OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU Men's Soccer program officially added a former Evangels standout in Abel Renteria to serve as the reserve team's head coach while the expanded MACU Baseball program added three more to its staff with Micah Larsen being a new graduate assistant coach alongside former Evangels pitchers Jordan Smith and Cruz Perez, who will serve as student assistant coaches.
 
Renteria makes his return to MACU after competing for the Evangels during the 2008 season as well as the 2011-13 campaigns. In his tenure on the MACU Men's Soccer team, Renteria saw action in 63 games and made 35 starts, netting six goals and tallying five assists in that time frame. The El Reno, Okla. native was instrumental in leading the Evangels two NCCAA Central Region Championships.
After graduating from MACU, Renteria has gone on to put together an outstanding high school and club coaching career at Santa Fe South High and Sporting Oklahoma. Renteria has helped guide the Saints to a pair of Oklahoma State Championships while also being selected as an All-State Coach three times.
 
The MACU Baseball program has added another graduate assistant coach to its ranks in Micah Larsen. A native of Milwaukee, Wis., Larsen comes to MACU after serving as a student-assistant coach at Northwestern (Iowa) since Aug. 2024. Larsen also owns and operates his own business, A1 Pitching Development, which he opened last October.
Larsen also served as the pitching coach Falls Aces, youth baseball development team out of Menomonie Falls, Wis. during the summers of 2019 and 2020.
Recently completing his collegiate playing career, Larsen pitched for Bryant & Stratton (N.Y.) during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before transferring to play for the Raiders. Larsen competed during the 2024 campaign for Northwestern before suffering an injury last fall that moved him into a coaching role during the 2025 season.
Larsen was also a summer ball player during his collegiate days, competing for the Green Bay Rockets out of the Northwoods League in 2021 and 2022 as well as the Oahe Zap from the Independence League in 2023 and 2024. He was a shut down closer for the Zap, leading the league in saves during the 2023 campaign.
 
After competing for the MACU Baseball team, Jordan Smith and Cruz Perez will serve as student assistant coaches for the upcoming 2026 season.
Smith was a key piece of MACU's bullpen over the last two seasons that won both the SAC regular season and tournament titles in 2024 and made its deepest postseason run in 2025. In that time frame, Smith saw action in 23 games and made three starts, posting 2-2 record with a 6.45 ERA, 10 walks and 15 strikeouts over 37.2 innings of work. Smith was also a standout junior college pitcher at Modesto (Calif.) before coming to the Evangels, where he pitched 37 games with 4.79 ERA while being named Modesto's team Pitcher of the Year in 2023.
Meanwhile, Perez has been a lifelong Evangel as he is spending his fifth year with the team. Competing on the squad from 2022-25, Perez made 14 appearances and threw 14.1 innings while walking only four batters and striking out 12 in that time frame.