David Jablonski: Wallace: ‘There’s a buzz in the community’ about Springfield basketball
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Thirty-two years ago, coach Larry Ham let senior Chris Wallace, the star quarterback for the South High School football team, call the plays on defense for the basketball team.
“I’m offense on the football field,” Wallace said, “but when it comes to basketball, I think it starts and stops with who’s playing defense and who’s getting after 50-50 balls and who’s winning the rebound war.”
That was Wallace’s thinking in the 1993-94 season, and it remains his philosophy as he prepares for his first season as the head coach of the Springfield boys basketball team.
“(Defense) dictates a lot of what we do offensively,” Wallace said, “and that’s getting out and trying to score off the break. If we can’t, we’ll get into what we do, but that’s the precedent we’re trying to set right now with our student-athletes.”
Springfield announced the hiring of Wallace on June 1. Wallace replaces Matt Yinger, who stepped down in April. Yinger was 28-48 over three seasons.
Wallace will remain the offensive coordinator of Springfield’s football team. He said the basketball team will practice in the evening after the football team when the seasons overlap.
The basketball team, which includes many football players, will play its first game in mid-December. That has often been the schedule for Springfield, whose football team has made a habit of deep playoff runs.
“If I have to do double duty, that means we’re doing what we’re supposed to do on the football field,” Wallace said.
Springfield has suffered seven straight losing seasons in basketball. Springfield football was in a similar place when Maurice Douglass took over the program in 2014, having won a combined total of four games in the three previous seasons. Douglass turned the program into a winner in his third season and a state power in his sixth. Springfield then reached the state championship game three seasons in a row.
Wallace has similar goals.
“Those are the same set of kids that did what they did on the football field,” Wallace said, “so the expectation doesn’t change. Once you set a standard, that’s what the goal is, and I think our kids will say that without a doubt. That’s where we see ourselves.”
For Wallace, the path to that level of success begins with building a culture with the basketball program.
“The one thing that I talked to my assistant coaches about is we all agree right now there’s no culture for basketball, and that’s where it has to start,” he said. “We created a culture with football. We created a sense of belonging. That’s something that people value. We hold each other accountable, from the trainers all the way to the kids. That’s what we’re going to try to do with basketball as well. I think it can happen, but it takes the kids saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do. This is how we’re going to do things. This is what our standard is going to be as players. As student-athletes, we’re going to hold each other to this standard.’ If you get that player-led atmosphere, we can start to build. Right now, our talk is we want to play late into March.”
Wallace has plenty of experience with the program. He has worked as a varsity assistant basketball coach, a freshman head coach and a junior varsity coach.
Wallace takes over the program as his son, Christopher, enters his senior year. Christopher played quarterback for the football team but was limited to three games in basketball as a junior because of an injury.
Wallace has known many of the basketball players since they were in elementary school. He got to know them through his work as a community mentor supervisor for the school district.
“It’s been exciting to see them grow in multiple sports,” he said.
Wallace has already started working with them on the court. The Wildcats played at the Midwest Live event in Sandusky, Ohio, in June. They’re also holding open gyms at the high school. He has seen good numbers and is excited about the young players.
“We’ve got a good young class of incoming freshmen and sophomores that are committed to the game,” Wallace said, “and are showing up and working hard. We’re young on the varsity level as well. We’ve got three or four sophomores that are going to be contributing, and we’ve got a couple juniors, and then we’ve got some seniors at the guard spots as well.”
If Wallace achieves his goals, he’ll add another chapter to Springfield’s rich basketball history. Springfield won state championships in 1925 and 1950. North reached the state semifinals in 1995 and 1997. Ham guided South to seven conference championships and five district titles in 14 seasons.
Wallace knows about the past success of Springfield and North and South high schools, before they combined, as well as anyone.
Wallace is the rare athlete who not only played for South’s Larry Ham but also for North’s Eddie Ford. Wallace started his high school career at North and finished at South. His Springfield basketball experience goes back even further than that.
“I used to lay the jerseys out when I was a kid for Doug Ratstatter and Don Henderson and company,” Wallace said. “I used to be in those locker rooms because my brother went to North. My older cousin, Steve Victoria, went to North. I went to North my first couple years, but even when I was a kid, my sisters cheered for South. I knew the Pepper Begos, the Scott Thomases, the Karlton Claybornes, the Jason Gees.”
Some of those former Springfield basketball standouts called to congratulate Wallace on getting the job. They told him, “I know you’re going to bring back that attitude and that toughness that we brought on the court in both gyms out on the north side and the south side.”
“There’s a buzz in the community,” Wallace said, “and I’m excited about that.”
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