There have been three different wrestling coaches in the past three years. The head wrestling coach last year, Jace Mortimer, moved back to his home state, Illinois. When the opportunity opened up, new head wrestling coach Darren Allen took over.
“I was friends with the previous coach and we had a really good relationship and I was really surprised when I heard from him,” Allen said. “I talked to him [at] one of the tournaments and he said, ‘man, this is such a great job, I don’t think I’m ever going to leave. This is such a great place to be.’ [Then] the opportunity opened up and I thought about it for a whole ten seconds and jumped on it and said, ‘yeah.’ Me and Coach Mann reached out pretty quickly and tried to move as quickly as possible.”
Since taking over, Allen has focused on building the culture. On the team, they have four core values: courage, responsibility, resilience and poise.
“It’s something that I didn’t focus on during my first year of high school coaching,” Allen said. “I started to see certain mental problems, mental issues that would stop these wrestlers from being great. I saw a lot of potential in a lot of people, and it wasn’t necessarily that they didn’t have the right technique or weren’t athletic enough. It was that they didn’t perform at their ability.”
There are 37 wrestlers on the team, six of them being girls. Allen’s goal is to grow the girls program by having at least four to five new girls join the team.
“What I see with the girls in wrestling is such a unique experience because they’re so supportive of each other,” Allen said. “They’re always recruiting other girls, they’re always trying to convince other girls to come. Whenever those girls do come, you really see them take them under their wing and they automatically have a place to have like a little social group and a good little niche. It’s really beautiful.”
Allen builds relationships with his wrestlers by keeping the atmosphere light when there are informal practices where they do open mats.
“It’s such a unique role that I take very seriously,” Allen said. “We’re seeing these kids a lot more than any other teacher. I’m seeing them every day, and then I’m seeing them outside of school as well. We spend long hours on trips and long tournaments on Saturdays. Building relationships with people and the relationships that I’ve built in this sport is a big deal.”
One of the main goals of Allen’s is for the wrestling program to become two-time district champs. He wants everyone that wrestles on varsity to make it to regionals.
“We got some seniors, juniors and even some younger wrestlers that are really committed to make it to state and we want to place in state,” Allen said. “I think that’s a big deal. It’s gonna be a lot of work, but it’s definitely doable. It’s hard work, just being consistent and showing up. We work really hard, and we got a system going.”
Allen tries to motivate his wrestlers, but ultimately wants them to see the bigger picture and to motivate themselves in order to be successful.
“Another thing that I talk about a lot is the responsibility and that’s just owning your success,” Allen said. “There’s only so much that I can do as a coach, that you have to be able to take some ownership and your success. Sometimes you gotta be willing to help yourself.”
Allen believes wrestling is a sport where anyone could be successful regardless of gender, race, height or weight.
“There’s so many beautiful moments in the sport where if a wrestler’s down by a lot, they can always make a comeback and get a pin,” Allen said. “Some of the other sports, once a team gets a big lead, you don’t have that pin, you don’t have that final, that can just flip the match in a second. It’s tough, and so when you go through tough things with your friends it brings you closer together.”
Allen switched from accounting to full-time coaching due to his love for wrestling.
“This is such a unique community in such a great way,” Allen said. “I’ve met so many different parents and kids, I don’t really think that all the students always realize how blessed that they are to have such great parents that they do. Just seeing how many parents are invested in their children and really want them to succeed. We’re just so blessed to be in this community [with] so much love and support that it’s really exciting to see.”