GRHS Hall of Fame inductees honored

Green River High School recently added several new GRHS graduates into the Hall of Fame. The inductees were honored during the Wolves varsity football game against Rawlins Sept. 9 and officially inducted during the 2022 Hall of Fame Banquet the next night.

One unique addition to the Hall of Fame this year was an entire group of sports and activities teams from 1974, added together "because of their vast achievements" according to Athletics Director Anthony Beardsley.

Tom Wilson

Tom Wilson was a graduate of Green River High School in 1974. He played football, winning many state honors. He was selected to play in the first Shrine Bowl.

Upon graduating from the University of Wyoming he taught Welding shop at Rock Springs High School and received Teacher of the Year. He taught Woods, PE, Architectural Design, Construction Technology, and Tech Lab at the middle school. He wrote the first BOCES Grant for equipment for Monroe Middle School and East Junior High's tech labs.

Tom taught Welding, Architectural Design and Tech Lab and GRHS as well as coaching the varsity football program and holds the most wins of any coach in school history. He was selected as 4A West Coach of the year 3 times.

He was Dean of Students/Activities Director for GRHS and later Activities Director, retiring in 2015. He was selected as Wyoming AD of the year, served as president of the WIAAA and won the State Award of Merit. He was the Wyoming Leadership Training Coordinator for WIAAA, along with three-time nominations for the National Frank Kovaleski Professional Development Award. He was the only recipient in the US to receive the National Jim Teff Award.

He served on the National Endowment Committee, served on the NIAAA Section 8 as well as the National Scholarship Committee and earned his Certified Master Athletic Administrator. Only four AD's in the history of Wyoming have earned this distinction. Tom was the force behind the Green River Hall of Fame which began in 2009. Following Tom's lead, many schools around Wyoming have implemented the same recognition of achievements of past students, staff and teams in their high schools. In the fall of 2015 Tom was rehired to be a welding instructor at GRHS.

In March of 2022 he was appointed to Sweetwater County School District #2 Board of Trustees and in April of that same year he was appointed to the Green Belt Task Force for the City of Green River.

Jeff Bauer

Jeff Bauer grew up in Green River and attended Green River High School. He is an internationally recognized health futurist and medical economist. He has more than 300 publications on healthcare delivery.

As a consultant, he has assisted hundreds of provider, purchaser, and payer organizations with strategic planning and performance improvement initiatives. He served as Vice President for Health Care Forecasting and Strategy for ACS, a Xerox Company, from 1999 to 2010. His own consulting firm, The Bauer Group, specialized in consumer-focused strategic planning and clinical affiliation agreements for multi-hospital networks from 1984 to 1992.

In addition, Dr. Bauer was a full-time teacher and administrator at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver from 1973 to 1984. He also served for four years as Health Policy Adviser to Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. From 1992 to 1999, Dr. Bauer was a visiting professor in Administrative Medicine at the Medical School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mike Hamel

Mike Hamel graduated from GRHS in 1982. In high school he was a Wyoming State Champion and All-State football player. He also won a National Championship in Greco-Roman wrestling and placed 3rd at the World Cadet Championships in 1980. His senior year he was named All-American by USA Wrestling.

While he attended the University of Wyoming, Mike was a two-time Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champion, a three time Mountain Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (MIWA) Champion, won 12 tournament titles, was the WAC "Rookie of the Year," and set both the freshman and all-time pin records at the university (both still stand today). Mike was selected as a second-team Freshman All-American by Amateur Wrestling News, finished in 2nd in all-time career wins at the University, and was on three WAC Championship teams. In 2017, Mike was inducted into the UW Athletics Hall of Fame.

After college, he began to teach and coach in Colorado, Rawlins, Gillette, and Alaska. During this time he was fortunate enough to have been selected as "Coach of the Year" three different times. He was also selected as the math department "Teacher of the Year" three times in three districts.

