MARYSVILLE — Noah Wallace has run his dream race and the communities he represents made sure he got there.
The seventh grader at Northlake Middle School in Lake Stevens lives three houses from the Marysville School District border. He’s the vice president of Northlake’s Associated Student Body. He plays Amateur Athletic Union basketball, and baseball for the Marysville Baseball Association’s Hawks.
He was torn when Marysville-Pilchuck High School football played Lake Stevens on Oct. 14, so he decided to wear red shorts and socks for the Tomahawks with a Lake Stevens shirt to satisfy both allegiances.
Kyle Swenson, Hawks trainer and owner of Kung Fu 4 Kids on Cedar Avenue in Marysville, admires Noah’s desire for bigger challenges, more tests and more drills during practice.
“It’s about passionate, fun competitiveness,” Wallace said. “I get to meet new people from sports in Marysville and from school in Lake Stevens.”
Baseball has always been Noah’s sport, but he recently acquired a taste for good, hard, competitive running after Snohomish Track Club Coach Traci Bianchini urged Northlake Running Club Coach David Rothgeb to invite Noah to run with the team.
Rothgeb, who has known Wallace since he started at Northlake, said that he’s the fastest kid in P.E. and always chases records. It didn’t take long for Wallace to earn the nickname, “Pre.”
“Noah is all about attitude and work ethic,” Marysville Hawks President Jeff Barker said. “He could have the worst day in the world and you’d never know it.”
Noah and his father, Dave, took a trip to Pasco for the 2011 Washington State Cross Country championships on Nov. 5. Seeing the joy of the winners and the agony of those who came up short strengthened Noah’s urge to be a state champion.
Noah won the USA Track & Field National Junior Olympic Cross Country Pacific Northwest Championship at Seattle’s Lower Woodland Park on Nov. 12.
Then he won at Regionals, a competition featuring runners from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.
A week later he set a personal best and a course record time to qualify for the national championships in Myrtle Beach, N.C., on Dec. 12, where the top 200 seventh graders compete and 3,000 kids compete overall to determine the best in the country. Christopher Bianchini, Traci’s son and Noah’s teammate, will join Noah in Myrtle Beach after placing 14th at Regionals.
“It’s as big as you can get in youth sports,” Dave Wallace said. “It’s an 11-minute race, but the memories last a lifetime.”
The likelihood of being able to send Noah to Myrtle Beach, though, became slim when Noah’s father lost his job and money became tight.
Rothgeb suggested fundraising to help Noah go and recruited Northlake staff members like sixth grade math teacher Moses Clough to help as well.
“Noah’s so non-stop, so consistent,” Clough said. “He’s very entertaining. If he’s in front of a room, all eyes are on him.”
Jason Hauck, Marysville Baseball’s vice president, was instrumental in calling the community together to make Noah’s dream happen.
“It couldn’t happen to a better kid,” Jason said.
Hauck’s wife, Beth, of Tulalip’s Salon de Porres, who has known Noah through several baseball seasons with her son and whom Noah texts the results of each of his races, hosted a fundraising service from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Dec. 4, from which she will donate all of the proceeds and donations from new clients to Noah’s cause.
“There’s no one I’d rather do this for,” Beth said.
Kyle Swenson, owner of Marysville’s Kung Fu 4 Kids and a Marysville Baseball trainer, needed no time to decide whether or not to help Noah’s cause.
“So many people know him so well that they started making contributions without being asked,” Clough said. “The fruit hasn’t fallen far from the tree. You can see Noah’s personality comes from his father.”
Marysville Baseball teams made three separate donations of $50 each from their team funds after Noah approached Barker on a personal level. The organization matched the sum to reach $300 and gave Noah a scholarship to cover the cost of playing for the team.
“We need 2,000 to go to state and we’re well on the way,” Dave Wallace said, reveling in the love he feels from the Marysville and Lake Stevens supporters. “We need at least $1,300 for airfare and hotels. I’m very confident we’ll make it and we’re blessed with how quickly this is happening.”
The combined community efforts came to fruition as Dave announced on Nov. 11 that the fundraisers had raised enough money for airfare, hotels and meals to allow Noah to achieve his lofty goal.
Rothgeb had every confidence that Noah would return from Myrtle Beach with “tremendous results.”
“It’s just amazing how many people cared about it,” Noah said. “Sometimes we just had to ask. It’s great how many people just care, and it’s amazing that people do this stuff, especially this close to Christmas.”
Noah finished fourth in the nation at Myrtle Beach on Dec. 12 with a time of 10:05, breaking his 10:49 personal best from Regionals.
