- November 4, 2024
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At the conclusion of his sophomore season, Dillan Walls won Most Versatile Offensive Lineman for the Bulldogs. There wasn’t, really, any competition. He had been trained to move around his entire childhood.
A domestic family situation caused Walls and his family to go from city to city, and, due to their constant moving, he rarely got the chance to make any friends throughout elementary school.
“I never had anything real,” Walls said. “I had no place to call home, no friends, and it was no fun. I hated school because I never knew anyone, and I never knew where I was going to end up next.”
In his later elementary years, Walls met Rubin, a next-door neighbor. Rubin would take Walls to play sports in the neighborhood parks, but, right when it seemed like he had finally found a friend, Walls had to move again.
“We lived in an apartment building, and the lady on the bottom fell asleep with a cigarette in her hand and burned down our place,” he said. “That was probably the hardest time I ever had, moving, because Rubin was the only friend I ever had.”
To cope with loneliness and the never-ending migration cycle, Walls joined football teams wherever he went.
“It has always just been football for me,” Walls said. “Football was my outlet for everything.”
Walls went to six different elementary schools, and he never lived anywhere for more than a year, until his family moved to Palm Coast at the beginning of his sixth-grade year. In middle school, he met Flagler Palm Coast’s quarterback Dalton Thomas, with whom he’s become best friends, and he’s been protecting him on the offensive line ever since.
“Coming to and staying in Palm Coast has meant a lot to me because I finally have stability and lifetime friends,” Walls said. “I have a brotherhood and football family now, and I finally have a home. They are there for me on and off the field. If I’m going through family problems at home, or if school is getting to me, my teammates are always there to crack jokes or pick me up.”
Walls has not only found many friends, but he’s also found a love for school. An A-B student, headed to the 12th grade, Walls expects to move away once more, but this time on purpose, to play football and to further his education at a college next year.
