Gabe England, a senior at Wenatchee High School, has had a successful four years. Lots of memories and friendships attest to this.

Deca has been an important part of Gabe’s high school career. He made it to state the last three competition seasons. In his sophomore year, he went straight to state with a project along with his partner. Last year he did his project on business law and ethics, and this year, he did hospitality and tourism.

At regionals the last two years, Gabe placed first in his category. The experiences from these competitions carry on to help with life experience as well.

“We got a lot of free time to spend at the mall and we went to Din Thai fun and spent a bunch of money,” Gabe said.

Gabe and his best friend, Jason Newman, attended this event. Jason shares a funny memory from Din Thai fun.

“Gabe had to feed one of our friends because he didn’t know how to use chopsticks because there were no forks available,” he said.

Gabe didn’t just do Deca; he was also a member of the Math Honor Society and Honor Society for three years.

Gabe also played hockey all four years: sophomore year he played baseball and his junior and senior years, he played club volleyball.

Gabe won state for both hockey and club volleyball.

“Hockey was interesting because the championship game was against a team we had lost to during pool play, so it was fun to come back and beat them,” Gabe said. “We went undefeated for volleyball and didn’t drop a set until the finals.”

Officially, Gabe started playing volleyball two years ago, but before that, he played with his family and friends. Gabe started playing hockey at the young age of ten.

“For both sports, I enjoyed all my teammates and coaches a lot. They were all very talented and fun to be around,” Gabe said.

Diane Owen has especially impacted Gabe’s high school career.

“I’ve had her for calculus the last two years, and she´s the teacher I’ve had the most. She has helped me a lot,” Gabe said.

Owen explains that Gabe’s work ethic is super good, and he turns everything in most of the time. She also describes Gabe as thoughtful and intelligent and as having a “quiet kindness.”

“I think he´s become a little bit more outgoing, he was very quiet at the beginning,” Owen said, describing Gabe from junior year to now. “He is now letting his personality show.”

Jason and Gabe were also peer mentors for calculus, taught by Owen, for their first semester of senior year.

“Gabe has a good sense of humor,” Jason said. “He also is super smart and we study together for most of our tests. He is a good, collaborative mind,” Jason said.

Jason and Gabe met in fifth grade when they started walking to school. These walks created everlasting memories that turned into a beautiful friendship.

Other than calculus, he recommends to other students to take one of Merrill’s classes throughout high school.

“I’ve had him freshman through junior year,” Gabe said. “I did Intro to Engineering, and then I did drafting with him sophomore year and auto cad junior year.”

Academically, Gabe has challenged himself in his classes and gives credit to his parents for pushing him.

“My parents are always pushing me to do well academically and in everything I do,” he said. “They have high expectations, which shaped me to set standards for myself and the life goals I want to have.”

Next year, Gabe will attend BYU in Utah.