By: Erin Madden
BEREA, Ohio - When a new Baldwin Wallace University track and field student-athlete steps onto campus, assistant coach Mitch Supan ‘13 can see the big picture - their whole four-year career ahead of them - something he couldn’t really see himself when he was a BW student-athlete.
“As an athlete, I kind of came in and I wasn’t the best high school thrower,” Supan explained. “I definitely wasn’t the strongest, I wasn’t very tall, and my coaches and teammates pushed me and saw more potential in me than I could have ever seen.”
High school throwing career aside, Supan graduated college as one of the best male throwers in Baldwin Wallace history. He was a three-time All-American in the discus throw, a three-time Ohio Athletic Conference champion and still holds two school records to this day in the outdoor shot put and the discus. In fact, Supan’s career was so successful that he was named the Kenneth Steingass Most Outstanding Senior Male Athlete upon his graduation.
Good thing Supan originally committed to the Yellow Jackets to play football, his “first love.”
“To be honest, the football coach that was recruiting me was calling me twice a week and he kind of just wore me down,” Supan remembered. “I was like, ‘Alright, coach, I’m going to be a Yellow Jacket.’ After deciding to come to BW to play football, I was super excited to throw as well.”
Eventually deciding to move away from football and focus solely on track and field, Supan doesn’t regret the decision he made to come to Baldwin Wallace as a student-athlete.
“It wasn’t really until after football season and into track season my freshman year that I realized I made a great decision,” Supan said, “just because I was never turned away when I needed help with something. I was always kind of a quiet kid in high school and I felt so comfortable, so at home at BW, that I kind of opened up a little bit and I realized that this place is super supportive.”
BW continued to play a huge role in Supan’s career as he got his start as a private coach at E.L.I.T.E. Training Performance which is run by a fellow Yellow Jacket in Luke Chronister ‘08. However, he always had it in the back of his mind that “if I had an opportunity to get into track and field at the college level, I would.”
When former teammate and throwing coach Kevin Phipps ‘11 decided to move on to his next opportunity at Cornell University, he contacted Supan right away.
“I was on the BW website three or four times every single day looking for the job to be posted,” Supan said. “I applied immediately and that was that.”
Having just completed his fifth season at Baldwin Wallace, Supan has guided a number of throwers to success. He has mentored seven All-OAC performers and five of his throwers have qualified to the national meet, including one national champion in Zak Dysert ‘19. In fact, seeing Dysert on the top of the podium remains one of Supan’s favorite memories as a coach.
“That entire season, he lost to one thrower all year and, at the national meet coming in No. 1 in the nation, you always have a target on your back,” Supan recalled. “Zak had struggled with big competitions. As a sophomore and junior, he struggled at the conference level to really have great performances in those big meets. His senior indoor nationals was really, really rough. To see him on his very last throw go from fourth to first and then nobody passed him after, that was awesome. A lot of emotions were going through my head - and I’m sure his - when that was happening.”
In his time on the coaching staff, Supan has also learned a number of lessons from head coaches like Joe Eby and Jordan Hill ‘09, especially when it comes to recruiting and work-life balance.
“First of all, I didn’t really know what I was getting into with recruiting,” Supan admitted. “Joe and Jordan being around and being really great recruiters has really helped me to figure that out. That’s really one of our biggest jobs as coaches is to get kids on campus because you can’t display your coaching skills if you don’t have anyone to coach. The other thing that’s important to me is family and we have a lot of coaches at BW that make the coaching life work with family life. I’ve had a lot of conversations about that with different coaches and administrators at BW.”
With the storied tradition of BW track and field, Supan believes that there are a few things that help set the program up above the rest.
“I really think we have three of the best full-time coaches,” Supan said. “Joe has proven himself to be super effective in coaching distance kids. Jordan, obviously, is a national-caliber sprints and hurdles coach. I’ve had some success. The combined knowledge of our staff, I think, is above and beyond any DIII program I know.”
Supan added, “The other thing is we want our athletes’ experience to be like a DI caliber. So the lifting we have them do, the equipment we get for them, the way we travel, everything is set up for their success and we’re always learning. We’re always learning new things. We never get stagnant.”
With a young group of throwers to mentor for years to come, Supan will continue to set the Yellow Jackets up for success in the conference and the nation.