The University hired Ed Allen as its new head coach for the volleyball team last Monday after former head coach Judy Green retired after 15 seasons and 600 wins with the Crimson Tide.
Allen brings an impressive resume to the Capstone. In five years at Tulsa University, Allen posted an overall record of 133-37, including a school record 31 wins in a season last year, as well as a 20-0 campaign in the Conference USA. Allen led the Golden Hurricanes to two C-USA regular season championships and two C-USA tournament championships en route to being named the C-USA Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2010, as well as the 2010 AVCA Midwest Regional Coach of the Year. Allen’s overall career win-loss record is 498-183.
“Just real, real excited to join an institution that has such a rich tradition athletically,” Allen said. “I think the resources here are tremendous. The opportunity to associate with such a prestigious institution greatly excites me, and I think we have a lot of tools here that will allow us to build this program into something pretty special.
“I certainly never plan on a loss, for sure,” he added. “It’ll bring a great deal of pleasure to me to get number 500 at the University of Alabama, I promise you that.”
Apart from bringing a strong record to Tuscaloosa, Allen has also brought in his former assistants coaches at Tulsa in Julia Silva and Ryan Wills. “It’s so significant that we have a chance to bring both assistant coaches and keep the whole staff together,” Allen said. “It will allow us hit the ground running and doesn’t assume any time in finding the right people to come in and assist us with the program. [They’re] both under the system, and it will allow us to progress much quicker this spring.”
For Allen, timing is crucial, especially considering how he must prepare his team to compete in an always-difficult Southeastern Conference schedule. Allen, however, has already beaten an SEC team. Last season his Golden Hurricanes defeated the No. 13 seeded LSU Tigers in the NCAA Tournament, 3-0. Allen said he’s excited for the opportunity to play in the SEC.
“You bet I am,” Allen said. “I know it’s going to certainly be a challenge for a couple of years until we get this thing built the right way. But I’m always interested in a challenge. I think Alabama’s got a great deal of sellers as it relates to that and we certainly are looking forward to the opportunity to get in there and compete against what is the best of the best.”
Despite his excitement, Allen said he and his team have a lot of challenges ahead of them.
“I think establishing this program back into a winning program’s probably the number one challenge,” Allen said. “I think number one is to make sure that we have our priorities in line, why we’re here: to be students, number one, and athletes, number two, and to prioritize those things in a way that it doesn’t affect our ability to perform in the classroom and on the court.”
For Allen, the key to his future success at Alabama is being patient with himself as well as his team, and trusting his player development and recruitment.
“I hope [success comes] in six months, but ideally we know it’s going to be longer than that,” Allen said. “[It will take] being patient with some things, ourselves, while still being very aggressive with our desires to compete at a higher level and win. But it’s going to take some patience.”
