Rise for St. Joseph QBWallace is a starburst
TRUMBULL — He grew up down the street from St. Joseph, his dad played at the school, yes, he was one of those kids running around at the games.
On one hand, JackWallace was meant for all this.
“Me and my friends were out there playing football when games were going on,” the junior quarterback said Saturday as the Hogs prepared for the Class L semifinals against New
Canaan. “I’d watch Jordan Vazzano throwing the ball. Then Cory Babineau and then David Summers.
“Since I was a little kid, I dreamed of being the quarterback at St. Joe’s. So this is a dream fulfilled, I guess you could say. And I’m living it right now.”
On the other hand, Jack Wallace is a starburst. He played safety as a sophomore, a guy with a passion for hitting offensive players, a guy who picked off two passes in the 2018 Class M state championship victory over Berlin. Yet as a quarterback, he was a virtual unknown.
And now here JackWallace is. Your 2019 Gatorade Connecticut Football Player of the Year.
Wallace stepped into the considerable shoes of Summers, who is off to play college ball at Syracuse. From prep schools to the FCIAC, all aroundWallace there have been bigger names, hotter prospects. Drew Pyne of New Canaan. Phoenix Billings of Hand
Madison. Yet it is Wallace, in his first year at quarterback for unbeaten St. Joseph, who tastes the Gatorade. He’s the first junior to win the award since 2013.
“I was definitely very surprised by it,” said St. Joseph coach Joe Della Vecchia. “Good for Jack. It’s a great honor. It’s not just for football. It’s for academics and service. He earned it. That kid is a great person. I think it’s a program award for us. We’ve had a few nominated in the past. This is our first. It certainly says a lot when you’ve got kids like Phoenix Billings and Drew Pyne out there. I’m sure Jack felt it was unexpected, too.”
“Yeah, I guess I was surprised a little bit, but it’s a blessing,” Wallace said. “I wouldn’t have won it without all the coaches and athletes around me.”
Wallace has an Aminus average in the classroom. He volunteers in fundraising toward research for breast cancer, diabetes and heart disease. He’s a Special Olympics volunteer and a
youth football coach. Like Della Vecchia said, he’s a terrific young man. Wallace, 60, 175, also doesn’t win the award without connecting of 126of189 passes for 2,085 yards and 36 touchdowns against only five interceptions for an 110 team. This is still very much a football award.
“Jack did a great job for us last year as a safety covering the pass and coming up on the run,” Della Vecchia said. “He’s more of a defensiveminded kid. This year he wanted to be our quarterback. He worked really hard to get here.
“One of the first to give him a shout out (on social media) after he won the Gatorade Award was David Summers. I know that meant a lot to Jack.”
Wallace played all the offensive skill positions in Pop Warner. As a ninth grader, he played quarterback on the freshman team and DB for varsity. He began learning the St. Joe’s system. With Summers taking virtually all the snaps, he had little opportunity at quarterback as a sophomore.
After baseball practice last spring, the middle
infielder would put down his glove, go up to the football field and throw to his receivers. He worked out some and talked with Summers. All summer long, he was out there throwing in passing leagues, with his experienced receivers learning routes getting down their timing.
“Jack did great job learning the offense,” Della Vecchia said. “Coming into the season, we knew what we were going to get athletically. We didn’t know what we were going to get as far as a quarterback. We just took over the position. The kid is a winner.”
Even now, Wallace is much more eager to talk about his teammates than himself. Asked about his receivers, he says, “Oh, we have all different types. Will (Diamantis) is a jumpball deep guy. Brady (Hutchison) is shifty. Owen (DaSilva) is a big kid. You get him the ball. The DB doesn’t want to tackle him. (Austin Jose) is just an athlete. Once they get the ball, they can all do special things with it.”
Yes, the kid is a winner. What he’s not is on the AllFCIAC first or second team. I am told there are some limits on how many from each school are picked and there is mandatory selections for each school. Still, Gatorade Player of the Year isn’t on his allleague team. Interesting.
“I don’t look into (awards) that much,” Wallace said. “If anything, you use it as motivation. It is what it is. State championship is the most important thing.”
If there was a pure MVP for the season, Anthony Simpson of Bloomfield and Terrence Bogan of Sheehan could lead the state list. There’s Tyler Van Dyke from Suffield Academy if you look to the talentedfilled preps. Cornelius Johnson, of Brunswick School who went on to Michigan, won the Gatorade last year. Colin McCabe and Billings from Hand, yeah, we can get into a long argument and you can find them on line if you look.
“I can’t say I’m blind to it,” Wallace said. “I hear it. It’s fun to be in the same category as the other good athletes around the state.”
“That’s life, that’s part of the way things go,” Della Vecchia said of the FCIAC
selections. “It’s OK. We have one goal as a team. That’s the way he sees it, too. And I don’t think anything affects him. That’s the way he was in baseball for us (on route to a Class M state title), clutch down the stretch with a lot of big hits.”
Yeah, Wallace loves big hits.
“I love coming up full speed and throwing up every bit of my weight into somebody,” Wallace said. “I think I’ve tempered it a bit. (Coach) Del tells me not to hit kids when I want to throw a block and stuff. I miss it.”
Coach is smart. Wallace played zero defense this season. Della Vecchia needs Wallace to lead the No. 2 Hogs against New Canaan Monday night and for the highlyanticipated showdown against No. 1 Hand that the state has awaited since September.
“I guess we’ve used being No. 2 as motivation this entire year,” Wallace said. “After we beat 50 Ridgefield and then what we did to New Canaan the first time (5814) …” Nothing changed. That is, of course, the hole in the logic of polls that start in the preseason. If a team is ranked ahead of another team and that leading team doesn’t lose it often is impossible to for the trailing team to pull ahead. No matter how impressive it is. And St. Joe’s has been impressive. So impressive that lots of folks think the Hogs will beat Hand if/when they meet in the Class L title game.
“Honestly, we haven’t talked about it,” Della Vecchia said. “The kids aren’t stupid. They read the blogs, the polls, follow all that stuff. Our message is to take care of what we can. We know if we win the last two games, we’ll probably be No. 1. If don’t, we’re not going to be No. 1. Deep down, our kids know it. Hand knows it. Hey, New Canaan knows it. Our ultimate goal is to win the state championship and we know what comes with it this year.”
No. 1 team in the state for the first time since 1982 at St. Joe’s And a Gatorade shower.