For one area school cross country coach the Class 1A State Cross Country Meet in Fort Dodge this Saturday will feature a time to recognize his achievements and contributions toward school, community and the coaching profession.

Panorama Panthers Cross Country Coach Greg Thompson will be receiving the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s Golden Plaque of Distinction Award and will be honored before the start of the Class 1A race of the state cross country meet Saturday in Fort Dodge.

Thompson shares his thoughts on how it felt once he found out he was receiving the award.

“I’m a humble guy to start with and that really just humbled me. It’s just one of those things that came as quite the shock and a surprise. I guess it makes it worthy of all the time that I have put into the sport.”

Thompson has been a staple of Panorama boys and girls cross country since 1999 and during his time he has helped coach the girls teams to 10 West Central Activities Conference team championships, 51 girls earning All-Conference honors and 29 girls who have qualified for the state meet. Also, Thompson has had 12 girls teams be state qualifiers and in 2017 his girls team placed second.

The season recently wrapped up for the Panorama Panthers boys and girls cross country teams but Thompson will be back next year to lead the Panthers back out onto the course. Thompson says the future of the program will be centered around continuing to build excitement for the program and increase participation as he says the cycle in a small school can lead to natural dips in participation.

“I can remember just four or five years ago almost having to go to my bus transportation guy and say ‘Look I need two buses or I need something because we are having like 50 kids go to these cross country meets,’ and now we could probably get by with two suburbans. So, it’s trying to build those numbers back up.”

Other accolades for Thompson include being named the Iowa Association of Track Coaches at-large Coach of the Year six times and was named the Iowa Association of Track Coaches Class 1A Coach of the Year in 2017.