Meet Coach Darren Allman
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgl4yYdWRa0Meet Darren Allman, Carroll ISD's New Athletic Director
by Kevin
May 12, 2015
2:54 PM
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Allman.jpe
Darren Allman was hired as the athletic director at Carroll ISD in May 2015. Photo courtesy of MySouthlakeNews.com
After spending the last 10 years as a head coach in Texas, Darren Allman has earned himself the title of new athletic director at Carroll ISD, replacing Kevin Ozee, who left in November to take the Arlington ISD job.
Allman served as athletic director at Austin Westlake from 2009-14, and was the head football coach, as well. He also held those titles at Colleyville Heritage this year.
"Westlake finished in the top five of the Class 5A Lone Star Cup standings and finished second twice during his tenure. He also led Westlake to the Class 5A Division I state finalist finish in 2009," according to an article on MySouthlakeNews.com.
Allman went to Odessa Permian, graduating in 1987. He played defensive back there and returned in 2005 to be the head coach. He is excited for this latest step in his career.
We had a chance to sit down and chat with Allman to talk about his career, accomplishments and goals in a Q&A.
Southlake Style: What brought you tobrCarroll?
Darren Allman: The lure is obvious. I think it's the best athletic program inbrthe state and probably one of the top in the country. My life has been a lotbrabout athletics, especially my career. I’ve been involved in athletics frombrchildhood and throughout high school and college. I got into the coachingbrprofession 21 years ago and have had a blessed career. I’ve been lucky to be in somebrgreat places. I really think all of those experiences have prepared me for abrjob like this in a place like this.
I knew that being an athletic director wasbrwhat I wanted to do next in my career. I've been a head coach for 10 years.brI've been an athletic director 5 of those 10 years at Austin Westlake. I'vebrenjoyed both aspects of the job and I think it would be unrealistic to say thatbrI don't miss coaching. All coaches who do it for an extended period of timebrmiss it when they get out. At some point, whether through retirement or throughbra change in the job description, we're all going to quit coaching. I've stillbrgot a lot of competitiveness in me and a lot of energy, so it was a good time for me to do this.brI'm honored to come be in a district like this and try to add to the talentedbrstaff that's already here.
SS: What do you bring tobrCarroll?
Allman: I like people. I’ve got a lot of respect for people in thebreducation business, all the way from administrators to the teachers at allbrlevels, and coaches in particular. I still love being around kids. Southlake is unique to every place I’ve ever been and they’vebrall been unique themselves. There will be things I learn and I’ll grow as timebrgoes on. I do think leading coaches and being a part of a team, which we dobrin administration, I think is one of my strong suits. I think thebrorganization of athletic programs; I’ve learned a lot about that in the greatbrplaces I’ve been and [from] the great people I’ve been around.
I'm also a goodbrlearner. I'm also a good student. I plan on getting a lot of great experiencebrhere early. Fortunately, I'm able to get in here before the school year is overbrwith and become familiar with the coaches and surroundings and things that needbrto get done. I look forward to jumping in and getting to work and gettingbreverything ready for a great start to next year.
SS: You have 21 years of experience in publicbreducation. What are a few of your career highlights?
Allman: Being the athletic director at Westlake was certainly a bigbrdeal for me with a lot of responsibility, and those five years were very specialbrto me because I was also the head football coach. I had to wear a lot of hatsbrand at the same time, we had a lot of success in all of our sports there andbrwere able to have success in football as well. That’s a testament to the staffbr– not so much to me - the people I was surrounded with.
One of the thingsbrI'm most proud of is the fact that over the 10 years of my head coaching career, there have been seven guys on my football staffs over the years to leave for a head coaching job. They are jobs that I feel like I've been a part of in preparationbrand getting them ready to go lead their own program. I take great pride inbrthat.
Before going to Westlake, I went back to Permian as the head footballbrcoach. I graduated there and was a player there in the late (19)80s. I was thebrfirst former player to go back as a head coach. It was my first head coachingbrjob. When I got to Permian, they were falling on hard times. Me and a bunch ofbrreally good coaches that I hired were able to turn it around. Bringing thembrback to their winning ways and bringing excitement back to Friday nights inbrOdessa, it was special; especially to do it as a hometown guy doing it at hisbrown alma mater. It was special for me and my family and the other families there as well.
