Football: Allman guides Austin Westlake to Class 5A Division I title game

Taking the time to appreciate the moment isn’t always easy when a dream comes true.

For Darren Allman, the process took nearly an entire day.

Right after Austin Westlake clinched a spot in the state championship game by beating Katy Cinco Ranch 42-27 last week, Allman immediately flipped on the radio to listen to the other Class 5A Division I semifinal between Euless Trinity and Round Rock Stony Point.

As soon as Euless Trinity advanced, Allman and the rest of his coaching staff had to get the film from the Trojans and start breaking it down.

No time to savor the moment.

“For us, it just moves so quickly into that next opponent,” said Allman, the head coach at Permian from 2005 to 2008. “You have such a short time to get ready. Whether it’s Week 6, Week 12 or Week 16, the timeline and focus are the same.”

In his first year at Austin Westlake, Darren Allman has taken the Chaparrals to state.

But he still has one job left to do.

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When Allman took over at Austin Westlake, he had a long laundry list of tasks to get done before the Chaparrals started spring practice.

Besides bringing four coaches — offensive line coach Ted Willmann, inside linebackers coach Matt Anastasio, defensive line coach Lee Rabe and offensive coordinator Jeff Rhoads — who were originally supposed to spend the year at Permian, Allman had to fill out the rest of the staff.

Luckily, Austin Westlake already had a top program in place.

To find coaches for those other eight slots, he simply had to look at the staff former Chaparrals head coach Derek Long left behind.

“While that transition was happening, I was sharing philosophy, program requirements with coaches here,” Allman said. “Turned out I didn’t have to remove any people to create spots for those guys in Odessa.”

Taking a team that had played a traditional I-formation, two-back offense and a 50-front on defense and turning it into the Florida two-back, multiple-formation offense and 3-4 defense Allman ran at Permian was never going to be easy.

And the job became even harder when Austin Westlake’s best player, David Durham, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound linebacker committed to Ohio State, moved back to North Carolina because his dad received a transfer.

“Even if there were some similarities, it would have been a total turnover in terminology,” Allman said. “Routes, blocking schemes, defensive fronts, coverages, everything changed.”

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Allman had a few key pieces in place.

Returning quarterback Tanner Price, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound quarterback with an ability to take care of the ball and make the tough yards in the running game — to Allman, Price is a dead ringer for Trevor Adams — anchored the offense.

And Austin Westlake had Bryce Hager, the son of former Permian great Britt Hager, to play middle linebacker.

“If you grew up in the 80s, at any age, you knew who Britt Hager was,” said Allman, who played at Permian in the mid-1980s. “He’s still one of the best guys to come through there.”

And Allman had his time at Permian.

To teach the kids the system, Allman and the coaching staff showed the Chaparrals films of Permian games. Pointed out the players who manned their spots.

Taught the kids their responsibilities through the movements of his players at Permian.

“So far, it’s been a totally different scheme for these kids,” said Britt Hager, who spends his afternoons at practice, and has a younger son, Braven, at defensive tackle. “It took some time, but the kids grabbed onto it.”

Led by Hager, a first-team All-State pick, the defense picked up the schemes right away. For the offense, though, the transition took some time. Austin Westlake dropped a nondistrict game to Class 4A power Austin Lake Travis, and a district game to Bastrop.

But then the offense caught fire.

‘It timed out perfectly,” Allman said. “By the time we hit Week 10, the offense really hit its stride.”

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Led by the tandem of Price and Hager, Austin Westlake has rolled through the playoffs, relying on a turnover margin that has the Chaparrals at plus-31.

Every day, Allman thinks about his time at Permian.

“A lot of people have stayed in touch, and that means a lot to us,” Allman said. “Not a day goes by that we don’t talk about Permian. It’s a part of us, and it always will be.”

But Allman is in Austin now, taking a team to the state title game.

Right after the win over Katy Cinco Ranch, Allman started preparing for Euless Trinity. But as he headed out to the practice field Monday, Allman looked at his watch.

And realized it’s already Dec. 14th. That’s when it started to set in.

“From a head coach’s standpoint, you take such joy in it for the other people involved,” Allman said. “Coaches who came here from Odessa, coaches here who weren’t sure what was going to happen to them, the kids facing a lot of uncertainty who knew nothing about me.”

Now, the uncertainty is gone.

And there’s one step left to take. 

THE BASICS

>> What: Class 5A Division I Texas Bowl.

>> Who: Austin Westlake (13-2) vs. Euless Trinity (13-2).

>> When, where: 2 p.m. today, Alamodome, San Antonio.

>> TV: FSNSW.

>> Of note: Darren Allman, Permian’s head coach from 2005-08 and a 1987 Permian graduate, is Westlake’s head coach.