When it comes to basketball, Michael Wallace knows how to win--both as a player at North Side in the 1970s and as an assistant coach in the SAC for the better part of the last 2 decades.
His alma mater looks to seize on that success by naming Wallace the Lady Legends’ new head basketball coach.
“We can’t wait to get started,” Wallace tells ParkviewSportsMedicine.com. “The first thing we’re going to bring is a work ethic. I mean, a hard work ethic. Because, if you’re going to work hard, then you will improve.”
Wallace’s hiring was approved at the Aug. 12 school board meeting. Since then, he has started a complete rebuild of a team that has won just 11 games and averaged less than 37 points per game over the last 2 seasons.
“Our sole focus right now is to get better as a program,” he adds. His style of play includes fundamentals, transition offense and solid defense.
Wallace has spent the last 20 years as an assistant coach under Mark Redding. Wallace spent the last 4 years at Carroll, winning three-straight 4A sectional titles The pair was together at Elmhurst when, in 2009, the Lady Trojans won the 3A state championship. Wallace went with Redding to Wayne after Elmhurst closed in 2010. Wallace has also coached AAU basketball.
Wallace played high school basketball under hall-of-fame coach By Hey. North Side won 3 sectionals and 2 regional titles between 1973 and Wallace’s 1976 senior year. His daughter, Aarika Dillard, played 4 years of varsity at North Side in the late 1990s. He currently works in student services at Memorial Park Middle School, where he is an assistant coach for the boys soccer team.
North Side girls basketball will hold team tryouts on October 21 and 22, Wallace says.
North Side is one of 26 local high schools that partners with Parkview Sports Medicine for athletic training, nutrition, athletic rehabilitation, sports performance training and other orthopedic services. Learn more at ParkviewSportsMedicine.com.