, Davian and Sofia.