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Iowa City West’s Jack Wallace has had record-breaking high school football career after inauspicious start
Senior quarterback broke Iowa City West’s career passing yardage record last week
Sep. 26, 2024 3:20 pm, Updated: Sep. 26, 2024 3:38 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Sometimes the first pass attempt of your career is a harbinger of things to come. Sometimes it’s not.
The latter category fits Jack Wallace.
The Iowa City West senior quarterback has been a prolific four-year starter. He set the school’s all-time career passing yardage record last week in a bonkers game against rival Iowa City High, surpassing 2021 Gazette Male Athlete of the Year and current Cleveland Guardians pitching prospect Marcus Morgan.
It has been a great career, by any measure. Even though it began with a throw against Cedar Rapids Kennedy three seasons ago that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
Oops.
“It was insane, being honest with you. It was a different experience,” Wallace said about starting on varsity as a freshman. “But I feel like I learned a lot of lessons, went through a lot of hardships then, where now everything comes more easily to me. I definitely feel like it’s an advantage with all the games that I’ve played and the situations that I’ve been in. It was a blessing, it was insane, but I’d go back and do it again.”
“That was the very first pass he ever threw,” said West Coach Garrett Hartwig. “But he bounced back from that, and his resiliency in that moment as a freshman has carried over all the way through his senior year. He’s a tough and great kid.”
A tough and great kid who is in the midst of his best season yet. Wallace has completed 70 of 95 passes in West’s first four games for 1,015 yards and 12 touchdowns (to three interceptions).
His yardage total leads Class 5A, his TD total second.
“I feel like I’ve played the best ball I ever have in high school,” Wallace said. “My first four games, I’ve felt the most confident, I’ve felt like I’ve played the best. But that’s also a tribute to the great receivers and line we have that I do feel the most confident and that I do think I’ve played the best so far.”
West (2-2) goes into its Friday night game at Ankeny averaging 43 points per game. Wallace is one of three quarterbacks in the city putting up immense numbers.
Iowa City Liberty’s Reece Rettig is second in 5A with 950 passing yards. Iowa City High’s Bobby Bacon is fifth with 892. Wallace actually was in the Iowa City Regina school system until deciding in eighth grade that he was going to attend West for high school.
He felt it presented him the best opportunity, and he doesn’t regret it. That’s even though his younger brother, Tate, plays for Regina as a sophomore linebacker.
“Me and Tate, I would have loved to have played with him,” Jack said. “I tried to get him to come to West last year, but he wanted to stay with his friends at Regina. We talk all the time, I see him every night at dinner, we go over different things that happened that day. We both have each other’s Hudl, so we can watch each other’s games. That’s the first thing I look forward to doing on Saturday.”
Their parents, Ed and Jen, switch off watching their sons’ games in person, live streaming the game they aren’t at. Every two weeks, they change.
It’ll be easier next year when Jack goes off to college. He has committed to Division II Minnesota State in Mankato.
First he’ll add to his record. He has 5,405 career passing yards and 47 career touchdown passes.
“It definitely means a lot to pass guys like Marcus Morgan, Evan Flitz, Paul Burmeister,” Wallace said. “Those guys are kind of like legends at West High. So it feels good to have my name with them. And now to pass them is a great feeling.”
“I think the most underrated thing about Jack is his toughness mentally and physically,” Hartwig said. “I think that is something that is incredibly underrated. He has, knock on wood, never missed a practice, never missed a game now in his fourth year here as a varsity starter. The only weight sessions he has missed were due to college visits or taking the SAT ... I can’t provide enough superlatives to talk about him, to be honest with you. Just a great kid.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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