Men's Basketball Coaching Staff
Mark Yoder, head coach
Mark Yoder will be making a return to the sidelines in Thresher Gym this upcoming season. Yoder coached at
Bethel
College from 1993-98. During
his tenure, Yoder led the team to its first winning season in eight years.
During the 1996-97 season, the Threshers won 18 games, third most in school
history, and Yoder was named Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the
Year. Yoder followed up the very next season by coaching the Threshers to 19
wins, the second best season in school history.
Before he came
to Bethel,
Yoder served as the head men’s basketball coach at Hesston College, 1986-93. In
that time, he directed the Larks to their first-ever back-to-back winning
seasons and first-ever appearance in the national tournament. During Yoder’s
tenure at Hesston, the Larks went back to the national tournament twice more, and
also recorded the most wins in a season with 24.
Yoder left Bethel to coach
men’s basketball at Fresno (Calif.)
Pacific University, where he had received his undergraduate degree in physical
education in 1982 and had served as the Sunbirds’ assistant men’s basketball
coach until taking the head coaching job at Hesston. Yoder served as FPU’s head
coach from 1998-2005. While he was there, the Sunbirds made three conference
tournament appearances in the very competitive Golden State Athletic Conference.
Yoder earned his
master's in education from Wichita
State University
in sports administration in 1993. This past year, he has been serving as KCAC
commissioner.
Matt Flaming, assistant coach
Matt Flaming joined the coaching staff in 2006 after spending the
previous two years at Newton
High School as the
assistant girls' basketball coach. While there he helped to build a
dominate program in the competitive Ark Valley
league. Previous to his stint at Newton High, Flaming was the
assistant coach at Goessel
High School during the
2003-04 season. A 2003 graduate of Bethel College,
he cut his teeth as a student assistant, first with the women’s basketball
program during his freshman, sophomore and junior years and finished out his
senior year as the student assistant for the men’s program under former head
coach Gary Chupp. While working with the
men’s program he served as the recruiting coordinator. During the
2002-03 season the Threshers finished as KCAC Champions and qualified for the
NAIA national basketball tournament for the first time in school history. Flaming serves as the head Junior Varsity
coach. He earned his degree in Elementary Education.
Currently he works at the Mid America Youth Basketball headquarters in Newton, where he resides
with his wife, Danielle.
Ray Garcia, assistant coach
Ray Garcia joined the Thresher coaching staff in 2006. Garcia played
for former head coach Gary Chupp at Bethel College, 2001-04. He graduated from
Bethel with a degree in social work. Garcia is also employed at United Methodist Youthville in Newton. He lives in Newton with his wife, Rachel.
