Playing Without the Ball

Rich Wallace was born on January 29, 1957 in Hackensack, New Jersey. He began writing as a first grader but academics were not his strong suit and he did not read much beyond what was required for his classes. As a teen-ager he was mostly interested on sports, especially track and cross country. In high school He started writing often and working on his school newspaper. He continued his writing as he attended Montclair State College. He took creative writing classes, including one that required him to write a novel, one chapter a week. He also interned at the Passaic Herald-News where he was later offered a paid reporting job. After graduating Montclair State in 1980 with a bachelor of arts degree, Rich Wallace went to work for several N.J. newspapers as a sports reporter and news editor and continually reworking that first novel he started in creative writing class. In 1988 he started working for Highlights for Children as a copy editor. He has since become senior editor at the magazine and publishing well written stories has become his passion. Then in 1996 after several rewrites his first novel Wrestling Sturbridge was published. He continued writing with novels such as Shots on Goal, Riding Time and Playing Without the Ball - all with sports related themes. He also penned a series called Winning Season with titles such as The Roar of the Crowd, Technical Foul, Fast Company and Double Fake. Wallace has said he has one goal for his writing - to offer an honest representation of how adolescent boys struggle to find their identity.

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