Photo by Josh Strope Linsly boys’ basketball coach James Wallace has stepped down after nine seasons at the helm.

WHEELING — James Wallace loves coaching basketball.

He simply loves helping Linsly grow and prosper as an institution of learning even more.

That passion outweighed basketball and led to him tendering his resignation as the Cadets’ boys basketball coach after nine seasons at the helm. Wallace will remain at Linsly and work with the administration team in an increased role.

“We tell our guys all the time that we want to leave the program better than how we found it and that was my goal every day, too,” Wallace said. “We worked with our kids to help them chase their dreams and goals.”

Wallace, who graduated from Linsly and Bethany College, said the 2019-20 season will be the first since he was in kindergarten when he’s not involved with a basketball team of some sort.

“As a competitor, it’s tough to step away,” Wallace said. “That team building and bonding is something I’ll definitely miss, but mostly it’s because of the relationships you’ve formed along the way.”

Wallace made sure to point that his decision to step down was strictly about his new opportunity at Linsly and had nothing to do with his health that became an issue a couple of seasons ago.

“I’ve been blessed, during my time at Linsly, to work with a lot of great people,” Wallace said. “From administration, to Coach (Mark) Dodd, who mentored me early in my career when I took over along with Dave Koehler and Mike Thomas, who were instrumental to me when I was really having some (health) problems. They manned the fort when I wasn’t 100 percent and I am grateful for that.”

Linsly Headmaster Justin Zimmerman issued a statement, applauding the work that Wallace has done with the Cadets’ basketball program and for what the future holds.

“James is a very talented leader and has grown into a new administrative position that will require more time and focus,” Zimmerman said. “James has done an outstanding job as our head basketball coach and in no way was this decision related what he did on the court.”

Wallace doesn’t know his overall record. He doesn’t care, actually. But he does know certain stats like the back of his hand.

The number that sticks out to him is 63 percent. That’s the portion of Cadet basketball players who went on to compete in a collegiate sport.

“I didn’t get into (coaching) for the records or even the OVAC titles or anything,” Wallace said. “To have more than half of the kids who walked across the floor on senior night go off to play a collegiate sport and chase their goal means more to me than any victory or championship. Just knowing that I may have played some kind of small role in that means the world to me.”

Wallace did guide the Cadets to an OVAC title in 2012 with a team that featured Akil Blount and Anthony Wallace just to name a few. Both fit into the 63 percent, too.

“The number of seniors we had who went through our program and went on to play college athletics is something that I am most proud of,” Wallace said. “We always made it about life and developing life skills and leadership skills. We hope they were able to learn some traits, skills and toughness that they could utilize to be successful in not only other sports, but life in general.”

According to Zimmerman, Wallace’s new role will be working to “oversee a leadership development program that will become a signature component of a Linsly student’s academic experience.”

“We’re known, primarily, as an elite academic institution and we’re always working to improve or re-inforce that,” Wallace said. “There are some exciting things we’re looking to do to continue to hold that reign as one of the elite academic institutions in this part of the world.”

James is married to the former Katie Hobbs, who also works at Linsly and is the Cadets’ girls track coach