Chris Allen — the fifth head coach in Marquette women’s soccer history — starts his first season at the helm of a Division I program in six months on a mission to bring the Golden Eagles back into the national spotlight.
Last week, Allen took a few minutes to speak with the Marquette Wire. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
How are you liking Marquette so far?
It’s been better than I had anticipated, and I anticipated it to be pretty good if I’m being honest. The welcoming nature of the community and just anyone dropping anything and willing to help me out. It really is a special place and it’s been amazing from the administration, just the general people and the team has been just absolutely amazing, and I’ve told the story a couple of times, but when I first met them, I think I got the job offer on a Wednesday. (I) had to tell SLU (Saint Louis University) and told the team in the locker room at like 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon, then flew immediately up here to Marquette and I’d been at SLU for eight years and it was really hard.
It was a very emotional kind of goodbye and then to like, get ready to walk into that Marquette room and meet the team. I was like, scared out of my mind. You know what I mean? And I walked in, and they started applauding and it (was) just relief and just excitement. And they really picked me up in a moment where, I was just in a tough spot. And I will forever be grateful for them and stuff like that. So, it was amazing.
What are you most excited about for the upcoming season?
I love building and building teams and whatnot and it stems back to not only at Saint Louis University, but my high school days as well being a teacher and coach from that standpoint. And so, I think there’s just a tremendous opportunity to build this program back to a place of conference relevance and national relevance and both conference and national prominence that it’s already been on that stage before. And I think the kids are hungry for it. And they are working their butts off right now and we’re getting after it. And so that’s what I think I’m most excited for is like the alumni, just the pride in the program and really, really bringing that back and just pumped up about it.
It’s going to be your first collegiate season as a head coach. How gratifying is it for you to be able to say, ‘I’m at the head of a Division I program’?
And not only that, to be at Marquette University and, you know, within an unbelievable conference in the Big East and whatnot. And so, you know, I would be remiss, like it is special. Do not get me wrong, but man, I’m really standing on the shoulders of people that have supported me and people that have believed in me and so part of it is, you know, doing it for them. I’m just honored to be given this opportunity. I feel incredibly privileged, so to lead this group and whatnot, but you know, I’m just a small part of it if I’m being really honest. This team has wrapped me up, they’ve embraced me. And I’m excited to go into battles with them, and we do this all together. It’s gonna be fun.
You talked about your eight years at SLU and your high school coaching experience. How do you believe that experience has prepared you for this moment?
I’m a true believer that the person drives the player at that point. And I found that to be the most important kind of cultural items in that, you know, if our people feel valued, our players will feel valued and stuff like that. And so I put a massive focus on the connection with our players and getting to kind of know them, understanding how they like to be coached. It’s no different than if I’m being honest. I was a biology teacher. I’m a biology dork in that respect, but you’d walk into that classroom and there’s 28 different students and 28 different intellects, 28 different learning strategies, 28 different socioeconomic statuses, and really trying to create relationships with them to get the best out of each and every student at that point.
And some of them were going go on to be like nurses and PT, and science was going to be at the backdrop, and some of them wanted nothing to do with biology at that point. And I think in my career, I’ve developed a unique skill set and lots of tools in the tool belt to be able to connect with a multitude of players and stuff like that. I’m just so excited about it. I’m so excited to be working with these kids. We’re starting to really do individual meetings and beginning to unpack that, and it’s just really exciting.
Talking about relationships, that sounds a bit like Shaka Smart.
Oh my goodness. I got to go to one of his practices and whatnot, but at the end of the day, a coach is a coach is a coach. You know what I mean? Whether it’s, you know, C team, JV girls soccer or at the height of the Big East at Marquette University, if you treat people with respect, you’re open, honest and transparent with them, you give them a game plan and a map of how we believe that they can be successful, you find that people run through a wall for you. If you put that effort into them, they’re going to put that effort back into you.
What are your expectations and goals for the upcoming season?
I believe in more of a player-up organization as opposed to a top-down directives and stuff like that. And so right now, we are in the process within not only our team, our individual meetings, (but) we have a leadership council that the team voted on and put kids into. And our first meeting with them is actually tomorrow. For me, I would like to hear what their goals are, what their objectives are and stuff like that. And I think that we can then craft that together as to where we wanna go, but more importantly, how we want to get there at that point.
So, I think it is a base expectation to be participating in the Big East postseason tournament. I think our kids have talked about that quite a bit and whatnot from that standpoint. But I think just overall, it’s trying to be the best versions of ourselves and focusing on that process. And then I think the rest will take care of itself. But you know these young women have just been absolutely just crushing it. Really, really working hard and just couldn’t be more excited to be their coach.
Do you plan to make any changes to the current coaching staff?
I can’t answer that right now. I think stuff will be coming out here shortly as to what’s going on, but I would love to follow up later, but at this time, I’m not exactly in a position to say.
What kind of culture do you want to instill within the program and how are you going to implement that moving forward?
At the foundation of the culture that we’re trying to build is one that is focused on servant leadership. In order to lead, you must first serve. And so, our team was given a book that really dives into what that’s gonna look like and start to have some really kind of challenging conversations and really putting the focus on how they are serving one another. And at times, that’s holding people accountable. At times, it’s showing empathy. At times, it’s just listening more than talking, but we are going to be a servant leadership culture off the field, but then that’s going to play into how we want to play on the field is that we’re gonna serve one another.
We’re gonna go together. If one player makes it aggressive rotation, we are all making an aggressive rotation. So, we’re really trying to form that bond right now and the expectations of what that looks like, but really excited to begin to unpack some of these things, work through our culture, and our team seems to be just a very eager about that and just pumped up to see where we can take this and where we can go. And I think we’re gonna put forth a team and an effort that the Marquette University community will be very proud of.
This story was written by Kaylynn Wright. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @KaylynnWrightMU.
