SL Preview: Delhi football expects big lift from Jesse Flores

The bar bends, but the truth does not: At a school longing for a foundation, Delhi middle linebacker Jesse Flores is the slab of cement.

Seriously.

The junior has shed more than 60 pounds since his freshman season, turning his once flabby 6-foot frame into a package of muscle and might. His physical transformation in the last eight months alone speaks to the direction of the once-downtrodden program.

Delhi last enjoyed a winning season in 2011, when the Hawks went 6-4 but lost two of their last three games to miss the postseason.

With four sophomores in the mix, including Flores, the Hawks showed flashes of promise last fall. Delhi finished 5-5 and tied for fifth in the Southern League. The Hawks pushed co-champion Mariposa County in a 28-22 loss at home.

Still, the defeats haunted Flores, a two-time All-Southern League selection as a sophomore. Then 260-plus pounds, Flores was a first-team selection at defensive tackle and a second-team offensive lineman.

“I don’t like losing,” Flores said. “It’s just not me. I want to be the best as I can be for as long as I got.”

Today, he wants more. More tackles. More yards. More of the spotlight. More of the burden.

Flores will take the field this fall as a middle linebacker and fullback. He lost 40 pounds this summer to facilitate the position changes.

In that time, his weight room workouts have become the stuff of legend in the small town of about 10,000. Flores is the Hawks’ top lifter, but more impressively, coach Rod McCombs has had to retire Flores’ weightlifting bar because it buckled beneath all the weight.

“I’ve been trying to pull tires; doing sled work to increase my speed and agility. I’ll do a lot of ladders with my teammates,” Flores said. “We’ve been trying to get better for the team; been putting in a lot of time in the weight room to get stronger and faster.”

Here’s the proof: He is the only member of the 1,000-pound club – the sum total of his bench press (275 pounds), squat (455) and power clean (275). Flores also has been clocked at 5.06 seconds in the 40-yard dash. If there was any doubt he could be nimble enough as a ball carrier to elude tacklers, Flores can complete 47 bench hops in 30 seconds.

“He’s willing to put in the kind of work that we’re expecting out of a varsity-level player,” McCombs said. “He’s done everything we’ve expected him to do up to this point.”

Last year, Flores had 97 tackles, including 12 for a loss, and three fumble recoveries. He hopes to build on those numbers while attacking from a new vantage point.

“(The coaches) mentioned that I would have more of an ability to get to the ball faster, more angles, more time to react,” Flores said. “So I thought of it as more tackles, more stops.”

McCombs believes Flores will give the Hawks a physical presence on both sides of the ball.

Delhi is searching for answers in the backfield after graduating its top four rushers. Flores had one carry last season, scoring out of a jumbo set on the goal line.

“He deserves the chance to play the position that he thinks he can play,” McCombs said. “Considering the work he’s put in and the ethics he has, I think he can be an impact player for us at middle linebacker as well as fullback.

“There will be a lot of teams in our league that are going to be scared to see him coming up the middle.”

This story was originally published August 27, 2015 at 1:48 PM with the headline "SL Preview: Delhi football expects big lift from Jesse Flores."