GRHS to salute their Class of 2022 Hall of Fame inductees

September 9, 2022 — Induction ceremonies for the Green River High School Class of 2022 will take place tonight and Saturday. The new members will be honored during halftime of tonight’s Wolves home game against Rawlins. Kick-off for the game is 7 p.m. Tonight’s halftime will also feature a salute to seniors in the marching band.

On Saturday, the Hall of Fame Banquet will take place in the GRHS Commons at 5 p.m.

The 2022 Green River Hall of Fame Inductees:

Jeff Bauer – Bauer grew up in Green River and attended Green River High School. He is an internationally recognized health futurist and medical economist.

Bauer has more than 300 publications on health care delivery. He served as Vice President for Health Care Forecasting and Strategy for ACS, a Xerox Company, from 1999 to 2010. In addition, he owned the consulting firm, The Bauer Group, which specialized in consumer-focused strategic planning and clinical affiliation agreements for multi-hospital networks from 1984 to 1992.

Class of 1974 Athletic Teams – Green River High School Class of 1974 and some underclassmen were unique in GRHS history. Seven sports were offered; football, golf, boys basketball, boys swimming, wrestling, girls swimming, and track and field. Out of these seven sports, they won five state championships ( football, boys swimming, wrestling, golf, and girls swimming). The Industrial Arts Department also won state championships bringing this class total to six state championships. The other two sports were not far behind, bringing home third place at state competitions.

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, 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

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

In 1961, he joined the United States Navy, and in 1965 served in the Vietnam War. He retired as a Commander from the Navy in 1982. Foster was the principal pioneer in creating and developing the new maritime patrol tactical aircrew protocol and procedures. He helped write the book on airborne antisubmarine warfare and was one of the 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. Foster was one of the first to screen for squadron command, a rare achievement for naval flight officers.

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 third at the World Cadet Championships in 1980. In his senior year, he was named All-American by USA Wrestling.

Hamel attended the University of Wyoming, where he was a two-time Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Champion, a three-time Mountain Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (MIWA) Champion, won 12 tournament titles, and was the WAC “Rookie of the Year.” He also set both the freshman and all-time pin records at the university (both still stand today). In addition, Mike was selected as a second-team Freshman All-American by Amateur Wrestling News, finished second in all-time career wins at UW, 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 that time, he was “Coach of the Year” “three different times. He was also selected as the math department “Teacher of the Year” “three times in three districts. 

Hamel 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.

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

Upon graduating from the University of Wyoming, he taught welding at Rock Springs High School and received “Teacher of the Year” honors. He taught woods, PE, architectural design, construction technology, and tech lab at the middle school. Wilson also wrote the first BOCES Grant for equipment for Monroe Middle School and East Junior High.

Tom taught welding, Architectural Design, and Tech Lab at GRHS. He also coached the varsity football program achieving the most wins of any coach in the school’s history and being selected 4A West Coach of the Year three times.

He was Dean of Students/Activities Director for GRHS and later Activities Director before retiring in 2015. In the fall of 2015, Foster 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 was appointed to the Green Belt Task Force for the City of Green River.