When Shane Wallen got word of his mother’s terminal cancer in 2011, his world stopped. Hours of offseason workouts going into his freshman year were nullified. Dreams of starting on Butte Junior College’s football team dissolved.

His immediate future was unclear, but he knew football wasn’t in it.

“Overall, it was a difficult decision,” Wallen said. “But what made it easier was knowing that I was going to spend my mom’s last few months with her by her bed side and making memories that can never be taken away.”

Wallen picked up two jobs — working as a restaurant waiter and personal trainer — to support himself and ensure he was available to take care of his mother, Vickie Wallen, for the 11 months she lived after diagnosis. He never played a down for Butte football, but kept the sport in his life by assisting the strength and conditioning coaches.

Combining his passion for fitness with the memory of his late mother, Wallen parlayed his two years as an assistant to Butte’s strength and conditioning coaches into a transfer to Oregon State to intern with its football team. After assisting the team in workouts last season, the senior’s now listed on the Beaver’s roster as a running back — achieving both his and his mom’s dream.

“When things get hard and I’m having a tough day, it makes it a lot easier to look up and know that she’s watching,” Wallen said. “It keeps me going and brought me to where I am now.”

Without any offers out of high school, Wallen enrolled in junior college powerhouse Butte with the hopes of playing football and gaining strength and conditioning experience. His mother’s illness temporarily derailed his plans, and a bulk of caretaking fell on him as his twin brother was enlisted in the Marines and his stepdad worked.

Wallen needed to be on call to run errands like going to the grocery store or taking his mom to appointments. He juggled caring for his mother with classes at Butte and working two jobs —still finding the time to volunteer in the weight room for the football team.

Nearly a year after receiving her terminal diagnosis, Vickie Wallen passed away in August 2012.

“It was pretty hard for him,” said his brother, Mitch Wallen. “She’d always been his biggest fan and one of biggest reasons he loved sports and was going to college.”

Wallen continued to work two jobs and advance his work with Butte’s strength and conditioning program. He needed to support himself and with his second and final year in junior college approaching, he wanted to transfer to a bigger school.

Marcus Dorin, now the head strength and conditioning coach at Butte, saw Wallen’s passion and drive for the coaching field. Through all the adversity, Dorin said, Wallen had the two attributes of a great strength coach — passion and presence — and wanted to help his assistant out.

Dorin referred Wallen to a contact in Oregon State’s athletic department and Wallen drove over eight hours from his hometown of Chico, California to drop off his resume on campus. With Dorin opening the door, Wallen received the opportunity he coveted — acceptance to OSU in the 2014 school year paired with an internship in the athletic department’s strength and conditioning program.

After a season of working primarily with the football players, coaches were impressed enough by Wallen’s fitness and work ethic to offer him a tryout to walk-on. Four years removed from the last down he played, Wallen excelled in the tryout and joined the Beavers officially as a player in March.

“When he’d run sprints with the guys, he was beating these scholarship players every day,” Dorin said. “In the weight room, he was out-lifting these guys that are supposedly going to the league every day. Hell, why not give that guy shot to walk-on?”

While he hasn’t seen the field this season, Wallen making the Beaver’s roster has big implications for his future. Having “walked the walk” and participated in the highest level of college football, Doris said Wallen’s legitimacy is bolstered as an aspiring strength and conditioning coach.

But for this season, the senior running back’s thrilled to play the sport he loves in honor of his late mother.

“There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about her and the time we spent together,” Wallen said. “Every time I step on this field, it’s just as much for me as it is for her.”

Published on October 22, 2015 at 9:07 pm

Contact Liam: lpsull01@syr.edu