Willie Gadson Memorial Service
on June 15
A memorial service and breakfast in honor of former Huntington High School wrestling great Willie Gadson will be held in Louis D. Giani Gymnasium on Saturday, June 15 at 11 a.m.
Gadson passed away in March after an 11-month battle with cancer. He was a 1972 Huntington graduate who was a league champion and Suffolk runner-up for the Blue Devils.
Following his graduation, Gadson won two junior college national titles at Nassau Community College and went on to capture All-American honors at Iowa State University in 1975 and 1976. He later earned international wrestling honors and competed for a spot on the 1980 U.S. freestyle Olympic team. Ultimately, the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow, following the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.
Following the end of his competitive career, Gadson turned his sights on coaching, assisting at the University of Michigan and Iowa State, coaching the Hawkeye Club at the University of Iowa and serving a five year stint as head coach at Eastern Michigan University, where he won a conference title and developed an All-American. He most recently was head coach at Waterloo East High School in Waterloo, Iowa.
Speakers at the memorial service will include Gadson's brother, Charlie, his Huntington High School coach, Lou Giani, his coach at Nassau Community College, Chuck Henke and several other close friends and teammates. All members of the Huntington and Long Island wrestling families are welcome to attend.
To help in planning for the breakfast, those who intend to attend the service are asked to RSVP to either Lou Giani (631-421-4072) or Huntington head coach Kieran Mock at (kman1997@aol.com).