The goal? ‘Play baseball as long as I can.’ Beaufort High standout aims for pros
Rhogue Wallace can sum up his family with one word: “Athletic.”
His father Al Wallace — though most folks just know him as Coach Wallace — was a football player at the Citadel, a P.E. teacher and coach at Battery Creek and Beaufort High, and an inductee to the S.C. Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
His brother Rome Wallace, a Beaufort High graduate, is an outfielder at Young Harris College.
His mother Teresa Baker Wallace is a dance teacher at Beaufort High, where he’ll graduate Monday night.
“Beaufort High was kind of my playground when I was younger,” he said.
His mom’s Teacher of the Year photo hangs across the wall from his dad’s Hall of Fame award in the school’s hallways. As a kid, he’d go to his mom’s National Dance Honor Society meetings and performances, and then he’d turn around and watch his dad run practices for the high schoolers.
“I was able to keep an open mind in my life, figuring out what I wanted to do with it,” Rhogue said.
He’s done a lot. When he graduates from Beaufort High on Monday, he’ll do so as a four-time football and baseball letterman; a leader in the Beaufort High School Anti-Bully Project and Be Kind Beaufort Project; a member of the school dance troupe, National Honor Society and Fellowship of Christian Athletes; and a consistent presence on the A/B honor roll.
On June 8, he was announced as a member of the South Carolina North-South All-Star Squad, adding to a list of baseball accolades that includes nods on the All-Region and All-State teams and the Player of the Year Award for the region for his prowess as a catcher and hitter. He also made the second All-Region team in football as an H-back.
There were times, Teresa Baker Wallace said, where Rhogue would finish playing a Friday night football game and the next morning be five hours away, catching at a travel baseball game. But despite his packed schedule, Rhogue would always be there for a friend to help them move or to practice.
Last summer, Rhogue got a call from Carmen Mlodzinski, a former Hilton Head Island High School standout who would soon be picked from the University of South Carolina’s pitching roster to go 31st overall in the MLB Draft.
He needed someone to catch his pitches during practice, he said. Could Rhogue help?
He ended up going out to the bullpen in Okatie “several times a day” to help Mlodzinski, Al Wallace said. The same thing happened last week with a University of Georgia pitcher, Al Wallace said.
In the fall, Rhogue is headed to Spartanburg Methodist College on a baseball athletic scholarship. The team plays year-round, meaning his practices will start as soon as he steps foot on campus. He wants to study sports medicine, with the eventual goal of becoming a physical therapist if his main aspiration doesn’t work out.
“The big picture is to be able to play baseball as long as I possibly can, being drafted after however many years of college it takes,” he said. “Because that’s my No. 1 pride and joy.”
Over the summer, he’ll help coach his old 12U team, the Beaufort Riptides. He’ll also coach 10- to 12-year-olds at the YMCA. Both jobs bring up old memories of hanging around his father and brother, he said, and he’s excited to “pass on” his baseball knowledge.
“They’ll have the chance, if they want to take it, to love the sport the way I do.”