Allie Allen brings good ideas, skills to team

You can get tired just watching Allie Allen.

Not the tallest player on the soccer pitch by any means, Allen is a striker in the mold of a perpetual motion machine – constantly on the move, searching for a chance to score for the West Valley Eagles.

“She’s a spark plug kind of a player,” her coach, Shelli Totten said. “She’s the kind of player who isn’t afraid to get in there and mix it up. She’s not afraid to get in there and make a hard tackle. She’s created more than a few opportunities for us that way.”

For Allen, a junior three-year starter for the Eagles, it’s just the way the game should be played.

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was about 6 years old,” she said. “You can’t really get into the leagues until you turn 11, but I’ve been playing for a long time.”

Her sister, Jamie, played for the Eagles before graduating in 2002, and that connection has been a help for Allie.

“I think having a sister come through the program helped,” Totten said. “I remember Allie coming to our games when she was still in junior high. I think when you’ve been exposed to the program that long, especially when you have a sibling playing, it helps.”

When Allen first joined the program, Totten used her on defense. She then moved her up to play in the midfield before pairing her with fellow junior Lindsay Hood at striker this season.

“I think Lindsay and I are beginning to really have a feel for the way we each play,” Allen said. “I’m really beginning to enjoy playing striker with her.”

“I still will move her back to play in the midfield if we need her there,” Totten said. “I have a few other players who can play forward.”

The appeal of playing in the midfield, Allen admitted, is the way those position players have a hand in playing both offense and defense.

“There’s something about being in the middle of everything,” she laughed.

Allen has been in the middle of quite a bit for the Eagles. She set up Hood’s goal in a 2-1 win over Deer Park to start the season. Both scored as West Valley built a 3-0 lead against Shadle Park in the Greater Spokane League opener, only to see that lead vanish in the final 32 minutes of play in a 4-3 loss. All told, Allen has four goals and a pair of assists going into Friday’s showdown with Valley rival East Valley.

“You always go out there and play to win every game,” Allen said. “But with the way the league is set up, you especially want to play your best against the other Class 3A teams. There are five teams and only four make the playoffs. You want to make sure you qualify for the playoffs and you want to establish yourself against those other teams.”

Allen has established herself as a team leader for West Valley.

“We had a big senior class last year,” she said. “We had two groups of players who had played club soccer together and they were the team’s leaders. When they graduated, that left a pretty big hole to fill – seven or eight starters.

“We’ve had to kind of find ourselves a little bit this year. We’re one of those teams that doesn’t have a lot of depth the way some programs have. Our junior varsity players are generally all new to soccer and don’t have a lot of experience.

“Our junior class probably has the most experience this year. There’s a core of us that used to play on the same club team before it disbanded, so we have experience together. We want to support this year’s senior leaders, but at the same time, we have to take some of the responsibility this year, too.”

That’s another area where Totten is pleased with Allen’s abilities.

“She has a lot of good ideas,” Totten said. “She has good leadership skills.

“Where we’ve had trouble is that we’re pretty inexperienced. We’re working on that, but it takes time.”

Part of the team’s challenge this year has been to find more aggression on the offensive end.

“Part of our philosophy is to play strong on defense – defense wins championships,” Allen said. “Especially in this league, you have to play strong on defense. There are teams that can score a lot of goals on you really fast.”

“We’ve got to find some of that killer instinct,” Totten said. “That comes with experience, so we’ll get there.”