Every year, Friends of South inducts notable South alumni into the Axe Hall of Fame. This year, they honor eight accomplished alumni who The Axe had the opportunity to interview and spotlight.

All high school athletes dream of one day becoming a state champion in their respective sport. For South alumni Gabe Hamel, that dream came to fruition on Feb. 26, 2000, at the state wrestling championship in Portland Memorial Coliseum. 

Practically 24 years have passed since that moment, but because of Hamel’s remarkable feat, he was inducted into the South Eugene Hall of Fame. I learned a bit about his life as he responded to a few questions I posed to him.

Hamel has stayed in Eugene since his time at South and currently lives here with his wife and two kids. His decision to stay has been a reflection of his choice to continue attending South in the first place.

“I had the opportunity to go to other schools and chose to stay at South,” he remarked, also mentioning that his choice showed his fondness for the South culture. 

Hamel’s view upon the South culture might have been different from a number of others because of the “corner,” as he put it, in which he was usually found. 

“For some people, the classroom is their ‘classroom,’” Hamel said. “For me the wrestling room and the weight room was my ‘classroom.’” 

He elaborated, saying that the weight room and wrestling rooms were two places in the school that he felt he learned a lot about how to approach life. 

“In those rooms I learned what it meant to have desire, discipline, and determination,” he said. “In those two rooms… I learned how to set goals – big goals – work toward those goals, and how to manifest dreams into reality.”

The two men, Hamel said, who helped him work toward his goals were “Coach John Scott and Coach Chad Kessler,” the latter of whom is currently a history teacher at South and is still the wrestling coach. When describing their incredible influence on his life, Hamel said that he “wouldn’t be who I am today without these two men in my corner during high school.”

After high school, Hamel joined the Army National Guard and served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, leaving the Armed Forces in 2005. He then became South’s wrestling coach and a pillar in growing the team back up to the glory it had seen when he won the state championship. 

His success in coaching the team, as well as his victory at the state championship several years prior – both extraordinary accomplishments – have no doubt been major factors in his induction into the South Hall of Fame. During the gala, he was honored next to others who had also had great success and reached great achievements in life. 

“Gratitude,” he said, is the feeling that arises in him when he thinks of the honor he received, mirroring what he said about his coaches and the wrestling culture here at South.

Read more about Gabe Hamel on the Friends of South website.

Article by Basil Dracobly