Mike pursued a career in administration and served in various different administrative positions for 13 years in Green River. He became the inaugural principal at Cheyenne South High School and stayed in Cheyenne for three years before leaving for Laramie to become an assistant superintendent. He accepted the Superintendent position in Rawlins and has been there for the last five years.

Brent Foster

Brent Foster graduated from Lincoln High School in Green River with the Class of 1957.

In 1961, Brent joined the United States Navy and in 1965 he served in the Vietnam War. He retired as a Commander from the Navy in 1982. During his time in the Navy, he was recognized for numerous things over his career, but one of the most notable wasn't discovered until decades later. Brent was the principal pioneer in the creation and development of the new maritime patrol tactical aircrew protocol and procedures. He helped write the book on airborne antisubmarine warfare and was one of the very first commissioned U.S. Navy tactical coordinators, initially assigned to VP-22 in the early 1960s. He flew in both the P2V and the new P3A.

In those early days naval flight officers, as the non-pilot tactical coordinators were designated, were not eligible for squadron command. Brent was one of the first to screen for squadron command, a rare achievement for naval flight officers.

Today, generations later, all that has changed, and the overall commander of the entire joint Pacific military complex -- U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S., Air Force and U.S. Marines -- is a P3 Naval flight officer.

He set the bar exceptionally high a half century ago, ensuring that those who came later were held to those lofty standards.

Class of 1974

Green River High School Class of 1974 and some of the underclassmen were very unique in the GRHS History.

There were seven sports offered: football, golf, boys basketball, boys swimming, wrestling, girls swimming, and track and field. Out of these seven sports they won five state championships in football, boys swimming, wrestling, golf, and girls swimming. The Industrial Arts department also won state championships, bringing this class to six state championships. The other two sports were not far behind, bringing home third at state each.

Football: Coaches Jim House, Glen McLean, Bill Duncan, Harold Befus; Team: Bob Burnaugh, Davie Crim, Bob Gerrard, Vern Goglio, Dave Graham, Stan Owens, Bruce Parker, Dick Powell, Linne Rollins, Howard Schultz, Terry Warby, Tom Wilson, Mark Abbott, Terry Bigler, Rodney Fantin, Tom Graham, Melvin Lovato, Mike Mamalis, Tom Myrick, Chuck Owens, Ernie Richmond, and Howard Walker, Mark Bennet, Jeff Burkes, Chuck Giesenhagen, Floyd Heitz, Gary McCartney, Barry Toone

Boys Swim team: Coach Jack Beard; Team: Larry Ball, Ken Evans, Dave Lev, John Oakley, Mike Mayhew, Tom Myrick, Mike Burnap, Gary McCartney, David Schultz, Kole Jasperson, Kevin Goglio, Scott Bushelman

Golf team: Coach Larry Clause; Team: Tim Brown, Walt Seeley, Craig Swierczek, Larry Meeboer, David Corollo

Wrestling: Coach Larry Heslep, Bill Duncan; Team: Eva Castillon, Bob Thoman, Augie Gardea, Monte Kester, David Graham, David Maestas, Alan Arguello, Marvin Brady, Linne Rollins, Howard Walker, Gary Arguello, Chuck Owens

Girls Swimming: Coach Kriss Watson; Team: Alice Evans, Cindy Bertot, Tammy Harrell, Charleen Wagner, Sheryl Bushelman, Terry Harris, Terry Meeks, Kerry Shaw, Lauralee Brown, Julie Clark, Linda William

Industrial Arts which included woods, metals, housing and electronics: Sponsors Robert Clevenger, Gordon Gunter, Rudy Gunter; Members: Tim Brown, Vern Goglio, David Hooten, Becky Mamalis, Mark Peterson, Alan Price, Irwin Richardson, Brent Sadler, Joey Schell, Doug Stewart, Tom Wilson, Kerry Eyre, Mike Mammalis, Glen Hunter, Robert Ogden, John Schell (This was the third year in a row that they brought home a state trophy and hold a permanent possession with the University of Wyoming trophy.)

The accomplishments, accolades, and overall triumphs of this class may never be seen again in Green River history.