Caleb Flores stays busy.
The Central Valley Christian athletic director added to his workload this school year, adding the title of the Cavaliers’ varsity baseball coach.
Originally, the plan for Flores was not to be the school’s new head coach, but when the baseball committee and he were going through their round of interviews, their search for the next Cavaliers’ skipper kept circling back to Flores.
Why?
With his background, experience, familiarity, and history at CVC, Flores just seemed like the right fit, and that’s turned out to be true.
The 2015 CVC grad and former Cavaliers’ baseball standout has helped lead CVC to a 15-11 record as of May 4. The Cavaliers have already surpassed last season’s win total of 12 after beginning the year with a 3-0 mark.
“It truly is a blessing,” Flores said of returning to his alma mater. “I have a great group of kids that has really made this year a ton of fun.”
Flores, who was a Cavaliers assistant for seven seasons before taking over the head position this school year, played four varsity seasons during his time at CVC under former head coaches Dan Hydash, Noel Piepgrass, and Graham Harrison.
During his senior year in 2015, Flores was one of the team’s top hitters, batting .316 with 30 hits and eight RBIs as the Cavaliers advanced to the Central Section Division V championship game.
In college, because the semester usually ended early at Grand Canyon University in Arizona, Flores came home to Visalia to assist past CVC baseball teams.
That dedication drove his love for coaching.
In 2019, Flores was named CVC’s junior varsity coach before he moved up to the varsity level as an assistant the following season. He became the Cavaliers’ athletic director in 2024 and has played an instrumental role in steering CVC into the new Central Yosemite Conference.
That new 12-member league, which goes into effect starting next school year, now includes CVC with the four Visalia public high schools (El Diamante, Golden West, Mt. Whitney, Redwood), three Tulare schools (Mission Oak, Tulare Western and Tulare Union), Hanford, Lemoore, Monache, and Porterville.
The conference will be split into two leagues, an upper-tier and lower-tier division, and will vary from sport to sport based on on-field success.
“It’s cool to have my footprint on this, moving into this new league,” Flores said. “I was part of that process of fighting to prove that we belong in that league. I think it’s going to be a great thing for our community, and hoping into that for baseball next year, we don’t know where we’re going to be placed. We’re kind of right on the border of the upper division, but we want to be upper in everything. That’s the cool thing about that conference model. We definitely have some programs that can benefit from playing in the lower, and some of these programs that are a little more established can challenge us. It’s cool.”
From late March to late April, CVC went on an impressive run, winning nine of 10 games, which included a five-game winning streak and a 22-0 shutout of Exeter on April 23.
Senior pitcher Daniel Bekedam has led the way this season.
Bekedam has thrown a team-best 34 strikeouts in 60 2/3 innings. He is closing in on the school record for most innings pitched in a single season. Luke Vanderham holds the CVC record with 71 innings pitched, which he set as a senior in 2005.
Bekedam had one of his best performances of the year in a 4-3 win over Kerman on April 14, tossing a complete game with three strikeouts.
“He pounds the zone,” Flores said. “He goes at a quick pace. It’s fun to play defense behind him because you’re not waiting around. He doesn’t strike out a lot of guys, but he’s been an innings eater.”
A couple of other CVC standouts this spring have been senior pitcher Jentzen Dunn (32 strikeouts, 49 2/3 innings; .372 batting average, 20 runs, 29 hits, nine RBIs, five doubles) and junior Macade Atkins (17 strikeouts, 20 2/3 innings; .384, 13 runs, 28 hits, 22 RBIs, 12 doubles, home run).
Dunn and Atkins were also both starters on CVC’s football team that won a playoff game in the Central Section Division II postseason.
On the diamond, Dunn leads the Cavaliers with 29 hits. Atkins has registered a team-high 22 RBIs and a dozen doubles.
In the 22-run rout of Exeter, the 6-foot-5 Atkins drove in a season-high five runs.
“It’s been a lot of fun this year,” Bekedam said. “He definitely switched up things, done some new things with practice style. It’s been really fun. He’s a really good coach.”
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Central Valley Christian alum Caleb Flores returns to coach baseball
Reporting by Vongni Yang, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
