Allen’s athletic department continues to raise its profile within junior college athletics in a changing wider landscape of college sports. With everything the last year has presented, some athletic departments are feeling the heat. At Allen Community College, they are feeling a boom.
“The state of Allen athletics is pretty good,” said ACC Athletic Director Doug Desmarteau. “We are in one of the best spots competitively that we have been in. We have nationally ranked teams, and we have teams going to the national tournaments in the last few years.”
Last season, the women’s soccer team made it to the national tournament and Elka Billings won third in the NJCAA National cross country meet.
Not only are the teams competitive, but players are coming into Allen in waves and endearing themselves to the area.
“Our numbers are great,” Desmarteau said. “Many of our teams have more players than scholarships available. The morale is good. We had our ‘Red Devil Rally’ recently and there was a good turnout. I still would like to get more community involvement.”
ACC student-athletes, along with the cheer and dance teams also go to local elementary schools each Friday to high-five kids and help engage with the community.
In many cases, students attending community college are from the immediate area, staying home to save money. While that is true at Allen, there is also an influx of international students.
“Two years ago we moved our international costs to be the same as our out-of-state and in-state costs,” Desmarteau said. “There are agencies and kids that reach out. You develop connections with them. It brings culture and diversity to campus which is great. Kids get to understand what happens in other countries. Right now we have over 100 international kids from 45 countries on our campus out of about 370.”
Allen is doing as well academically as they are on the field.
“We always have 100-150 NJCAA academic All-Americans,” Desmarteau said. “Normally we have two or three teams with GPAs above 3.0. In 2022, there were five or six.”
The COVID-19 pandemic threw collegiate budgets into turmoil, costing many coaches and assistants their jobs and some schools to eliminate certain sports.
“Last year was a rough year because we couldn’t fill our dorms to capacity,” Desmarteau said.
“We cut our budgets by 20%. I went to President (John) Masterson and said I wanted to keep everybody’s jobs. Once we figured out how we could get frequent testing to manage its spread, the competitive juices started flowing.”
ACC has kept shutdowns to COVID to a minimum by requiring student-athletes to follow strict procedures. Every day, they must log on to an app and fill out a COVID questionnaire. If they have symptoms, they must stay in their rooms. If symptoms persist, athletes are tested and isolated.
Allen’s current vaccination rate sits between 65-70% according to staff, almost 30% above the county’s rate.
