SACRAMENTO >> Gabe Freeman, a former standout wrestler at Lower Lake High School who set a freshman record for wins in a single season, is wrestling again after an injury two years ago nearly ended his life.
Freeman, now 18 and attending Hance Community School on Argonaut Road in Lakeport, wrestled 11 matches in the 150-pound weight class recently at the SAWA Championships at Natomas High School in Sacramento. He was medically cleared to wrestle less than three weeks ago and has been working out with Peter Stephans, a teacher at East Lake Elementary School in Clearlake Oaks, and his former high school coach at Lower Lake, Ed Fuchs.
“I could have left after my son was done wrestling but I definitely want to stick around to watch Gabe wrestle,” said Fuchs, who was at the tournament along with members of his CORE Wrestling youth club, including Freeman.
Fuchs said he spoke with Freeman between rounds at the tournament and the former Lower Lake star responded every single time.
“He would go out there and do exactly what I wanted him to do,” Fuchs said. “He did the same thing when he was a freshman at Lower Lake.”
Freeman’s return to the mat included matches in Greco, freestyle and folkstyle wrestling. He not only won 10 of his 11 matches, but all of his wins were by pin.
Freeman’s lone loss came in Greco competition to Chris Valencia. He went 2-1 and placed second. He won the freestyle division with a 5-0 record, including a pin of Valencia, and he won the folkstyle division with a 3-0 record.
Freeman recorded 31 victories during the 2013-14 season at Lower Lake, which was a freshman record until one of the school’s current wrestlers, Blake Fredrickson, won 33 matches during the 2015-16 campaign. That was his one and only season with the Trojans. A severe blow to the back of the head in 2015 nearly took his life and Freeman has been on the long road to recovery ever since.
Had his career at Lower Lake continued, Fuchs said there is no telling how many matches he could have won.
“He would have had a shot at breaking the school record (for most career wins),” Fuchs said.
The school’s all-time mark of 120 wins is held by Justin Gaddy, who is now Lower Lake’s varsity football coach. Fredrickson, with 73 wins through two seasons, is on a pace break the record.
Freeman’s wrestling career will likely continue at a junior college, according to Fuchs, and Lower Lake’s longtime coach said he expects Freeman to do well at the collegiate level.
“I know his high school wrestling career didn’t go the way he wanted it to, but there’s not reason he can’t succeed in college,” Fuchs said.
