Allen retires from JISD
V Hugh Lewis II/Jefferson Jimplecute
Time is the only one undefeated.
Mark Allen feels as if he’s been benched as he leaves his position as leading Jefferson’s High School Girls Athletics Director for most of the last 13 years. He was named the Girls Coordinator and Girls Basketball Coach for the 2024-25 school year.
“We’ve accomplished something that hasn’t happened in 25 years this year, and are a perennial playoff team,” Allen said. “When I came here, I took something that hadn’t been successful and got it turned around and rolling pretty good. This really kind of blindsided me. With the success we’ve had, it kind of surprised me that the district decided they wanted to go a new direction without any warning.”
According to Allen, he was notified during his annual review that he had a choice to make: go be the junior high girls coach only, “which was never an option I would take at this point in my career,” or retire.
“We had our end of year evaluations with Coach Taylor and it pretty much happened at that time,” he said. “It caught me off guard to be honest. I was thinking we had a good year, and kind of wrapping things up. I came in thinking I might get a raise, and instead got fired. He told me he didn’t feel that his voice was being heard in girls athletics and he wanted his own person as high school girls coordinator. We haven’t had any kind of one-on-one conference or talk to tell me he’d like to do this or that or updating my job description of what he was wanting me to do. He said he was sitting back and evaluating but he hasn’t said anything all year long.”
Ty Taylor, Jefferson Athletic Director, said “We want to express our deepest gratitude for the extraordinary impact Coach Allen has had on our girls’ program, our school, and our community. His dedication goes far beyond the basketball court, shaping not just great athletes, but confident and resilient young women. His vision and leadership has elevated our girls’ basketball program, creating a sense of pride and unity among players, parents, and fans. We wish Coach Allen nothing but the best in his future endeavors and will always consider him a part of the Jefferson Bulldog family.”
Taylor is prohibited from commenting on personnel decisions by District policy.
Allen said that he’s the type of person that if “something isn’t going right, I’ll say something Just like in the classroom, they’re going to call you in for a conference and work with you to get things done.”
Allen was hired by former Athletic Director Jerry Bennett 13 years ago and has spent that time rebuilding the girls program, taking them into 11 playoff seasons.
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve taken pride in getting the program going – redoing the dressing rooms; getting first class equipment, etc. I’d been on the boys side for 26 years before Jefferson. I know the girls get the short end of it on sports things. I wanted to make sure the girls got the same attention the guys program got. I thought we were able to do that,” he said.
Allen, who just turned 61, said he is retiring, but was pushed into it.
“Not to say I might not have [retired if asked] but I would have liked to have stayed another couple of years. I’ve got a good group [of girls] coming and they should be successful for another year or two or maybe three. I would have liked to have had an option to stay in my current capacity or retire. But, they didn’t give me that option. They wanted to reassign me to something I didn’t want.”
Allen said he’s planning on living the retired life and see what happens from there.
“I feel good enough. I have enough energy, and at some point if right thing comes along I might jump on that,” he said. “This may be the old man talking, but the hardest thing is getting a program going that hasn’t had a lot of success. There a lot of time behind the scenes that one has to be doing all the time: getting them individual coaching; getting them involved in leagues; and establish traditions. When you have all of that set, like ours is now, then you just have to keep it rolling. Get it rolling is hard thing.”
Allen said his door door is still open, but he’s not actively looking [for something else] right now. “I want to stay on Caddo Lake and I’m not looking to move or travel at this point.”
“Every year is a new year. You never know what will happen down the road. I can like retired life or take another position – whatever I want to do,” he said. “I still love the game. I love coaching. I finished up on very high note.
“I’ve coached basketball for the last 38 years and have played basketball for a Texas hall fame coach, my father,” Allen continued. “I helped win two state championships in high school as a player and I played at the college level for four years. So, basketball has been my life! Well, besides fishing and hunting!”