Leading from within: Wilson centers game around faith, family, fitness

Gabe Wilson awoke on a Friday morning this August and set off for Focus Performance Center, where he coaches young athletes. He embarked on a strength training session, powering through trap bar deadlifts, box jumps, broad jumps and upper body work. His last exercise was a heavy kettlebell farmer’s carry.

“I did not want to do that down and back forty yards for three sets,” Wilson said.

He looked at the bigger picture though and picked up the kettlebell.

In the gym, if Wilson is supposed to shoot 20 shots, he is not satisfied until he makes 20 shots.

The 21-year-old Wilson is a cultural leader at the University of Mary Washington, whose men’s basketball team has made the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference championship game each of the last three seasons.

Wilson, who was born at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is not a star. He is a bench role player at his hometown school and saw just 24 minutes of game time last season.

Yet, his determination for excellence is self-motivated. He referenced no notes when he explained his personal philosophy, which comes from one of his favorite books, “Atomic Habits,” by James Clear.

“Until you work as hard as those you admire,” he said, “you cannot consider what they accomplished as luck.”

Led by example

Dan Wilson’s three children watched their father wake up at 4 a.m. every day, eat breakfast, make his lunch, care for them and set off for work.

A U.S. Marine Corps officer, he did not want to force military-level discipline on his household. But Gabe, the oldest son, drank it in.

Always an athlete, Dan competed in two Olympic wrestling trials. Gabe admired his strong father and wanted to be “just like him.”

Gabe and his father had conversations about personal goals, which Dan hoped would “lead him to comprehending and identifying what it’s going to take.”

The summer before his eighth-grade year, Gabe asked his father to teach him and his brother how to work out.

“He taught us the art of lifting and exercise and what it does for you,” Gabe said.

One day, Gabe remembers running around the backyard carrying wooden planks.

“Your random neighbor driving by would have been like ‘Oh, my gosh, this guy’s crazy! What is he doing with his kids?’” Gabe said. “Me and my brother loved it.”

Angelo Hunt, the boys’ basketball coach at St. John Paul the Great Catholic High School, met Gabe at a middle school tournament in 2017. He liked Wilson’s aggressiveness and “high IQ” and recruited the player.

From Wilson’s home in Spotsylvania County, John Paul is a 45-minute drive north. Attending would be a sacrifice, but Wilson weighed the benefits of JP versus local schools.

“It came down to who plays the best competition, and ultimately it was John Paul,” Wilson said.

Hunt has coached John Paul since the school’s inception in 2008. He cherishes the campus’s academic and religious focus, which he said keeps the student-athletes out of trouble and set up for collegiate success.

“We play great basketball. We play DeMatha, we play Gonzaga, we’re playing the best of the best in the WCAC (Washington Catholic Athletic Conference),” he said. “But it means nothing if you can’t go to class and do your work.”

Hunt urges his students to keep a 3.5 GPA. The reality, he said, is the majority of D.C., Maryland and Virginia area basketball players are not good enough to earn a Division I athletic scholarship. Though, “the DMV is a [Division III] hot bed,” he said, and students with a 3.5 GPA or above are competitive for lucrative academic scholarships to play at smaller schools.

Hunt never had to motivate Wilson to keep up with classroom work. Like Wilson’s father, Hunt served in the military and enjoyed the discipline Wilson displayed.

“He could relate to the way I was coaching and the instructions and attention to detail I asked of him,” Hunt said.

Wilson was rarely satisfied. On bus rides, he watched college basketball videos. Online, he looked up workouts geared towards bulking up and playing collegiately.

“I always had the mindset that I shouldn’t train at the level I’m at, I should train at the level that I want to be at,” he said.

Some days, practice ended at 7 p.m. On other days, games ended later. Even if he arrived home as late as 9 p.m., Wilson finished his homework and shot baskets in his painted-on, driveway court.

Multiple times, Dan stood in the window overlooking the driveway and recorded his son shooting.

“When I’m 70, 80,” Dan said, “I want to watch that.”

I used to walk as a child

Gabe said he started high school “athletic, but scrawny,” but he dedicated himself to the weight room. Mentally, he graduated from not thinking about much to pondering the “greater responsibilities” of college.

He holds paramount the spiritual element of his character.

“I can definitely see how my faith has grown, my faith in God,” he said, “which is definitely the most important thing.”

Though Wilson is not Catholic, he is Christian, and values his formation in Catholic middle school and high school. Dan has watched his son mature and imbue his judgment with his faith, “asking God to help him make those decisions with wisdom and knowledge,” Dan said.

Wilson played his freshman year at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia. He started no games and played just 35 minutes.

Looking for opportunities to challenge himself as a student and athlete, Wilson considered Mary Washington. He had met Coach Marcus Kahn at a middle school summer camp and wanted the opportunity to play college basketball in his hometown.

