Allen excited about new coaching gig at Okoboji

Okoboji junior high science teacher John Allen has been named the new varsity football coach of the Pioneers one season after holding down the eighth grade football job. Allen has over 20 years of coaching experience from the youth football to the high school level. [Order this photo]

"Next year our 4-year-old (James) will be starting preschool so I won't feel as guilty as I normally would as the boys are getting older and spending more time with their friends," said the father of three. "Starting out doing all of that (in my first job at Waterloo Columbus) was way too much. I was spending all of my time at school and it was really great to spend my time and be with them as they were younger and growing up, but now the boys are in middle school and soon to be in high school and it's probably time to get back into it.

"I've also been given permission from my social director at home and as most coaches will tell you that it's the wife that does most of the work," he added. "She's really the one that has to bear a lot of the burden when I am out coaching and spending time with the team. It's a lot of work and a lot of hours, but it seemed like it was the right time to get back into it."

The 1998 Northern Iowa graduate has been married to his wife Sarah for 18 years. Their family consists of three sons, 13-year-old Michael, along with Jacob (10) and James (4).

The Okoboji School Board approved the hiring of Allen last Wednesday, while former head coach Brent Stanek will remain off staff as an assistant coach.

"We really feel like we are getting the best of both worlds here because the kids absolutely loved Coach Stanek," said Okoboji Dean of Students Justin Bouse. "He was a great person at the time and got us through a difficult situation. He came in thinking he was an assistant and had to take over the team halfway through the summer. He came to me after the season and said that with the direction he's taking the church camp that he didn't think he could give everything they deserve to make it a top-notch program."

The Cedar Falls native is currently the school's the seventh and eighth grade science teacher. Allen, the junior high football coach last fall at Okoboji, has 13 years of middle school and high school coaching experience plus seven more at the youth football level. He has coached everything from baseball to basketball to track to golf during his career.

Allen is excited to get back after a yearlong hiatus from coaching at the varsity level.

"The more and more that it's starting to set in, the more and more excited I become," he said. "There are times I wish we could shovel off that field and have a game this Friday....well maybe give us a couple weeks for an installation of an offense, but just talking with some of the boys you get excited talking about playing Friday nights and everything that goes along with that."

Bouse and Okoboji middle school principal Ryan Cunningham, who oversaw the hiring of Allen last summer, knew right then and there that he would be a great fit for the football program.

"We knew what he had the first time we interviewed him back in the spring when we hired him for a teaching position," said Bouse. "John has a way of speaking that demands the respect and what I love about John is the level of expectations. He's going to set the bar high and kids won't be leaving the program wondering if they reached their potential, and we certainly have no questions about his X's and O's. He knows the game and is passionate about the game. He'll do everything he can to make this program what he thinks it can be and he has very high expectations of his players."

Bouse couldn't be happier to see Okoboji football get back on the map after a rocky year, as the Pioneers had to play a JV schedule this past fall due to low numbers.

"Okoboji football has seen a lot of adversity," he said. "We've definitely had a challenge of getting this program where we wanted it. But with every setback we have encountered, we have stepped forward. We may have stepped backward, but we're taking two steps ahead in this case. Our youth football program has really gotten stronger thanks to Brad Droegemiller. We know the kids that have gone through this will be better people for working through this adversity and we know they'll be proud of that."

Allen has learned from some of the best over the years, including former Aplington-Parkersburg icon Ed Thomas and longtime Cedar Falls coach Pat Mitchell.

"Starting out at Columbus and being so busy with all of the sports at times it seemed like a burden, but looking back on how fortunate I was to be exposed to those coaches with that much experience is incredible," said Allen. "It's pretty rare that you can walk into a high school and you can see all of the college coaches like Terri Lasswell and Jim Berry and getting to see people like Ed Thomas, getting to work for Pat Mitchell, just being around people like that who know so much and are willing to teach you. I look back on those years as being so valuable."

Allen is hoping to turn around a program that hasn't had a winning season since making it to the Class 2A quarterfinals in 2008, and model his program off OHS wrestling coach Nate Dau and OHS boys basketball coach Ryan Paulsen while learning a few things from a Spirit Lake football program that has secured their first back-to-back playoff berths in school history the past two seasons.

"There's some great examples up here of programs that have been able to turn things around," Allen said. "At Spirit Lake, getting to know Brad Travis has been great and bouncing ideas off him as he has seen Spirit Lake become the power that they are in football and track. Obviously he's been huge, then we have some coaches at Okoboji like Ryan Paulsen and Nate Dau that know winning the right way is the only way worth winning and the work that they're putting into their programs, and that's kind of shown me that I want to build something like that where kids know what's expected of them and the community will hopefully get behind something like that. We'll put the student-athlete first and make sure that they get their work done in the classroom and then if they can handle that responsibility those are the ones that we're going to put on the field."

Stanek will also be a major piece of the coaching puzzle next season.

"Coach Stanek did an amazing job in such a short time of getting kids to enjoy football and really getting them to buy into the whole family concept," said Bouse. "As a program director at a camp he obviously brought a ton of enthusiasm and with just being around Brent it's hard to be around him and not get fired up. He really brought the importance of good character and turning boys into men and being productive young citizens. Playing football is important and John will be involved with that, but still having Brent on staff will be great. Guys will seek him out for that along with that wisdom and leadership from Coach Allen's experience."

Allen's favorite aspects of coaching are competing and seeing kids reach their fullest potential through hard work.

"Obviously the competition is probably the high that most coaches would admit to. It makes us think back to when we were kids and were young enough to run into people without getting hurt," he said. "Then just seeing kids get better and the pure joy that you see in the locker room and that energy on the bus ride home when kids are able to achieve at the highest level. It's like Christmas morning. There's nothing else like it. Those kids are just glowing and beaming with pride that they've put in this last year of hard work and the evidence is right there whether they were able to win the tournament or the game or bring home hardware, that's something that's pretty special and that's what keeps guys coming back every year."