Class of 2007

Yorel Hawkins is a 2007 graduate of Apex High School. While at Apex, Yorel was a two-time First Team All-Conference player and a two-time Conference Player of the Year. During a career in which he scored over 1,400 points, Yorel was also an Honorable Mention McDonald’s All-American his senior season. Furthermore, Hawkins was named to the prestigious GlaxoSmithKline All-Tournament team. Remarkably, as a senior, Yorel registered a double double for the entire season, averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds per game. He just missed out on a season-long double double as a junior, finishing with 20.3 points and 9 rebounds per outing. To cap off his high school career, he was selected for the North Carolina East-West All-Star Game. While Hawkins was at Apex, the Cougars captured three straight conference championships.

After graduating from Apex High School, Yorel went on to have a very successful career at Fairfield University, where he scored over 1,000 points and had over 500 career rebounds. He was also named to the 2011 All-Conference team during his senior season at Fairfield. After graduating from Fairfield University with a sociology degree, Yorel played professionally for C.A.T. Vegevano in Italy.

As a show of his pride for the Apex Community, Yorel organized an alumni basketball game for former men’s and women’s players, and that game also served as a successful community food and clothes drive. Through his basketball training program, he has been able to use basketball to positively influence and mentor youth with positive life lessons. Yorel has a phrase that he lives by and imparts to his mentees as part of his lessons: “Keep the squares out of your circle.”