“The decision that led him to [transfer]—that was a man’s decisions,” Dan said.

“I was more proud of that than of him going to play at UMW,” Dan said.

Kahn was hesitant at first. He couldn’t guarantee Wilson a roster spot. But two days before classes started in the fall of 2022, a roster change allowed him to welcome Wilson, who already enrolled at the school, roster spot or not.

As Wilson’s academic and athletic career has moved closer to home, he sees his maturity developing farther from his youth, citing 1 Corinthians 13.

“When I was a child, I acted like a child,” Gabe said. “When I became a man, I acted like a man.”

Always Ready

No one beat Da’Shawn Cook to the gym. The fifth-year, 1,000-point scorer for Mary Washington was always the first one in and last one out. One day in 2023, as Cook stepped into the locker room, he saw a supine figure on the floor. Wilson was asleep, head propped up on his backpack, waiting for the captain.

“Man, you’re basically sleeping here,” Cook said.

Wilson often slept in the locker room, taking power naps after class because he did not think it was worth it to go home before practice.

“It was little stuff like that,” said Cook. “You could tell he really wanted it.”

Wilson was humble about his prospects at UMW. Cook and Greg Rowson, seniors, had firm grasps on the guard positions Wilson played.

“There’s no way I’m taking their spot,” he said.

“I found my role at Mary Washington as doing the small things that no one else does.”

After Cook’s twin brother, Ra’Shawn, graduated in 2022, Cook doubted anyone would step up to work out with him. Yet, Wilson quickly latched onto the star and said he wanted to work out together.

“I didn’t think he’d show up,” Cook said. “But he’d always come, and he’d always work super hard.”

Cook helped Wilson with his ball-handling, challenging the newcomer to dribble two balls simultaneously to half court and back. Wilson struggled at first but improved throughout the season.

Wilson gleaned Cook onto shooting drills and helped the senior in the weight room, where, according to Cook and Kahn, Wilson is “one of the strongest players on the team.”

On the court, Wilson’s effort shone through to younger players.

“If Gabe, who doesn’t see the minutes of some other guys, can go as hard in practice as he does, then so can you,” Kahn said.

Kahn said Wilson’s best opportunities on the floor come against zone defenses, where the sharp-shooting guard can get open easily.

“He’s a catch-and-shoot guy,” Kahn said.

Against Pfeiffer University in January 2023, Wilson entered in the game’s final three minutes.

“First shot, bang,” Cook said. “No warmup, nothing.”

Wilson made a second 3-pointer from the same spot. He finished back-to-back games that week with six points each, a career-high figure. He attributes his readiness to how hard he works out, treating practices more intensely than games.

“When I get in the game, I just go on auto pilot, and my training takes over,” Wilson said. “It feels easier and more natural.”

While Wilson has only played 44 minutes in his first two seasons at UMW, he’s averaging over 23 points per 40 minutes.

Kahn said the upcoming season’s roster will be “funky.” The team is young with four seniors, including Wilson, no juniors and 12 underclassmen. While Wilson will still be a situational player for UMW, Kahn hopes he’ll have chances for more on-court leadership.

“There will be situations this year where yes, we’ll need an older, more experienced kid on the floor,” Kahn said.

Jesus and Fitness

Last semester, Wilson wrote eight papers. He took each one to the campus writing center for advice.

“Shout out Lauren at the writing center,” he said. “She helped me with literally every paper.”

He thanked many others as well: his father, his coaches and his fellow trainers at Focus Performance Center. His humility keeps him grounded, but his motivation keeps him always looking ahead.

Wilson is majoring in international business because “there’s business everywhere.” With a sports management minor, he dreams of opening a fitness facility that combines his personal pillars.

“I would want my gym to promote, first and foremost, having a relationship with God,” he said. “Then, a healthy lifestyle. And three, a good environment.”

He has thought about his idea while interning at Focus this summer.

“I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of kids who they just get dropped off, and then their parents leave them and they really don’t have anybody to talk to at home,” he said.

“You could be someone like an uncle to that kid or a big brother and in some cases or even like a father, which is crazy to say, considering that I’m only 21. But that’s really the reality of it.”

He summarized in case he’d left any doubt about his priorities.

“I think there’s two things everybody needs,” he said, “Jesus and fitness, bro.”

Summer coaching has not precluded Wilson from keeping up his own routine. At Focus, he lifts weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He devotes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to speed training. Every day, he shoots on the court at UMW.

“I rest,” he said, “on Sundays.”

No matter his playing time, Wilson is at peace with the player, and man, he is. He will approach this season with the same discipline he’s maintained since childhood, the same quiet determination his father displayed, leading himself from within.