​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 squad. “I’m offense on the football field,” Wallace explained, “but when it comes to basketball, I believe it begins and ends with who’s playing defense, who’s chasing down 50-50 balls, and who’s winning the rebound battle.” That was Wallace’s mindset during the 1993-94 season, and it continues to shape his approach 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. “We want to push the pace, score on the break, and if we can’t, we’ll fall back into our base sets. But that defense-first precedent is the standard we’re setting for our student-athletes right now.” Springfield announced Wallace’s hiring on June 1, appointing him to replace Matt Yinger, who stepped down in April after three seasons with a 28-48 record. Wallace will also serve as the offensive coordinator for Springfield’s football program, and he noted that the basketball team will practice in the evenings after football when the seasons overlap.
The basketball squad, which features a number of football players, is scheduled to play its first game in mid-December—a rhythm that has long defined Springfield, whose football team routinely makes deep playoff runs. “If I have to double up, that means we’re doing what we’re supposed to do on the football field,” Wallace stated. Springfield has endured seven consecutive losing seasons on the hardwood, a streak that mirrors the tough times the football program faced before Maurice Douglass took over in 2014. Douglass transformed the football program into a winner, eventually reaching the state championship game three years in a row and becoming a state power by his sixth season.
Wallace hopes to replicate that trajectory for basketball. “Those are the same kids who achieved what they did on the football field,” he said. “So the expectation doesn’t change. Once you set a standard, that becomes the goal, and I’m confident our players will affirm that. That’s where we see ourselves.” For him, the road to that level of success begins with cultivating the right culture within the basketball program. “One thing I’ve stressed to my assistant coaches,” he explained, “is that right now there isn’t a true basketball culture. That’s where this has to start. We built a culture in football—a sense of belonging. We held each other accountable, from the trainers to the players. That’s what we’re aiming to do with basketball as well. I believe it can happen, but it requires the players to buy in and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do, and this is how we’re going to do it.’”