This track thing came kinda easy for Penn Wood senior Brittany Wallace. After all, she won a state title in 10th grade. But a new coach, an injury, and the discovery that she really didn't know what a difficult workout was like, have changed everthing for the better. Faster, too...
Penn Wood coach Lenny Jordan knows talent when he sees it. After all, while at West Catholic, he coached the likes of Nicole Leach and Latavia Thomas. So when he took over the Landsdowne school's cross country and track & field programs in the fall of 2007, he saw a lot of talented athletes. But, in his mind, one stood out.
Brittany Wallace.
Wallace didn't run cross country for Jordan that fall. But when she joined practice in December for the start of the indoor season, he immediately thought that the 400 meter dash and Brittany would be a perfect match.
Brittany didn't see it that way. She was a 200-meter sprinter, and although she had dipped under 58 seconds as a sophomore in the 400, she saw herself as a half-lapper indoors. (As a tenth grader, she had even won the state title indoors in what remains her PR of 24.80, taking the title from the 3rd from last heat... a difficult feat. Her 57.42 400m took 4th indoors that same meet.)
There was only one thing holding Brittany back a bit. It wasn't a lack of drive or self discipline, because Wallace has those is abundance. After all, she is a National Honor Society student ranked 9th in her class.
She simply didn't put in the training necessary to get to the next level.
"I was kind of babied," Wallace admits shyly. "But he (Coach Jordan) took that out of me quick."
Jordan agrees with his star about the 'babied' part.
When Jordan arrived at Penn Wood, he faced a team that was not exactly expecting his level of workouts. "They didn't buy into it at first," Jordan shares. "It's not that they were rebelling, but they just weren't expecting it."
The workouts were tough. And it's probably one reason Wallace hit a snag that would slow her progress toward becoming an elite 400 meter runner. It is the kind of thing that others may have used as an excuse to quit. But quitting never entered her mind.
A lot of the drive and motivation that kept her going after an unexpected injury comes from her parents. Brittany credits her mother, Lucille, for putting academics before track. As Brittany quotes her mom... "They don't have degrees in track."
The natural talent, Brittany says, is all in the family. Her uncle - like her parents - is Jamaican. Anthony Wallace ran for the the Jamacian national team in 1992 in Barcelona on the 4x400. Her dad - Nyron - was also an elite track athlete, competing in the 100, 200, high jump and long jump for Jamaica.
When Brittany was just four or five years old, she would follow her dad to the track on her bike to watch his workouts. Her dad eventually became her coach, and after a few years of some church 'Olympic' meets, followed by middle school track, Brittany was hooked on the sport.
The snag Wallace hit as she ended her junior indoor campaign - her first with Jordan as coach - was a stress fracture in her shin. "I kept running when I had symptoms," she says.
The pain became too much after that year's DVGTCA Indoor Meet of Champions.
It was boot on and physical therapy. It essentially ended her chances of improving on her two semi-final advances in the 100 and 200 as a freshman, and again in the 200 as a sophomore at the PIAA Outdoor State Championships. "I haven't had good outdoors," Wallace says.
Brittany entered her senior year with a 'this has to be the year' attitude. And Jordan says he noticed the difference during cross country. At the start of the season, Wallace and fellow seniors Tavia Campbell and Princess Chase had been at the back of the pack. By the end of the season, they were able to finish an entire race - running the whole way.
Jordan says that is what started both Wallace and the rest of their talented 4x400 meter relay on a mission. Wallace... chasing another individual state championship - this time in the 400. And the 4x400 chasing their first title.
As any coach knows, workouts don't lie. As a junior, Wallace had been near the back of the team in their signature workout and drills.
- Run 600m, jog 200, sprint 200, jog 200, sprint 200, jog 200, sprint 200 - three sets
- Bounds, push-ups, sit-ups, high knees, lunges, hurdles, duck walk, steps - three sets
"Last year, I couldn't do more than three 300's. Now I can do ten, and I'm not even tired," Wallace states proudly.
But it wasn't just the workouts in which Jordan was looking for improvement. He wanted the whole package - including preparation.
Jordan says Brittany's breakthrough race came on February 9th at the Varsity Classic at the New York Armory where she ran 56.4. She won the race easily. And the time was a big PR, indoor and out.
But it wasn't the time that most impressed Jordan about the day. "That was the week she did warm-up and warm-down just the way she's supposed to."
It was just the beginning of more breakthroughs.
Wallace took the track in the 400 at PTFCA Indoor States, and had the look that told everyone she would not be denied. She led from the start, and held off a charging Ayanna Fields of Notre Dame to win in 56.02, an indoor PR. Her 25.14 200m that day was good for 4th. But it is the closing event - the 4x400 - that Wallace and her teammates think about and talk about the most. They took 2nd by less than a second to Abington, 3:53.33 to 3:53.87.
Three weeks later at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships at the New York Armory, Wallace ran a 56.13 prelim, and - still suffering the effects of a cold - came back the next day to take 4th in a big PR of 55.81.
Just two weeks later, in the cold wind at the PTFCA Track Classic at Great Valley, she ran a 25.00 200... what was then PA#1 (now #2). The mark was an outdoor PR and her 2nd fastest ever. But it was her solo 56.47 meet record win in the 400 that showed she is well on the way to her ultimate goal (which shall have to remain with she and her coach. But we'll let you know when she gets there.)
The Track Classic performance was gratifying for Wallace, especially coming off the previous day's school-wide celebration of her college selection. (Well, the school was also celebrating the AAAA Boys' Basketball State title - but they did do a presentation in the auditorium and throw a luncheon for Brittany.)
While Wallace looked at South Florida, George Mason, and Pitt, along with other DI schools - it all eventually came down to staying in the Penn Wood family. Her choice of the University of Houston will unite her with Cougar's head coach, two-time 100 Meter Olympic Gold Medalist, and 1985 Penn Wood grad Leroy Burrell. "He's shown interest in me since the 10th grade. And I just loved the school."
Wallace says she is excited about the Houston program, where she is looking to begin lifting for the first time. She'll major in Biology with her sights set on earning her medical degree.
But first, there's a final outdoor season to finish - and finish strong.
"After indoor, I'm starting to think big for the PIAA state meet. I want to be individual champion in the 400, and Tavia (Campbell), Princess (Chase), and Felicia (Curtis) want our 4x400 to be champions as well. Especially because we came in 2nd indoor."
Wallace knows that she is better prepared than ever before to accomplish both goals. She came out as a sophomore and won a state title. But after a lost junior outdoor campaign because of the stress fracture, she is taking nothing for granted.
For one thing, she now believes she knows how to run the 400 - "...her favorite event."
"You really have to push the last 100. You know you've run a good race when you have nothing left. That's exactly how I felt at National Scholastic."
She also knows she is handling the tough workouts with ease. "These things don't hurt any more," Wallace said.
"We'll see about that," promises her coach. "She can go a lot faster."