B-CC looks inside for new head coach

Joe Allen moves up from JV to varsity

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007

From his place on the sidelines, Joe Allen has had a front-row view for six years of the challenges facing the Bethesda-Chevy Chase football program. Monday, Allen officially made the move from the front row to the spotlight, becoming the Barons’ new varsity head football coach.

In his six years at the school, the former JV head coach and varsity assistant has seen B-CC compile a record of 23-35. He believes he has a plan to turn around the school’s gridiron fortunes.

‘‘We’re going to try to establish a competitive football program at B-CC that’s capable of competing with the Seneca Valleys and the Northwests,” Allen said. ‘‘We have a great bunch of kids, a unique culture of kids at the school. We just have to introduce football as a culture at B-CC.”

Allen, 42, recognizes that the first step in doing that is winning, so that’s job one. He is already in the process of tinkering with the offense and the defense, while still holding to many of the principles the team employed in five seasons under former head coach John Zehner, who stepped down at the end of this past season.

In announcing the hiring Monday, B-CC athletics director Tim Gilmore said experience within the program was in Allen’s favor during the interview process, which was conducted during the latter part of last week. Gilmore said ‘‘two or three” candidates interviewed for the job.

‘‘They were good candidates with good qualifications,” Gilmore said. ‘‘Joe’s history with the program gave him a little bit of an advantage. Joe is bringing some new ideas that are expanding on some of the things John was doing. Traditionally, what has been going on, we’ve been happy with. It’s not a major shakeup or anything.”

Allen actually arrived on the B-CC coaching staff the year before Zehner took over as the head coach. It was a complete accident.

‘‘I literally walked into coaching at B-CC,” Allen said. ‘‘It was when B-CC was located over there at Northwood [while the school building in Bethesda was being renovated]. I was running around the track, and saw some kids working out. I said, ‘Are you the football team?’ And the coaches told me, ‘We need some help.’”

Allen happened to be looking to get into coaching at that time. Before latching on with B-CC, he had applied for a job with St. John’s (D.C.), where he graduated in 1982. After St. John’s, Allen continued playing football for three seasons at Salisbury University.

When he finished his career in 1984, he was second on the Sea Gulls’ all-time receiving yardage list, with 1,029. To this day, he is fifth on the school’s career leaderboard and is ninth in receptions (with 77). In Allen’s three seasons, Salisbury compiled a record of 21-8-1 and made the NCAA Division III playoffs and played for the national championship in 1983. His only high-school coaching experience is at B-CC.

Currently, Allen is an information technology specialist with Montgomery County Public Schools. While he does not specifically work at B-CC, he feels his job schedule will allow him to spend a lot of time in the building, a big advantage for a head coach.

‘‘I was just always pretty close to the varsity program,” Allen said. ‘‘I ran a lot of the off-season stuff. I just thought it would be a good time for me to go ahead and give it a chance.”