Geoff Allen Answers Community’s Call For Coaching Baseball

For much of his life, the pursuit of two sounds has led Geoff Allen on an experience-filled journey across North America, albeit in a roundabout way.

Fire alarms and the call ‘Play ball!’ — always with an exclamation point — have brought him to what he is today: a 13-year veteran with Niagara Falls Fire Department, coach of player development for the Greater Niagara Baseball Association, and sport lead for baseball at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara.

And, winner of the Doug Austin Memorial Award this year as Niagara Falls sportsperson of the year.

Presented annually, the tribute honours the memory of Austin, a longtime sports editor of the Niagara Falls Review, and recognizes outstanding contribution to sports at the community level.

Had it not been for Paul Aucoin, a one-time owner of the Brantford Red Sox, when they were a perennial powerhouse in the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), Allen would not need to work on an acceptance speech for the prestigious award.

He wouldn’t have been encouraged to give back to the game, after his hips and knees gave out after parts of 14 seasons in the IBL.

“The owner in Brantford always said, ‘You guys have to give back to the sport of baseball. You guys are all great at what you do. Everyone would be missing out if you don’t,’” Allen, now 42, said.

“I took that to heart and I’ve been able to coach the older ages, and now I’m down at the eight-year-old level.

“I’m looking forward to coming up with the younger ages.”

Baseball took the Hamilton native to Taft College in southern California, where he worked on campus to pay his tuition while catching every pitch in every game. From there, it was eight seasons in the IBL with the Hamilton Cardinals and four league championships in a row with Brantford, before firefighting took him to Durham College in Oshawa and Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

He even got to live at Big White Ski Resort in Kelowna, B.C., for a year after graduating and before being hired by Niagara Falls Fire Department.

“They only have 200 people in the summer, but in the winter the population is up to 18,000 so they hired people like myself, out of school,” he said.

“You’re basically a volunteer firefighter, but you respond right out of the hall and we lived in the hall.”

The competitive juices have hardly stopped flowing for Allen since his last at-bat in the IBL.

Before COVID-19 cancelled the Niagara District Baseball Association senior men’s season, Allen was looking forward to getting back on the field with the Niagara Falls Expos.

“This is my first year in 38 years that I didn’t play a game. I ruptured my Achilles tendon and I lucked out. There were no games to play,” he said with a chuckle.

Ever the coach, Allen suffered the injury teaching a sprinting program for high school-age baseball players, all of them young enough to be his sons.

“He thinks he’s young but he’s not as young as he thinks he is,” Shannon Allen said of her husband, with a laugh.

Allen was living in Hamilton, playing with the Cardinals and commuting to Niagara Falls for his firefighting job when the couple met. When it comes to following fire alarms and “Play ball!” he hasn’t changed all that much over the years, according to his wife.

“He’s always either doing something for work or something for baseball ever since I’ve met him,” she said.

Allen, who this year coached his six-year-old son, Markus, with the under-8 Niagara Falls Falcons, is able to take the game in stride when it comes to coaching. His approach from the dugout is not to win at all costs.

“He definitely wants to win but he doesn’t get upset, by any means,” his wife said.

Allen is surprised by how much joy he continues to get from baseball after making the transition to coach from player.