LHS Baseball Won the Los Padres League Title
Jim Allen, coach of Lompoc High’s three-straight Los Padres League champions, has been named Lompoc Locker Room’s Coach of the Year.
Allen outpolled a list of 12 nominees ranging from Frank Taitague, coach of the YFL Panthers, LLR’s Team of the Year, to six other high school coaches, and even to Mike Sullivan, receivers coach of the NFL New York Giants.
“It’s a huge reflection on our team,” Allen said upon receiving word of the honor. “Any time you can win an individual award it can’t come without the team.
“We were fortunate enough to start playing well at the end of the season. We try and do that. We try and prepare ourselves for the end of the season. We had some guys like Cody Berryman, Dalton Rouleau, and Chris Mallory who really came on at the end.”
Allen said it was his young and unheralded pitching staff which impressed most.
“We swung the bats well. We weren’t a real powerful team. We were more a gap to gap kind of team but we pitched extremely well. We had some young guys really step up. A guy like Ryan Bower who was just a freshman came in and filled the number two role for us. Cody Berryman had to step into a number one role. We really try to pride ourselves on our pitching. We try and pride ourselves on our defense unfortunately that wasn’t a strong point for us last year but our bats picked up our defense a little bit and our pitchers kept us in the ballgames.”
Allen also called attention to his assistant coaches—Jake Kougl, Kyle Darg, Rickie Aguilar and Andrew Jones. “They do a tremendous job,” he said.
Allen was in his seventh year at LHS after succeeding Dan Bodary, for whom this award was named when it was sponsored by the Lompoc Record newspaper. Bodary won the award the first year it was made. In the summer Allen coaches the Santa Maria Packers, thus he is pictured above in a Packer uniform.
Allen narrowly outpolled Taitague and LHS girls basketball coach Claudia Terrones by a single vote. Drawing one vote each were Craig Knowles, Cabrillo football, Peter Anderson, Cabrillo boys cross country, Scott Alvarez, Cabrillo girls swim, Sullivan, and Mark Haley, Manager of the Year in professional baseball’s Midwest League. Twelve panelists cast votes.
Allen fed his Braves tough competition in out-of-town tournaments and as a result the club posted a lackluster 13-14 overall record, this compared to the previous years' 20-6 and 18-9. But Allen's objective was met-- the team improved over the season to win the LPL with a 9-3 mark, the same as in 2007. The Braves won five of their last six league games.
Allen outpolled a list of 12 nominees ranging from Frank Taitague, coach of the YFL Panthers, LLR’s Team of the Year, to six other high school coaches, and even to Mike Sullivan, receivers coach of the NFL New York Giants.
“It’s a huge reflection on our team,” Allen said upon receiving word of the honor. “Any time you can win an individual award it can’t come without the team.
“We were fortunate enough to start playing well at the end of the season. We try and do that. We try and prepare ourselves for the end of the season. We had some guys like Cody Berryman, Dalton Rouleau, and Chris Mallory who really came on at the end.”
Allen said it was his young and unheralded pitching staff which impressed most.
“We swung the bats well. We weren’t a real powerful team. We were more a gap to gap kind of team but we pitched extremely well. We had some young guys really step up. A guy like Ryan Bower who was just a freshman came in and filled the number two role for us. Cody Berryman had to step into a number one role. We really try to pride ourselves on our pitching. We try and pride ourselves on our defense unfortunately that wasn’t a strong point for us last year but our bats picked up our defense a little bit and our pitchers kept us in the ballgames.”
Allen also called attention to his assistant coaches—Jake Kougl, Kyle Darg, Rickie Aguilar and Andrew Jones. “They do a tremendous job,” he said.
Allen was in his seventh year at LHS after succeeding Dan Bodary, for whom this award was named when it was sponsored by the Lompoc Record newspaper. Bodary won the award the first year it was made. In the summer Allen coaches the Santa Maria Packers, thus he is pictured above in a Packer uniform.
Allen narrowly outpolled Taitague and LHS girls basketball coach Claudia Terrones by a single vote. Drawing one vote each were Craig Knowles, Cabrillo football, Peter Anderson, Cabrillo boys cross country, Scott Alvarez, Cabrillo girls swim, Sullivan, and Mark Haley, Manager of the Year in professional baseball’s Midwest League. Twelve panelists cast votes.
Allen fed his Braves tough competition in out-of-town tournaments and as a result the club posted a lackluster 13-14 overall record, this compared to the previous years' 20-6 and 18-9. But Allen's objective was met-- the team improved over the season to win the LPL with a 9-3 mark, the same as in 2007. The Braves won five of their last six league games.
The team was a well-balanced crew with the #2 hitter in the league (Rouleau .400), the #3 home run hitter (Brandon Alonzo 5), the #4 and #5 RBI men (Scott Aguailar 24 and Rouleau 23), the #2 baserunner (Chris Mallory 20 stolen bases) and the #4 strikeout pitcher (Berryman 47 K's).
The squad looks ready for another title year in 2009. Asked how many returnees he expected, Allen replied,
“We’ve got a ton of ‘em, Scotty Aguailar, Cody Berryman, Daniel Mallory, a first team all-leaguer as a freshman, Richie Hirzel. Dalton Rouleau and on and on.”
The squad looks ready for another title year in 2009. Asked how many returnees he expected, Allen replied,
“We’ve got a ton of ‘em, Scotty Aguailar, Cody Berryman, Daniel Mallory, a first team all-leaguer as a freshman, Richie Hirzel. Dalton Rouleau and on and on.”
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