A State Champion coach will be leaving a Cooke County school at the end of the school year.
Callisburg head volleyball and softball coach Angela Allen has resigned her position effective the end of the year.
Allen, who led the Lady Cats volleyball team to three-straight trips to the UIL State Tournament and a Class 3A State Championship in 2018, will be moving to Illinois to join her husband, Mark, who has accepted a college coaching position there.
Mark Allen was named the Pitching Coach at the University of Illinois in October. So Angela and youngest daughter Avery will be joining Mark there this summer. Oldest daughter, Skylar, currently plays beach volleyball at the University of South Carolina.
The local Coach Allen says it has been hard thinking about leaving Callisburg and this area.
“The volleyball season was pretty emotional,” she said. “I knew a few weeks before the season was over that my husband took the job. We didn’t announce it until the season was over because we wanted the kids to focus on what was important. So everything you do is different. It’s like, oh man this is the last time I will coach a game here at Callisburg on this gym floor, or this is the last practice here. So it’s always in the back of your mind that the place where you raised your kids, you’ve seen great things happen, and where you’ve had not just great friends, but basically like your second family, to see it all coming to an end is very emotional.”
In addition to the three trips to the State volleyball tournament, Allen led the Lady Cats softball team to State in 2011. She has coached 16 years at Callisburg including all 16 as the head volleyball coach and the last 15 years as head softball coach.
When asked what she will miss the most, it was an easy answer.
“The relationships with the kids for sure,” she said. “These kids are great kids. It’s like they are my kids. I’m going to miss them tremendously. I’m not just leaving behind the current players, but we have alumni that are very supportive of this program. There are just a lot of relationships that have been built over the years. Those relationships can withstand distance I’m sure, but it’s not going to be more here local being able to visit with former players and coach the current players.”
So now, Allen will finish the school year, coaching the Lady Cat softball team in the 2020 season starting in a couple of weeks. After that, it will be the move to Illinois. Right now, she is unsure what the future holds there.
“I would love to coach and teach,” she said. “That’s my passion. It’s never going to be the same. Callisburg is always going to have a special place in my heart.”
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