Allen to retire as Sequoias baseball coach at season's end

VISALIA - College of the Sequoias baseball coach Jody Allen took notice of the men who helped shape his life.

It started with his father, Jerry, who was the football coach at Fresno High when Allen was a young kid.

Then there were influential coaches throughout Allen's decorated baseball career, starting in his early teens with long-time area scout George Omachi, followed by Hoover High's Hal Froese, Kings River Community College's Jack Hacker and Fresno State's Bob Bennett.

A common thread shared by these men was making long careers of a game they loved.

"I looked at what they did and said, 'that would be something I would like to do,'" Allen said. "Once I started coaching, I sat out with the idea that I wanted to make a living at it. I don't know if I envisioned doing this as long as I have, but I felt like this is something I wanted to do."

And he did.

Quite well, too.

Allen has become the longest-tenured and winning coach in Sequoias' storied baseball history during a 32-season career that is winding down to its final four games.

The 61-year-old announced that he will step down as Giants' coach at the end of the season, his 35th overall at the college including three as an assistant.

Sequoias' final game of the regular season is set for 1 p.m. April 26 at home against rival Fresno City.

"I think 35 years at one place is probably enough," Allen said. "I still enjoy the baseball side of it, but it's a hard program to maintain between your summer ball, your recruiting, and the day-to-day operations, fundraising and all that. I felt like I've been doing it for a while. With where I'm at in retirement and all that, there is really not any reason to stay. It's a lot of variables that went into it. But those are the main things."

With a 764-548-4 record heading into Sequoias' next game, scheduled for 2 p.m. April 22 at home against Reedley, Allen is one of the 10 winningest coaches in California Community College baseball history.

Among a long list of career accomplishments, Allen has directed the Giants to the postseason 18 times, including four trips to the state's final eight, and captured five conference titles. His team finished fourth in the state in 1997 and third in 2014. Allen has been named conference Coach of the Year five times, and was selected the American Baseball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year for the Pacific Division in 2014 when Sequoias went 34-13.

"He's meant a lot. He's somebody who has done his job well for many, many years," Giants Athletics Director Brent Davis said. "He's been an example to everybody, including me. He's been a friend. He laid out the blueprint for a lot of sports, not just baseball, on how things should be done."

Allen launched his coaching career as an assistant to Hacker at Kings River (now Reedley College) in 1987, the same year he married his wife, Lisa, and began a family that would include daughters Kailey, Lindsey and Cydnee, and son Payton.

He also decided then to earn a Master's degree in Physical Education that would allow him the opportunity to be considered for community college head coaching jobs. Allen made the move to Sequoias in 1991, joining the staff as an assistant to Al Branco, who was also the college's Athletics Director at the time.

When Branco decided to quit coaching baseball, picking his replacement was an easy choice. "Jody was a baseball junkie and a quality guy," Branco said. "We wanted someone solid because COS had a really strong tradition in baseball when you go back to (former coaches) Roy Taylor and Bert Holt. We wanted to keep that going."

Allen certainly did that.

During his third season as head coach in 1996, Allen led the Giants to a 33-13-1 overall record, a conference championship and a trip to the Northern California Regional playoffs. It was the program's first 30-plus win season since 1980.

Allen would win a school-record 38 games in 1997 and make a deeper run into the playoffs. His teams would win at least 30 games in a season seven times.

"His record speaks for itself as far as wins and losses. From day one he's really built a culture with COS baseball," said Redwood High's Dan Hydash, one of many of Allen's former players to go into coaching. "If you go to COS, you are going to learn the game. You are going to learn how to play it the right way. You are going to have some success. And you're going to learn how to deal with failure."

Hydash said he has drawn on what he learned playing for Allen at Sequoias in 1992 as inspiration for his own 26-year career in coaching, the last 12 at Redwood. Hydash said Allen is a mentor and a friend who is always willing to share advice or give support.

"What he's given to the baseball community, he's a legend," Hydash said. "He's done it for so long. Players leave his program knowing how to play the game and what they need to do to be successful. Not just on the baseball field, but in life because he teaches life lessons. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true. He's had a huge impact on me as a coach. And I know in talking to so many people that he has coached over the years how they have really carried on a lot of the lessons he's taught them into other facets (of their life.) He's just a huge icon in the baseball community in Tulare and Kings Counties."

Allen was able to coach over parts of four decades – and make an impact on several hundreds of players such as Hydash – because of the support system he had at home, starting with wife Lisa, who made it the family motto that the Allen's were always "better together."

