For the past four years, Jack Wallace ’25 has balanced long summer days on the field, early morning yoga sessions, winter lifting, studying film in class, sharing team dinners and Friday night games under the lights. Football has been life.
It has been a part of his life since the age of six. Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, he played flag football in preschool and elementary school. He then started playing organized tackle [football] in seventh grade.
Wallace looked up to Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, dreaming of being well-known in the sport like them. Wallace attended Dowling through sixth grade, and his inspiration was Dowling Catholic High School’s Ryan Boyle—the 2014 Gatorade Player of the Year in Iowa, which is awarded to the best student-athlete.
After seventh grade, Wallace moved to Iowa City, where he attended Regina Catholic. Two years later, he transferred to West High. Wallace quickly made a name for himself in and around the school after being assigned the starting quarterback only his freshman year.
“My goals as a freshman was to start each game that season and to try and win as many games as possible,” Wallace said.
During Wallace’s freshman season, the team had a 2-7 record and did not make the state playoffs. This season brought time for reflection and was a big learning curve for him and the team. Wallace continued to strive for greatness and put lots of time and effort into bettering himself as the face of the team.
Now entering his senior season, he is striving to be one of the best, not just here at West but in the state. Specifically, this season his goal is to be on the All-State first team. With his help, the team also made it to the playoffs this year, a goal he’s had since he began his time at West.
“Making the playoffs for the first time in my four years here [West] has been a dream come true and I believe that the team we have this year could make a run in the playoffs and have a chance to win state,” he said.
With the playoffs starting, Wallace led the team to a first-round win against Bettendorf on Nov. 1. He threw three touchdowns for 211 yards on 18 attempts, which resulted in him putting down 21 points for the Trojans.
“Winning a playoff game was an excellent feeling but I wasn’t too happy because the job isn’t finished yet and we have three more games to win to feel fully accomplished,” he said.
Wallace is also quite familiar with record-breaking. This year he has broken the single-season record for touchdown passes. After throwing 32 he broke Evan Flitz’s ’17 31 touchdown passes record. Earlier in the season he broke the single-game touchdown pass record with six against Jefferson. During this game he also passed Flitz in career touchdown passes throwing 56. Now Wallace has 67 career touchdown passes and counting.
His football journey doesn’t end after high school. After finishing his senior year, he plans to attend Minnesota State in the fall. There, he will continue his academic and athletic career by playing football and studying sports management.
“I am excited to move out of state and meet new people on and off the football field. One of my goals is to be a good teammate on and off the football field and to form good relationships with everybody I meet [at Minnesota State],” he said.
Wallace strives to be a good person to everybody, whether they are his teammates or regular students you see at the school every day. Every single day, he tries to be great in every aspect of life.
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