Shortly after graduating from Union in 1995, Imel married fellow alum Stacy Buchanan and settled in Barbourville, where they raised three sons. A member of First Baptist Church of Barbourville, Imel was active with Upward basketball and other ministries and worked as a manager with Maximus, Inc. in London.

Imel’s contributions to local youth sports were significant. He served as President of the Knox County Little League Board for 10 years and coached many local teams including the Knox County All Stars, Knox County Middle, and Knox Central High School Baseball teams. He helped introduce travel baseball to the Barbourville area, was a member of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) Umpire Association, and was especially engaged with the sports activities of his beloved sons. 

The Imel game is part of a whole season dedicated to cancer awareness. Lewis says everyone on the team knows someone affected by cancer and that his own father, in fact, died of the same type of aggressive brain cancer – glioblastoma – as Imel. When the team realized their shared concern about this disease, they wanted to do something to help.

“We were fortunate enough to win the conference championship last year for the first time in 17 years, and that was really great, but those things fade,” Lewis says. “We try to talk to our players about playing for a bigger purpose.”

The idea to dedicate a game specifically to Imel came from Alumni Association President Tim Porter, who remembers Imel as a great teammate and friend. “He was like a brother,” Porter says.