LITTLE HOCKING — Two days after his son’s death, Randy Wallace wears the camouflage pants he wanted to give to his son Scott.
“I wouldn’t wear these,” Randy Wallace said. “But I knew Scott wanted them, so I bought them and wore them one morning just to see his reaction.” Randy and Scott always joked around. It was a father-and- son challenge to see who could out-do the other.
“I was going to give him these the next day,” Randy Wallace said, tugging at the pant legs and holding back tears. “Scott never asked us to give him anything.”
Scott Wallace, a 16-year-old from Little Hocking, died Monday after collapsing at a voluntary wrestling conditioning session.
Pending results from an autopsy, the cause of the Warren High School junior’s death is unknown. His father suspects Scott might have suffered a heart attack.
On Wednesday, his family, friends and mentors wanted to share Scott’s stories to define and remember who Scott was. A candlelight vigil for Scott was conducted Wednesday night at Leavitt Funeral Home in Belpre. The funeral is at 1 p.m. today.
“He never thought of himself and he was happy with what he had,” Randy said. When everyone else was back-to-school shopping for the latest fashions, Scott would reply: “I think I can make it with what I got.”
“Don’t you need at least a jacket?” his parents asked.
“Nah, I’ll just wear three shirts,” Scott said with a smile.
That smile was a constant in Scott’s life.
“He literally always had a smile on his face,” said longtime friend, neighbor and classmate Justin Hamilton. “It’s like his face was shaped that way ... you couldn’t put him down.”
“In a crowd of people I looked for his smile to find him,” Randy said. “He took all the hate away from people.”
The smile that would brighten anyone’s day was Scott’s way of making others happy, his father said.
“He’d give everything he could to people ... never thinking of himself,” Randy said.
Scott’s unselfishness also extended to his love for sports.
“It’s a tribute to the person he was and to what his family is, that he put the team first,” Warren High School wrestling coach Martin Santini said. Coaching Scott was a legacy for Santini; he had coached Randy years before.
Scott wasn’t the best athlete, but he was the best team member, Santini said. A year ago, the coaches told Scott that it might be better for the team that he drop out for the upcoming sectionals. But instead of quitting or complaining, Scott worked harder.
“He placed sixth and helped us be runner-up in the sectionals,” Santini said. “We will always find another person to wrestle 215 (pounds), but we will never find another person to keep the team loose, always smiling and dedicated to his friends as Scott was.”
Scott’s hard work attitude is already spreading.
“There’s a new drive for all of us now,” Warren High School senior wrestler Shannon Glancy said. “We all want to go to state (tournament), but now we want to work hard for him.”
Back at home, Randy walks toward the barn he and his son were building for the horses on the farm.
“This was our nightly thing,” Randy said. The father and son would race to the door to win the better pair of flip-flops for the walk to the barn. Inside, they would talk about life and constantly play practical jokes on one another.
Even with his chores around the barn, Scott always thought of others rather than boasting about his hard work, Randy said. After spending a lot of time clearing some junk in the family’s horse field, Scott turned to his grandmother’s house on the opposing hill and told his father: “This will make Grandma happy. She won’t have to look at it anymore.”
“It was always ‘this will make Mamma happy, this will make Dad happy,’ never for himself,” Randy said.
“Scott gave so much of his heart that he probably didn’t have any more left for himself.”