Owl Star
By: Brianna Smith Photos courtesy of Eston Parker III Grasping the weight of her dreams, Allen’s perspective on the way she views life has been shaped around her biggest ambition.
A late start doesn’t have to mean an early ending. This is especially true for graduate transfer student, Jacaira “Iggy” Allen, who made her way back to her home state of Florida and decided to spread her wings a little further as an Owl on the FAU women’s basketball team. The guard started her hoop career in the eighth grade, where she was inspired to pick up a ball by her sister who began playing before her. Allen eventually joined a traveling team called the Miami Suns in her freshman year of high school, which helped advance her game as the team traveled across the country competing with the best of the best. “After ninth grade, I started to get a little better. I was working out over the summer and I joined the Miami Suns,” Allen said. “We got it working with them—that’s a travel team and I was traveling to several states playing basketball, competing at the highest level.” It was then that Allen’s journey had just begun. The more work she put in, the more progress she began to see as she was growing into the player she needed to be on the court. Those who know Allen would say that she tends to lead, something that she notices during the game, but also outside of the gym. “I’m like the leader of all of my friends,” Allen said. “I don’t know, I guess I’m this trendsetter because of my social media influence, so I lead and I’m followed by many people.” Allen has a good following on her Instagram page with a little over 6000 followers. Her transparency of who she is and her personality is shown all over her social media and it is no wonder why she has a considerable following. “Off the court, Iggy is a comedian. She is always cracking jokes and doing skits for her social media accounts. She is always dancing and having fun. On the court, she is very intense and passionate. She is a serious competitor. A very hardworking player,” Allen’s teammate junior guard Bre Beck said.
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Iggy Allen warms up before facing FIU on January 15, 2021. In her studies as a MED Educational Leadership major, Allen has learned things in the classroom that she can apply in her athletic career. “I’m learning to be more patient because my major isn’t the easiest, there’s definitely a lot of reading, so I’m learning a lot of patience and I’m projecting that back onto the court,” Allen said. In Allen’s major she’s learning as life skills and lessons that she can take with her far beyond a classroom setting. Her goal of making it to the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) will require the skill she has already honed—leadership—to truly compete at the national level. “There are several adjectives to describe Iggy but the biggest ones being that she is competitive, passionate, generous, complex, talented, funny, and very caring,” head coach Jim Jabir said.
