Premier Sports & Entertainment

• Clients
• Services
• News
• Staff
• Contact

 

At 6’7” and 315 pounds, Gabe Carimi has a body built for the NFL, which is where the Wisconsin senior is headed after this month’s draft. But with Carimi, who wond the 2010 Outland Trophy as the nation’s best collegiate lineman, the sum of the parts might be even greater than the whole. Like his hair, which he once grew out for 18 months to donate to kids suffering from medical hair loss. Or his heart, which fuels and obsessive work ethic. His brain led him to a demanding civil engineering degree.   And as he tells Mike Ogle, there’s also those hands that love to build when they’re not busing fending off opposing defenses.

What’s your specific engineering inerest? I like construction. I always have. I did some home-building servie projects when I was younger and discovered I really liked the work. In high school, I did a lot of woodworking projects. I’ve always had a penchant for building stuff and been really good with my math and science.

What would you build? I made myself a king-sized bed that I still use. I made my parents a queen. I built end tables, a buffet, cabinets – all kinds of stuff that they still have.

You were furnishing the house as a kid, basically? Yeah. (Laughing) I’d just ask them if they wanted anything made, especially anything big. I was saving them money, so they went for it. They really like the buffet – it’s in the center of the living area. I like coming up with my own designs. 

Did you have a job as a teenager? I was a caddy. But I learned the most doing landscaping jobs for my parents in the summers. They told me the truth when I wasn’t doing something right. I built a raised garden bed – three 4-foot-by-12-foot sections – so my mom could work with her vegetables without bending over. Whatever my mom wants, I’ll build it for her.

So you like physical work, getting your hands dirty? I like the feeling of accomplishment, doing something youself and not just paying someone to do it for you. I like doing projects around the hosue. They’re a lot of fun.

How did you develop such a strong work ethic? I learned a lot of it from my parents. I know it didn’t come naturally when I was younger. Once I was more mature, around 10^th grade, something clicked. I did better in school, started putting more time into my homework. Now I want everything I do to be to my fullest capabilities and be somehting I can be proud of. You can ask anyone: If you see my apartment, whe I say I cleaned it, I mean it’s clean. I can’t stand a half-done job.