MARCH 9, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE D5
‘The second I got done playing… I started coaching’
Flores carries torch in service to education, family
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Jason Flores (middle) hoists a clock given in honor of his service at the Keizer First Citizen Ban-
quet in January.
By DEREK
WILEY
Of the
Keizertimes
Jason
Flores,
the 2017 Ser-
vice to Education
Award
winner,
couldn’t techni-
cally coach Little
League until he
was 18.
But that didn’t
stop him from
making sure his
younger brother
had a coach who
knew what he
was doing, even if
that meant join-
ing forces with
his older brother,
who knew nothing about
baseball.
“The second I got done
playing Little League, I started
coaching for my little broth-
er,” Flores said.
“I was 17 and just felt like
my little brother deserved
more, he deserved what I got,
which was really good coach-
ing, and at the time I felt like
he didn’t have it.”
Flores continued coach-
ing at Parrish Little League in
Salem through 1997. After a
short break, he began coach-
ing his daughters, Audri and
Kaelie, at Keizer Little League
in 2001.
He continued coaching
them as well as his son Ri-
ley until they were in high
school.
Flores didn’t just stick
to softball and baseball. He
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also coached all three kids at
KYBA, even though basket-
ball wasn’t his game.
“I’m a resourceful guy so
the fi rst thing I did was latch
on to the best coaches that I
knew (Ron Hittner and Bob
Cavell) and sat in the practices
and took notes and emulated
them and I consider myself
today pretty knowledgable
about basketball,” Flores said.
Flores, who also served on
the KYBA Board of Directors
for 10 years and was president
for two, coached Kaelie from
fourth to eighth grade on
a team that included Reina
Strand, Madi Hingston and
Sydney Hunter.
All four girls went on to
sign with colleges and as high
school teammates at McNary
fi nished fourth in the state in
2016.
“I just did it because I
thought that was the best
thing to do,” Flores said of
coaching.
“I look back now and I
had really good mentors, re-
ally good coaching and that’s
what helped me be successful
throughout, so I wanted to
give that back. They’re always
shorthanded, Little League,
basketball, they’re always
needing coaches.”
Flores grew up in Keizer
but moved to Salem and at-
tended Parrish Middle School
and then North Salem High
School.
He moved back to Keizer
with his wife, Keri, in 2000.
Flores
started
Celtic
Homes in 2013, building new
custom homes.
“Our mission is to be suc-
cessful and then bring every-
one around us to have success
as well and then give back,”
Flores said.
“If I’m successful, then I
give a lot back. I don’t have
a set amount. I don’t have an
equation for it. I just stay in-
volved.”
Along with donating to
McNary Athletic Boost-
er Club’s turf fi eld project,
Flores helped install the goal
posts and revamp the old
scoreboard, fi xing lights and
painting.
“We were going to have
opening day on the turf with
this old crudy scoreboard,”
Flores said. “I couldn’t let that
happen. We couldn’t do an
opening day on a brand new
turf fi eld with an old score-
board with lights not work-
ing.”
When the booster club
started an Adopt a Celt pro-
gram in 2016 for McNary
athletes who couldn’t afford
to play, Flores took the entire
bill, $2,000 for 40 athletes, the
fi rst year.
“It didn’t go over very well
so I just adopted them all that
year,” Flores said. “I just said
give me the bill. I like that
fundraiser. Whatever they
need in that bucket, I’ll make
sure it’s full. I never want a
kid that wants to play sports
not be able to play because of
money.”
Through Celtic Homes,
Flores also helped build new
softball dugouts at McNary
and this summer he plans to
team up with Salem Electric
to install a new scoreboard at
the turf fi eld.
“It’s based on my prosper-
ity,” Flores said. “The Lord has
blessed me. We’ve done really
well the last few years.”
Flores was stunned to re-
ceive the Service to Educa-
tion Award on Jan. 20 at the
Keizer Chamber awards ban-
quet.
“There’s a lot of dads that
are just like me,” he said.
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