Gibby Chasse received a phone call in January he never expected.
On the line was the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame, informing him he was one of their newest inductees.
Chasse, along with seven others in the latest induction class, will be formally feted for their athletic feats at the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame's induction banquet this Saturday at the Hart Community Centre.
"I'm very proud and surprised," he said Monday. "There are a lot of good athletes in Prince George. I'm not a very public person. To have something like this happen is extremely surprising. The Hall of Fame is a great avenue to be recognized with athletes, volunteers and builders. To be recognized at this level is awesome."
Chasse, 45, is going into the hall in the athlete category for his feats in competitive powerlifting and bench press.
He's a two-time Canadian bench press champion in both the Global Powerlifting Counsel (GPC) and Canadian Powerlifting Union (CPU); he's won CPU Western Canadian Championships, and is a three-time provincial bench press champion.
He holds two national GPC and CPU bench press records and five CPU provincial bench press records. He's a three-time provincial powerlifting champion at the CPU level.
He competed at the world championships in 2003 in the Czech Republic after winning gold in the bench press and finishing fourth in powerlifting at the CPU nationals.
Born and raised in Prince George, he played minor hockey, moving up to the junior ranks with the Spruce Kings between 1986-88.
He played baseball and senior men's fastball. At the senior B World Fastball championship in Hutchinson, Kansas, his team finished second and Chasse was named the All World Star Third Baseman.
After he retired from junior hockey, he coached Prince George minor hockey with the late Mike Meehan Sr. and guided the Triple-A midget team to a provincial championship that included a victory over the Paul Kariya-led Burnaby Winter Club.
While he excelled at all sports, he took up powerlifting in 2000.
"I wanted to maintain my fitness year-round and I wanted to see where the sport would take me," said Chasse.
The sport pushed him to his limits and he succeeded.
His records include a bench press record of 496-pounds he set in 2009 at the Global Powerlifting Counsel in the Masters 40-45 division.
It's a record he still holds today.
In June 2005 at the B.C. CPU Open championships, he lifted 534.6 pounds in the bench press to set a provincial record. It's a retired B.C. Powerlifting Federation record that will never be broken.
He also ranks 46th in the country in the all-time CPU bench press which compares
every lifter from every weight class.
Looking back, those rankings and records astound him.
"It's something I never thought about before," said Chasse. "Both will stay with me forever and it's something to be proud of. I went into the sport to see where I could go. The amount of hard work, training and how it took me through competitions kept evolving. I had success at every level I competed at."
Now retired from the sport, Chasse is married with a teenaged son and daughter. They never saw him compete. But they will be by his side Saturday as he accepts his hall of fame award.
His advice to those who want to get into powerlifting?
"Do it because you enjoy it," he said. "Go down to the competitions and see how they're run. There is a team effort amongst the athletes who want everybody to do well. The comaraderie and friendships... I still have them today. Put the time in to be committed to the sport and have the drive to be successful.
As for the Hall of Fame, he joins his long-time lifting partner Tony Tamra, who was inducted in 2010.
