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SPORTS
VISIT PHELPS MANAGEMENT AREA
Spread over 4,539 acres and bordering the Rappahannock River in southern Fauquier County, the Chester F. Phelps Wildlife Management Area in Sumerduck and parts of Culpeper County offers hunting, fishing, canoeing and hiking. Visit dwr.virginia.gov/wma/cf-phelps/
WWW.FAUQUIER.COM
Fauquier Times | August 26, 2020
COACHING LEGEND ELLEN ALLEN RETIRES County’s winningest girls basketball coach and administrator was a fixture at Kettle Run, Liberty and Fauquier By Fred Hodge
“It’s time for the next chapter in my life.”
Special to the TImes
One of Fauquier County’s iconic coaching figures has hung up her sneakers. Ellen Allen recently retired following 32 years of service in the county’s school system. She taught and coached at all three of the county’s public high schools, beginning at Fauquier in 1988 after graduating from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Allen then moved to Liberty High School for 14 years after the 1994 opening and went to Kettle Run for the last 12 years. Allen, who had been Kettle Run’s assistant director of student activities and girls basketball coach, departs with the most girls basketball coaching victories in county history at 266, with 239 coming at Liberty. She also has coached girls and boys tennis and track during her career and was Kettle Run’s first assistant director of student activities. By her count, she coached more than 50 seasons in her tenure, leading to many 60-plus hour weeks. “That’s a lot of hours after my contractual teaching job,” she noted. Earlier this week, Allen admitted she had been giving retirement serious consideration in recent years. She decided to return for the 2020-21 school year until the school board’s decision to install all virtual learning for at least the first term. “I was not looking forward to coming back to do something totally different than I had done before,” she explained. “I enjoyed teaching because I had interaction with students every day.” Allen recalled a conversation years ago when she posed a question to her mother. “How am I going to know when it is time to retire? She said, ‘Trust me, Ellen, you’ll know,’” Allen said. “And she was right. This was the right time.” Paul Frye, Kettle Run’s director of student ac-
ELLEN ALLEN
FILE PHOTO
Ellen Allen contributed 32 years of service to Fauquier County athletes. After getting her start at Fauquier, she coached championship girls basketball teams at Liberty, then transitioned to Kettle Run as an assistant athletic director, and later jumped back into coaching. tivities, worked with Allen at Liberty before both moved to the new school. “She was very instrumental in the opening of Kettle Run as the assistant athletic director for eight years,” Frye said. “It is hard to sum up the many contributions that coach Allen has made to the programs at all three schools,” he added. “The impact that Ellen made on everyone around her cannot be replaced and will be missed.” Allen greatly appreciates the support she received from Frye and Kettle Run principal
With caution, Highland, Wakefield return to sports
VHSL plans for sports schedules to be cut by 60% By Fred Hodge
Special to the Times
By Peter Brewington Times Staff Writer
Private schools in the region like Highland, Wakefield, Seton and Saint John Paul the Great are preparing to play sports this fall. Low risk sports like girls tennis, cross country and golf appear likely as full varsity offerings, with moderate risk sports like field hockey, volleyball and boys soccer also played against other schools or as intramurals. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) announced last month that no state championships will be held for the fall sports, but said that schools could elect to play sports if they felt comfortable. As a result, numerous private schools are jumping in enthusiastically, with some even choosing to play football, including Fredericksburg Christian Academy. Seton School (Manassas) is planning to compete in boys soccer, volleyball, cross country and girls tennis. Saint John Paul the Great (Dumfries) will host cross country, girls tennis, cheerleading and volleyball, with field hockey and boys soccer conducted as intramurals.
Meghan Brill over her retirement decision. “I’ve been honest with Paul and Meghan for the last few years. They knew I was on the short end of my career,” Allen said. “They were 100 percent supportive and made it easy.” The long-time coach said notifying her current players and their parents was the most difficult aspect of letting go. Yet, the response has been heartening as word of her retirement spread. “Former students have reached out to me and left nice notes. That’s just special,” she said. She takes many fond memories with her, headed by later success of many of her former students in college and employment. “Athletically, there are so many,” Allen stressed. But two stand out. She cited a win over state power Handley for the Northwestern District girls tennis title. The second came in a girls basketball contest at county rival Fauquier. Liberty trailed the hosts by 27 points in the third quarter before staging a monumental comeback win. As far as future plans, her first response was, “I’m going to play golf four times a week.” Allen said that jokingly, before adding she will enjoy eating dinner with her husband more than two or three times a week. “I’m not jumping into anything. I’m just going to take it day by day,” she stressed. “I call it the icing on the cake because this is not a bad thing. It’s time for the next chapter in my life,” Allen said. “I’m doing what’s best for me right now.”
PHOTO BY RANDY LITZINGER
Unlike public schools, private schools are competing in sports this fall. Golf is not expected to use mixed foursomes. Highland (Warrenton) and Wakefield (The Plains) are still deciding, but hope to safely host tennis, cross country and golf with social distancing guidelines enforced. They may play soccer, field hockey and volleyball within their own campus bubble as intramurals with nothing off campus. Highland athletic director Gary Leake said there are about 28 boys soccer players on campus, enough for a weekly intramural game. “We can have two teams of 14. We could do a Blue-Gold weekly game,” he said, adding that the goal would be to play in October after the squads got some workouts in. Highland also has 18-20 volleyball players, enough for two squads. As for field hockey, “We don’t have enough girls to run a full level game, but we can modify it to 7 vs. 7 to save numbers.” See FALL SPORTS, page 15
On Monday the Virginia High School League released proposed contest limits for the delayed high school sports calendar, planning for 60% reductions to regular seasons in most sports. For the winter sports, basketball will play 14 games (22 previously) with eight for wrestling (12) and six for both swimming and indoor track (10). The relocated spring season will see football cut to six games instead of 10, volleyball to 14 instead of 20 and field hockey to 10 instead of 16. Competition cheer will be three (five), cross country six (10) and golf eight (12). Spring reductions include 12 games in baseball and softball (20 previously), 10 in soccer and tennis (16), nine in lacrosse (14) and nine in outdoor track (10). The VHSL is also looking at establishing time frames for district, region and state tournaments. Teams not qualifying for a regional tournament berth would be permitted to schedule one additional contest that must be played by the region deadline. After state-wide conversations with administrators, athletic directors and coaches, the VHSL Executive Committee will meet again Sept. 3.
