Family points way for Walls
Valparaiso’s 6-foot senior guard learns from sisters, cousins how to play against taller opponents
There’s only one place where Breece Walls is going to be undersized.
The bad news for Valparaiso’s 6-foot senior guard: That’s where he spends a lot of his time, on a basketball court.
The good news for Walls: A family full of athletes has shown him how to navigate this path.
“I’ve always been smaller than everyone to an extent,” he said. “You look around, and all these guys are 6-6 or 6-7. But my cousins had to do the same thing, and that’s what they’ve shown me the most — how to use your brains to beat people instead of your height.”
Growing up with older, athletic siblings and cousins has cultivated a fighting spirit within Walls, who will be one of the key drivers of Valparaiso’s offense this season.
Start with his older sisters, Anna and Gillian, who were volleyball players at Valparaiso before graduating in 2014 and 2018, respectively.
“They went head-to-head more than me, so I just sat back and watched,” Breece Walls said. “But they never took it easy on me, no matter how much younger I was.”
He also has two cousins who are more like siblings: 2016 graduate Evan Walls and 2019 graduate Colin Walls, who each played
guard for Valparaiso.
“I butted heads more with Colin and Evan just because we’re all so competitive in sports,” Breece Walls said. “But we’re all pretty levelheaded.”
Those cousins wore No. 4, like him, and had the same height disadvantage.
“I’ve got to have that grit,” Walls said. “I can’t let myself get pushed around. I have to play tougher than I look and not back down.”
There’s plenty of basketball ability to go with Walls’ competitive mindset. He started 24 games last season while leading the Vikings in assists (125), tying for the lead in steals (42) and finishing fourth in points per game (8.4). Those numbers should go up following offseason improvements that Valparaiso coach Barak Coolman has noticed.
“He’s been working on his shot,” Coolman said. “He’s always been really athletic and has been able to get to the rim to create shots for his teammates. But now he’s consistently knocking down open jump shots. Teams used to lay off him and make him have to earn it. Now that he can make those shots, it changes everything. He’s a real hard person to guard.”
Coolman described Walls as an “ultimate competitor,” pointing to Walls’ contributions to the soccer team, which earned a share of the Duneland Athletic Conference title this fall.
“It doesn’t matter what he’s doing,” Coolman said. “He’s going to compete, and that comes from being the youngest of those Wallses and wanting to keep up with his older siblings and cousins.”
Now in his third season as a varsity player, however, Walls said he has a better handle on what to expect once the season starts next week.
“It’s a long road,” he said. “We have a lot of practices and games left and a lot of stuff to work on. Right now, we’re a skilled team, but we can’t let any of those little losses turn into big losses.”