So Lisa and all the kids got involved, spending time at the ballpark with a man who routinely devoted 10 or more hours a day and often six days a week to building and maintaining the program.

Allen's family, including his late mother Janice, have helped with everything from concessions, to ticket sales to scorekeeping and field work. His three daughters – Kailey, Lindsey and Cydnee – have all sung the Star-Spangled Banner before games – and son Payton played for dad from 2019-2021, getting an extra season because of the COVID pandemic.

"I've been very blessed to have a family that enjoys what I do. And to have a wife who was very smart and said look, if we're going to spend time with dad, we need to go to the ballpark," Allen said. "And the kids ended up enjoying it. They connected with players and they connected to the game to the point where now they are bringing their kids to the games. My mom retired from teaching kindergarten and was looking for something to do and ended up scorekeeping for the next 20 years. I don't think you can do the job I have done without the support of your family. Or you won't have a family, or it won't be what it could be." In addition to his family's involvement and understanding, Allen said his coaching longevity which is on par with college mentors Hacker (30 seasons at Kings River/Reedley) and Bennett (34 seasons at Fresno State) – wouldn't have been possible without having outstanding assistant coaches over the years, help from people behind the scenes and a supportive administration.

It also helped that Allen really liked his job, and the way he, his coaches and players became family.

"The longevity is about enjoying the job, enjoying what you do. Seeing young men gain confidence. Seeing them get their degree. Seeing them move on to four-year schools," Allen said. "You know one of my favorite lines for many years, I'd walk into the first (team) meeting and say 'look around, these are the people that will be in your wedding. These are the people you do life with. I can't tell you how many weddings I went to. That was true. There is a lot of fun in what I do. I enjoyed my job. I never felt like 'oh, I have to go to work.' It's one of those things for me, I've got to make sure I go home. I've got a wife and four kids and my wife had to ring my bell a few times about that. I feel very fortunate."

Davis said Allen had the right makeup for such a long career.

"He does such a great job with his relationships with people," Davis said. "He's done such a great job with his staff. Getting his family involved in the program. The players. The administration. His colleagues. I think just in general, he's fun to be around. He's such a great guy that I think his personality took him a long way."

Above all the wins, championships and accolades – including helping 145 players move on to four-year colleges, seeing 26 players get drafted by Major League Baseball teams and having four players reach the majors, highlighted by 2021 World Series champion pitcher Dylan Lee Allen said he is most proud of helping young men find their way in life.

"It's always been more about helping young people grow up. I'm very proud when I see someone who played for me become a productive part of society," Allen said. "To have a job, to have a good marriage, to have a family, to be responsible. I think ultimately, this baseball stuff is going to go away. Not a lot of them are going to be able to do what I did or have a career doing this. So, what does it mean while you are here? What are you here for? You are here to learn about life. Baseball can teach you a lot about life. Coaches can teach you a lot about life.

"For me, it's always been about growing young men. That's why you let them see you around your family and have your family around. That's why you push them to realize that things will get hard in your life, and you will learn to deal with them because of things that you learned here. That's always what brings a smile to my face, when one of them comes back and they are holding a kid and they have a job and they are doing well. It's always been fun for me to see that."

Allen doesn't rule out a return to coaching in some form at some level in the future. But for the immediate future, he has honey-do projects to accomplish for Lisa, nearly 10 acres of property that needs some TLC, and hobbies such as golf, fishing and camping to do more of. He'll also have time to watch Payton, who is the head baseball coach at Mt. Whitney, and spend more time with his six grandchildren and a seventh on the way.

"I think there are things I like to do that I just haven't been able to spend as much time as maybe I'd like doing," Allen said. "And everyone tells you you're going to get bored. And I certainly might get bored. But I want to try and get bored and see what happens. I don't think I've closed the door on 'hey, I'll never coach again.' But I know I'm ready to get away from the day to day grind of being the head guy."

At 15-21 overall and 8-12 in the Central Valley Conference, Sequoias will likely miss the postseason in Allen's final season. Even if the Giants win out – their other two games are scheduled for 2 p.m. April 23 at Taft and 2 p.m. April 25 at home against Coalinga – they will finish with a sub .500 record for only the sixth time in his tenure.

While it's not the ending Allen hoped for, he described his time at Sequoias as "a wonderful ride."

"There's people that have made a lot more money than I have and been more successful than I have, but I don't know that they always enjoyed their job," Allen said. "And other than being really frustrated when we don't play good baseball, I've enjoyed my job."

(Nick Giannandrea, COS Athletics)