Jafet Molinares is in his second season as the Hutchinson Community College head men’s and women’s cross-country coach and assistant track coach.

Just the sixth head coach in Blue Dragon men’s history and fifth in Blue Dragon women’s cross-country history, Molinares came to Hutchinson after three seasons at Fort Scott Community College. Molinares was an assistant cross country/track coach in 2020 and was promoted to head cross country coach in 2021 and 2022 while also serving as assistant track coach.

The Blue Dragon women’s program continued recent successful surge in Molinares’ first season, while injuries slowed the progress of the Blue Dragon men.

Led by sophomore All-American Serenity Larson, the Blue Dragon women finished second in Region VI, second in the Jayhawk West and 10th in the NJCAA National Championships. That helped the Blue Dragon women’ finish in the Top 10 in back-to-back seasons at nationals for the first time as an NJCAA Division I program.

Larson was an NJCAA Coaches Association All-American with a 32nd-place finish. Larson’s 2023 nationals time of 18:54.4 was the fastest by a Blue Dragon runner at nationals in team history.

Because of multiple injuries throughout the season, the Blue Dragon men weren’t able to post many team scores. The Dragons did at the Region VI Championships and finished fourth in the conference and fifth in a very tough Region VI meet. Three Blue Dragon men’s runners competed at nationals.

While at Fort Scott, Molinares guided Greyhound distance runners to 15 school records either on the cross-country course and track.

Prior to Fort Scott, Molinares had a successful year at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa as an assistant coach for cross country and track and field. In his season there, the Tritons won the NJCAA indoor track and field national title on the men's side and runner up on the women's side. Molinares also assisted with the middle distance, long hurdles and recruiting duties.

Molinares is a 2015 graduate of Iowa Central Community College. While an athlete at Iowa Central, Molinares was part of the 2013 NJCAA national championship half-marathon team.

After graduating from Iowa Central, Molinares finished his running career at Fort Hays State University where he majored in Sports Management.

After graduating from Fort Hays State, Molinares became a graduate assistant coach for the Tigers where he completed his master’s degree in Sports Administration. During his time there, he had two recruiting classes of 25 and 30 athletes each. Molinares coached an individual national champion, six MIAA conference champions and 14 school records.

Molinares is native of Miami, Florida and graduated from Felix Varela High School.