Gary Chase was a standout in football and wrestling at Wayland High School who later returned to his alma mater as a highly successful wrestling coach. In football, Chase was a co-captain and two-way star for the undefeated 1971 Warrior team that won league and Class C State titles. In wrestling, Gary was a 148-lb State Champion as a junior on a Wayland team that won league and sectional titles and finished as co-State champions. As a senior, Chase captained a team that won league, sectional, state, and New England titles. Gary's individual accomplishments mirrored his team's success.

After placing third in the New England College tournament as a freshman, wrestling for Boston State, Chase stepped away from athletics to begin raising a family with his wife Eileen Weldon, a Wayland HS classmate. Ten years would pass before Chase received a call that would change his life. That call came from his former high school wrestling coach, the legendary Rick Moyer, who had a proposition. Nearby Lincoln-Sudbury High School was without a wrestling coach and Coach Moyer thought Gary would be the perfect candidate to fill the position. "Call Andy Oleski (Lincoln-Sudbury's Athletic Director); I have already told him all about you", Moyer said. "Give him a call," and with that a 24-year coaching career began.

At Lincoln-Sudbury, Chase took over a team that had gone 0-11 the year before, but returned a young group of enthusiastic athletes. In his first year as a coach, Chase guided Lincoln Sudbury to a 9-5-1 record, the first winning season in the history of the school's wrestling program. After four seasons at Lincoln-Sudbury, Gary realized that he had a true love for the sport of wrestling, but lacked coaching knowledge. When the opportunity arose, Chase jumped at the chance to become an assistant under his mentor Rick Moyer, where he would learn the coaching trade from one of the best. For the next ten years, Coach Chase could be found on the mats working with the upper weights, helping Wayland win several league and sectional titles, and earning assistant coach-of-the-year honors in 1992.

In 1997, Gary Chase stepped into some very big shoes when Coach Rick Moyer retired from coaching and Gary was selected to succeed Rick as the head wrestling coach at Wayland High School. Ultimately, Chase would go on to make his mentor proud. Gary embraced Moyer's "team first" coaching philosophy and added his own unique contributions to the Wayland wrestling tradition. Ten years later, when Chase himself stepped down and handed over the coaching reigns to his son and assistant coach Sean Chase, the Wayland Warriors had compiled a remarkable 218-12-2 record, a 94% winning percentage. In that ten-year span, the Warriors enjoyed four undefeated seasons and a three-year 74-0 undefeated streak.

Under Chase's leadership, Wayland teams won six league championships and five sectional championships, while earning a 2001 state runner-up finish and the 2006 Division 3 State Championship. A two-time Boston Globe and three-time Metro West News Coach-of-the-Year, Gary developed six state champions and 22 sectional champions. Chase was named 2006 Division 3 North Sectional Coach-of-the-Year, 2007 Division 3 State Coach-of-the-Year, and the winner of the 2007 Massachusetts Sportsmanship Award for exhibiting ten consecutive years of excellent sportsmanship.

When asked to retrospect on his coaching career, Chase responded, "I would like to thank Rick Moyer for opening the doors to a sport that has meant so much to me. I hope that I have made a difference in just one athlete's life, as Rick has in mine. I would also like to thank the great assistant coaches that have worked with me: Rich Testa, Scott Parseghian, Lee Krasno, and Sean Chase."

Gary has been married to Eileen for 37 years; their three children, Sean, Erin, and Brett are all Wayland High School and Boston College graduates. Gary and Eileen are the proud grandparents of Cole, Aine, and Brian Chase, and Somerby and Aile Newton. In recognition of his outstanding coaching career, Gary Chase is being honored by the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his Lifetime Service to Wrestling.