At a young age, Marques Gales would spend his nights in front of the television watching wrestlers such as Kurt Angle, Rulon Gardner, ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan.

Although football and basketball were his two favorite sports, he would soon realize that it didn’t offer the satisfaction of bringing down your opponent to the mat and pinning them like pro wrestling did.

“It’s different from team sports. You get out what you put into it,” said the gregarious Gales. “I saw football as a job and wrestling as play time.”

The son of a military dad said his passion for the tactical sport came when he was 13 years old, attending public school in Okinawa, Japan. At the time, out of shape and experiencing breathing problems, Gales set out to join the only interscholastic sport offered: wrestling.

“I did it for fun,” Gales said. “I wasn’t expecting too much from it, but at the time I was fat and had asthma. But after the first year, it changed me. I lost my asthma and I ended up loving playing it.

“I didn’t know if I could handle it because it was rigorous. I had to run up a nine-story flight of stairs. I thought I was going to pass out.”

No longer the “chubby” kid with asthma, the six-foot-two-inch Gales is a wrecking machine on the SF State wrestling team, ready to pounce on anything that gets in his way. His hard work and sheer determination have landed him into an elite class.

This past summer, Gales was among 30 other students from across the country to participate in the 15th annual Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere conference in Colorado Springs, Colo. Presentations from the U.S. Olympic Committee and the National Governing Body, as well as motivational speakers from current and former athletes, laid out the framework on how to succeed in life and overcome adversity.

For more than a decade, F.L.A.M.E has provided minority students an opportunity to learn more about the Olympic movement and its ideals through development of youth leadership programs in the U.S. Olympic Committee’s College Internship Program.

“It was an honor to be selected,” Gales said. “I took a lot from the motivational speeches. It meant a lot to represent my family and the SF State community.”

It was an achievement that made everyone from his coach to his teammates and parents proud.

“The conference that he attended was a great experience for him,” SF State head coach Lars Jensen said. “It taught him leadership skills that he will use this year on the team and I believe that he represented the school and the team very well at this meeting.”

“We were thrilled to hear about his selection,” Marques’ father, John Gales said. “My son’s hard work and perseverance through school and wrestling got him there and we’re very proud of him.”

To get selected, Gales had to write an essay describing a situation where he overcame adversity. Although, he didn’t write about his health issues in eight grade, he easily thought about last spring: the 21-year-old kinesiology major took up 22 units while holding down a job as a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness, wrestling for the Gators and maintaining his 3.1 GPA.

“I literally had 17-hour days back-to-back,” he said. “But I kept positive thoughts and how it will payoff in the long run, so that’s what kept me going.”

It was a testament to his academic and athletic commitment.

“It tells you a lot about his character,” teammate Curtis Schurkamp said. “He’s a very optimistic guy and that rubs on our team.”

“Marques is a very hardworking, dedicated and focused student-athlete,” Jensen said. “He has worked all summer to reach his goals of becoming an All-American. He is a good student that wants to teach and coach some day.”

A good number of the students who attended the four-day event in June came from elite universities, he said. Gales, however, was the only participate from a Division II college. But instead of feeling intimidated, it gave him an opportunity to showcase SF State.

“Most never heard about SF State,” he said, with a chuckle. “I guess they know now.”

The F.L.A.M.E workshop allowed Gales to hear inspirational speeches from retired and current Olympians including gold-medalist speedskater Derek Parra, three-time U.S. champion wrestler T.C Danzler and Olympic track star and keynote speaker Billy Mills.

“It taught me how dedicated they are to their sport, and I adopted that mentality the way athletes approach wrestling,” Gales said. “The reason they were so successful was because they gave a lot of time and effort.”

Known for his hard work and dedication on the wrestling team, there is another side to Gales that many don’t know about.

“He’s always cracking jokes, but that’s a good thing because it relaxes us.” teammate Josh Nolan said.

“Oh, he’s always yelling,” Schurkamp said. “It pumps us up.”

The Fairfield native, who posted a 14-23 record at 184 pounds last season for the Gators, is already looking forward to the upcoming year and finishing his wrestling career at SF State on a high note.

“I’m really enjoying college and enjoy life right now,” he said. “It’s going be a fun year. We haven’t started practice, but I know it’s going to turn out to be a good season.”

He hopes to someday use his leadership skills in the classroom at a junior college by giving back to the sport that has given him so much.

“Well, unlike baseball, basketball or football, wrestling doesn’t have a professional outlet after college,” he said. “But I might consider MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), Jujitsu, or kickboxing.

“I’ll just try to turn wrestling into a positive experience either by coaching or teaching.”