Brawn, brains and hard to beat

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- Steve Vallos has a hero, and his name is Jim.
They're brothers.
Growing up, the two wrestled around in their family home and Jim -- who is three years older than Steve -- would win.
Then a funny thing happened -- Steve got bigger, and Jim didn't.
"I finally started to beat him two years ago," Vallos said.
Steve started beating everyone two years ago.
All-star honors: By the second week of the 1999 football season, he was a sophomore starting on the Spartan offensive line. Since then, he's become a state qualifier in the discus, all-league as a wrestler and all-district and special mention all-state in football. He is a legitimate threat to win a state championship as a heavyweight in wrestling.
He has verbally committed to play offensive guard at Wake Forest, where he said he'll major in sports medicine.
"It's a great school," Vallos said. "I took an official visit a few weeks ago and saw a game [Wake lost to Georgia Tech 38-30]. They put my name on a jersey and took me out to eat."
Where did you eat?
"Everywhere," he said. "It seemed like we ate every chance we got."
Coach knew him: Vallos visited just two schools, Toledo and Wake Forest, but was recruited by most Mid-American Conference schools. Before coming to Wake Forest this year, head coach Jim Grobe was at Ohio University, where he and offensive line coach Jeff Mullen kept tabs on Vallos.
"They were quite high on him as a sophomore and a junior," Boardman football coach Garry Smith said. "Everything just fell together."
Smith compared Vallos to two other Boardman lineman: his brother Jim, who went to Allegheny, and D.J. Durkin, a former Spartan lineman who is now a graduate assistant at Bowling Green, where he was a four-year letterman.
Vallos (6-foot-3, 275 pounds) has a 3.2 grade point average, scored a 24 on the ACT, benches 360 and runs a 5.2 40-yard dash.
"He's a quiet leader," said Smith. "He's not a rah-rah guy. He's very self-motivated, a hard practice player. He's not real flashy and he never gives you any trouble. He's a real pleasure to coach."
Last weekend, Vallos won the Wendy's Brooke (W.Va.) Wrestling Classic, beating a two-time West Virginia state champion, Joey Caughy.
Vallos had a 31-6 record last year, losing to Adam Olds of Dublin Coffman in the state quarterfinals.
Remaining goal: "I want to win a state championship," he said. "I remember walking out onto the floor at Columbus [at state last year]. It's amazing."
Vallos played soccer and baseball before switching to football and wrestling in the seventh grade. By the time Vallos was a sophomore, Smith knew he had something special.
"He was a big kid, and he didn't act the part of being a sophomore," Smith said. "Since then, he's probably grown into more of a leadership role. I remember before one game, I was trying to think of something motivational to say and he comes up to me and says, 'Coach, we'll be ready.' "
The only time Vallos missed practice was when he got appendicitis as a junior, missing three weeks, Smith said.
Vallos said his best football memory was beating Cleveland St. Ignatius as a sophomore, and his worst was losing to Warren Harding in the playoffs this year.
Those early wrestling matches with his brother also stick out, but they couldn't steer him away from his favorite sport -- football.
"I just like going out and hitting people," he said.
scalzo@vindy.com