Destined to be a head baseball coach, UCF’s Rich Wallace always knew this moment would come
Nancy Beaver wasn’t sure where baseball would take her son, but she knew he had the determination and the work ethic that would one day make his dream a reality.
So it came as no shock when a then-4year-old Rich Wallace proclaimed his ultimate goal to his mother and grandfather.
“[He was] saying, ‘I don’t know what, but I will be in baseball my entire life,” Beaver recalled. “That’s been his dream for a long time, but we just didn’t know what that dream was. Now we do.”
Four decades later, Wallace continues to live it, named UCF’s baseball coach Monday. It’s a homecoming for the former Central Floridian who grew up playing for Bishop Moore before signing to play for the Knights in 2000.
“To stand here today and come home and be the head coach at UCF, it’s truly a dream come true,” Wallace said.
As Wallace met with reporters Monday, Beaver stopped to snap a photo before recalling the hard work and sacrifices to make this moment possible.
“He was always the last kid on the baseball field,” she said. “I couldn’t tell you how many hours I would stay in the parking lot. I was the last car. I would fall asleep waiting for him because he was always the last one off the field and the first one on the field. That’s how he’s always been.
“When he was little, I’d have to go out there and catch with him or throw pitches at him. He would always say, ‘Just 10 more. Just 10 more.’”
It was that work ethic that paid off starting at Bishop Moore, where Wallace helped the Hornets to a school-record 31 victories and an appearance in the state regional finals his senior year.
From there it was off to UCF, where he played 2000-03, batting .313 with 8 home runs and 81 RBI. He led the Knights in batting average (.380) and on-base percentage (.529) his first year, earning a spot on the Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American team as an honorable mention.
Dee Brown was among a handful of former UCF players watching their former teammate Monday. The former outfielder from Brooksville was just a freshman when he arrived on campus to play for the Knights in 2002.
It didn’t take long before Wallace made an impression on him.
“When I came to college, not many teammates knew exactly what they wanted to do in life,” Brown said. “The one thing I knew is when I met Rich, this is what he wanted to do. He wanted to lead the UCF program one day.”
Brown characterized Wallace as a fundamental and hard-nosed player who took it upon himself to offer advice or help someone with instruction. But even more so, he was the perfect person to help bring a young teammate under his wing.
“I was a clueless freshman,” Brown said with a laugh. “He helped me stay out of trouble, taught me to be on time … some of the fundamental stuff. I hit .400 my first year, so it obviously worked out.”
In 61 games that season, Brown batted .397 with 3 home runs and 56 RBI with a .446 on-base percentage as the Knights would finish 41-22, capped with an Atlantic Sun Conference championship and an appearance in the NCAA Regional in Tallahassee.
That sense of willingness to help others and do whatever it takes carried Wallace into a career in coaching with stops at High Point, Creighton, Jacksonville, Notre Dame and Florida State.
Before Monday’s introductory news conference, the last time Beaver set foot in UCF’s baseball park was to see her son’s final collegiate game. She cried that day, and two decades later she found herself in a familiar position.
“All through the years, I never cried at a baseball game. You don’t cry at baseball and his last college game? I cried because I didn’t know where this was going,” Beaver said. “Then to have him here was the second time I cried at a baseball game.”