Frosh in a Fab 4
Caleb Van Meter, a freshman, didn't get cheated -- he participated in 4 sports in 2022-23.
Caleb Van Meter already was something of a story into Mullen’s spring season.
He was a rare 3-sport athlete at a major school in the Denver area, including two as a regular on varsity as a freshman.
But when the son of Mustangs football assistant coach Doug Van Meter was spotted in a baseball uniform by Mustangs throws coach Pam Edgerton, the question was offered: Why isn’t this 9th-grader with the 6-foot-1, 260-pound frame in shot put and discus for the track-and-field group?
Simply put, the elder Van Meter asked his son and was given the following answer: “Sure.”
And so a 4-sporter graces the Mullen campus with a spirit of competitiveness and a penchant for fun in arguably the most formidable years of his life.
There’s some aw-shucks to him, as well.
“The plan was to play all three (football, wrestling and baseball) and then it also evolved into track,” Caleb Van Meter said.
The following has been his sports year in 2022-23:
--- Van Meter started at center and doubled at defensive tackle. He was named all-Class 5A League No. 2 second team.
--- In wrestling, where he had been trying to compile some experience since COVID-19, Van Meter was a solid 19-15 at the difficult Heavyweight division, placed in regionals and made it the Colorado Tournament at Ball Arena.
---He has improved his batting while fluctuating between first base and outfield for the freshmen baseball team.
--- And since joining his fourth team of the school year and second in the spring season, he has respectable personal season bests of 36 feet, 9 inches in the shot put and 99-10 in discus.
--- Throw in his grade-point average of 3.9 – he only has one B – and the facts that he practiced before school begins and knows what it’s like to do homework while in the car to and from Mullen, and Van Meter is as busy as he is involved in his school.
“I like it a lot,” Van Meter said. “I don’t know if I’ll do all four again next year, I don’t know … but, yeah, I enjoy it. I enjoy having one sport going on in different seasons, but having the time to be able to throw with (teammates) Hayden (Woodruff) and Cayden (Wynn), the seniors this year, was worth it.”
Doug Van Meter did three sports as a high-schooler and was confident his son would accept and respond to the opportunities available to him.
“Absolutely,” he said, “and it was certainly more than I expected from him. He has the capacity or he wouldn’t have done it. I’m super-proud of him.
“Everybody warned me – ‘Will he get hurt or will it be too much?’ Physically and mentally, he was capable. The biggest concern was if he was emotionally capable.”
Jeremy Bennett, Mustangs head coach of football and with experience in weight throws, said Van Meter definitely had his blessing and encouragement to take on something additionally as “I don’t want to say it’s a lost art (multi-sport athletes), but it’s the fact he loves to compete and that’s good for Mullen High School. He’s not afraid to take himself out of his comfort zone only to get better and he is growing as an athlete. He’s all in.
“And that’s the cool thing. If he says yes, he works his tail off.”
The younger Van Meter added that he sees “connections … in track, it’s getting your hips into it and it makes the object go farther. The same thing in baseball -- get your hips into it.”
With the school year just days from completion, he said he’ll use the summer “for football workouts and wrestling camps.”
And he’ll return to multiple sports as a sophomore.
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