"Quarterback coach Jim Zorn for the Seahawks told me that Seneca Wallace had difficulty focusing and visualizing things and paying attention in meetings. After his rookie year, they sent him to a learning center where he could work on his communication skills. It was a ten-week course, 4 hours a day, very intense training. He even took his playbook there so they could help him work on the language of football and ways to better visualize things. For example, he told me that one of their coverages, their cover 9 is called cloud, so he learned that he had to visualize a cloud and that would help him.
"Zorn told me that he saw his memorization just zoom. It made a very very big difference for him, and that most importantly it was a big boost for Seneca's confidence. Zorn's latest goal is to help Wallace improve his verbal skills at the line of scrimmage, so this offseason they got him a speech coach."
This program sounds very similar to the 10-week programs offered by Speech Language & Learning Services, which has treatment locations in Everett, Seattle, Redmond, Tacoma, and Olympia.
It sounds like Zorn is willing to do whatever it takes to make Seneca Wallace a better quarterback. The story is more interesting because of Seneca Wallace's past academic struggles.
According to Chris Fowler of ESPN.com, "The NCAA clearinghouse nixed a few of the credits on his high school transcript, so instead of sitting out the season in Corvallis, he opted to return to California at Sacramento City Junior College (October 3, 2001)."
According to San Francisco's Bay Crossings Magazine, he petitioned the NCAA clearinghouse to save his scholarship after taking three English classes his high school senior year (sophomore, junior, and senior English), but it was not accepted. His mother's health also contributed to his decision to move back home to attend Sacremento City College. She was initially diagnosed with cancer, but further tests showed she did not have breast cancer, but rather a form of leukemia. It was discovered in the early stages and was treatable.
According to Tom Dienhart of The Sporting News, "Most schools wanted Wallace to be a defensive back. He would have been just that at Oregon State, but an academic snafu sent him packing as a freshman to a junior college. Wallace was a receiver in his first year of junior college ball before an injury to the starting quarterback opened the door (October 7, 2002)."
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