Former Everett High All-Scholastic player Walter Fallas capped off a superb career at Trinity College by being named to the All-New England College Division Team.
Fallas, a 2007 EHS graduate who helped the Crimson Tide win a Super Bowl title in his senior year, accepted the All-New England award at the New England Football Writers Awards Banquet Thursday night at Montvale Plaza in Stoneham.
Fallas, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker will leave the Trinity program as one of the best defensive players in school history. He was named the New England Small College Athletic Conference [NESCAC] Defensive Player of the Year the past two seasons. A team captain, Fallas recorded more than 250 tackles in his career.
The winning that he enjoyed at Everett High continued in college as the Bantams were 28-4 in Fallas’ four seasons in the program. This year’s team was 7-1. Fallas missed the Bantams’ only loss of the season to Amherst, sitting out the game with a concussion.
Fallas, who carries a 3.2 grade point average and will graduate with a degree in Economics in May, said he was proud to be named to the All-New England Team.
“It’s a true honor,” said Fallas. “I’m happy with my career. It was difficult to balance football and academics but the coaches here helped me out a lot and I owe a lot to them.”
Fallas said he spoke with former EHS and Trinity star Gennaro Leo before he matriculated at the college.
“I talked to Gennaro and he definitely influenced me to come here just because of the success that he is enjoying in his business career – he has a really good job,” said Fallas. “To have that type of opportunity was really enticing.”
Fallas credited Everett head coach John DiBiaso for preparing him well for college football and the academic expectations at Trinity, one of the elite universities in the country. Like the Ivy League, the NESCAC does not permit its teams to compete in the NCAA playoffs.
“Coach DiBiaso taught me that the work never stops and the preparation never ends,” said Fallas. “Whether it’s the off season or it’s two days before the game, you have to prepare yourself the same way. My career at Everett High was definitely one of the best things that ever happened to me. Both my careers at Everett and Trinity – I would not trade them for being anywhere else.”
Fallas said he has followed Everett High’s continuing success in football through the newspapers and on cable television. He remembers a young Jonathan DiBiaso always being around the team when he played for the Crimson Tide.
“He was a little pain back then, but now he’s The Man,” Fallas said in jest. “I knew he’d be this great because he was slinging the ball around when he was six just as well as anybody. He’s always loved football and it seems like he does now so I respect everything he’s doing.”
And you can bet that Jonathan DiBiaso appreciates what Walter Fallas meant to him back then and the great things that he has since accomplished in his collegiate football career.