When he goes most places, Sharif Wallace is tallest guy around.
Wallace is a senior at Northeast High School, and he stands 6 feet 3. When he goes to the store or even walking around his high school, there aren’t a lot of people who can look him in the eye. He towers over most people.
That is except when he’s on the basketball court.
Wallace is a center and a power forward on the Vikings basketball team, and when he’s on the court, he’s rarely the tallest guy out there.
For the Vikings he is, but typically opponents run out a center who is at least as tall as Wallace, and most times a little taller.
That just means he has to work a little bit harder.
“Yeah, that was the biggest thing to get used to, for the most part they’re my height, but when we play the better teams, everyone is taller than me,” Wallace said. “My coaches always tell me when you’re guarding someone, play physical. Nobody wants to get hit. When you wear them down, they lose their legs as you box them out. Get low, work hard and wear them out. That’s been how I’ve been trying to play.
“My coaches really helped me with that. Both the head coach and our assistants. They tell me, ‘You’re strong. You can box them out. You can feel your strength.’ That really gave me more confidence and help me do what we need. It definitely helped my confidence.”
That confidence went a long way this year to not only help Wallace become the player he hoped for, but to help the Vikings rise to the top of the Public League.
The Vikings went 8-3 in Public League play, and went on to win a game in the playoffs.
The season came to an end after Northeast fell to Audenried 56-50 in the second round of the Public League playoffs.
It capped off a fantastic career that started four years ago.
“So I started freshman year on varsity, it was a slower start,” said Wallace, who lives in Olney.. “We were all new, COVID was over, the lockdown was over, and we grew together.
“It felt like a big family, all brothers. Last year we went 19-6, we did good. This year, we lost some stars, but we’re the same team. It’s always the same people. We are really close, we’ve been with each other inside school, outside school.”
While he was always one of the taller kids in his class, basketball wasn’t something that Wallace picked up young.
In fact, while most kids starring on the hardwood this winter have been playing basketball their entire lives, or at least since they were in early grade school, Wallace got a late start – not in sports, but in hoops.
“Growing up, when I was younger, I was way more of a baseball player,” Wallace said. “Growing up, I had neighbors that played (baseball) and they randomly asked me if I wanted to play, and I did. I liked baseball a lot. I didn’t really stop playing until I was in about seventh grade. That’s when I started playing basketball.”
Since falling in love with the sport, Wallace has put a lot of time in perfecting his game. And while he loves playing basketball anywhere, he admits that it meant a lot more because he was doing it for Northeast, for those coaches and teammates.
“No matter what we do, we’re close,” Wallace said. “Summer leagues, fall leagues, spring league. We’ll play and work on getting better, but then we’ll go get food or do anything before we go home. We never do the bare minimum. Some of our teammates go to each other’s houses. We are all so connected.
“I’d say since last year, we grew more. We all knew each other and we all got along, but there were groups. Now it’s the whole team and we continue to be best friends. You can see the bond, it’s one bond. It’s 15 best friends.”
Wallace will certainly miss those guys, but he has high hopes beyond high school.
He’s bound for Cheyney University, and while he’s going there based off academics, he hopes to continue his basketball career. But it was his stats in the classroom – he has a 3.6 grade point average and is ranked in the top 10 percent of his senior class – that got him there.
“For the most part, it came easy to me, but I have to put in work,” said Wallace, who takes advanced-placement classes and is in the Magnet Program. “School came easy to me since I was younger. It used to be math, I’d still say that. My coach teaches finance class, and I love that.”
He’s learned a lot from Northeast coach Steve Novosel both on and off the court. And he hopes to carry that into college.
“I want to major in business finance and administration, I’ve learned so much from him,” he said of his coach. “He’s a great teacher, nobody is going to not do their work. No favoritism, he teaches us all the same. His classroom feels like a big community.
“I want to be able to run my own business and work in a business. I want to work in a major company. I’m good at numbers and I like money. I want to know where my money is going. I want to know the whole system.”
Wallace credits his coach with a lot. He also credits his family, especially his dad.
“My dad is a big role model, been there my whole life, and he really helped me shape who I am today,” Wallace said. “He coached me when I was in eighth grade on a summer league team. We went far, we lost one game in the playoffs, but we went undefeated. I didn’t like him as a coach at first, but it’s different. He was great. At the end of the day, he’s my dad, so sometimes I didn’t see him.
“My mom is there, too. She cares. When I get home, she’ll ask about the game. She tries her hardest and is always there in my corner. I love my family, I’ll say that.”