SS: One of your major accmoplishments was the creation of a public-public partnership for construction of a multi-purpose indoor training facility. Can you go into more detail?
Allman: At Permian they didn’t have an indoor workout facility. Ibrthought it was something that not only would make us more efficient in all ofbrour athletic programs but also change the mentality and commitment in gettingbrus to another level, and getting us on a level playing field with everybodybrelse across the state.
That was a private venture. I went at it one meeting atbra time with people in the community. I showed them the need and pictures ofbrother people across the state in our competition in what they were working withbrand what we were working with. In a short amount of time, I raised $3 million to getbrthat facility built in Odessa.
When I got to Westlake, they had a similar need.brI took a different route though. We first attempted a bond, which didn't pass.brI attempted the private route again, which we could've done, but that routebrincluded some added costs to the district because even when you raise the fundsbrprivately for a building like that, the district takes that building eventuallybrand absorbs costs for operations, utilities, and things like that. The district at thebrtime wasn't interested in doing that.
We went a different route and partneredbrwith a private company that is set to build training facilities for profit.brIt's a business to them. It's a for-profit business and it's their way to paybrfor the building and eventually make an income. What we did to partner withbrthem was to allow them to build this facility on school property with agreementbrwith the school district while the school district gets guaranteed use of thebrbuilding during certain times of the day and year, while also allowing them to run abrbusiness in the facility.
The building is not built yet, but the agreement wasbrfinalized and agreed upon before I left Westlake. Those types of agreements arebrbecoming more popular because when a school district partners with a business and thebrbusiness staffs the building, they absorb the costs of building, maintaining,broperation costs including utilities, and if the district is willing and able tobrallow them to do that on school property, they're able to get a facility ofbrthat magnitude without using any taxpayer dollars at any point. That's thebrbeauty of those types of agreements. It would be similar to a school district allowing abrYMCA and allowing that type of entity to partner with them in order to benefitbrstudents in their district and serve that purpose as well.
SS: Tell us a little bit about yourself personally.
Allman: I’ve been married to Susan for 22 years and I’m a graduatebrof Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. She’s a graduate of Abilene Christian University. We met in college. We have three children. Michael is in ninth grade,brEmily is a seventh grader, and Abigail is a second grader. They’re all involved inbrathletics and fine arts. I love being outdoors and I lovebrhunting, fishing and playing golf when I can and spending time with my kidsbrdoing all three of those things.
SS: What are your goals for Carroll ISD?
Allman: I think number one: just to maintain and try to enhance thebrgreat culture that’s already been established here; the tradition and greatbrcoaching staff that’s in place. I want to be an asset to all of them however Ibrcan be.
I think we have to take a look at all the little things that take placebrthroughout the district, whether that be facilities or schedules and things likebrthat and try to make sure that we are doing the things necessary to stay on topbrand even get better.
There's always room to improve as good as Southlake hasbrbeen. The administration would say the same thing academically. We're alwaysbrtrying to find ways to get better and stay on top. That's a challenge. There's abrlot of good districts around us and great athletic programs around us. It takesbra lot of work, commitment and teamwork and a lot of different people andbrdifferent roles in order to be the best across the board and to find thatbrbalance with academics and athletics.
My immediate goals are to start buildingbrrelationships with the people I work with. I think once I've done that then abrlot of the other things take care of themselves. Taking a good fresh look at everything that's going on and more than anything else finding out what thebrneeds are and doing that really one person at a time, one coach at a time andbrone program at a time and doing that on each campus. That's going to take somebrtime to do that and I really look forward to that challenge and look forward tobrthe relationships that are going to be build over the next several years.
SS: Do you have anything else you'd like to add or parting words to the community?
Allman: I would just say that it’s great to be a Dragon and it’s abrdream come true for me. I really look forward to becoming a part of thisbrcommunity and my family becoming a part of this community and being here for abrlong time and making a difference. Doing my part to make the community betterbrand the school district the best we can make it. I certainly feel blessed to have this opportunity.
