Ray of Sunshine

You’re exactly right,” said Tim Allen, executive associate athletics director at the University of Central Florida, in response to my question:

Was UCF’s hiring of Mara Allen (no relation to Tim) a case of a big-time athletic department looking at NCAA women’s rowing, and its 20 scholarships, and figuring that if the university hired one of the great coaches working as an underpaid assistant, UCF could be competing at the NCAA championships in short order?

Little wonder UCF pursued Mara; her rowing resume is platinum. She has won championships and led crews since her days as a junior oarswoman at Marin Rowing Association, where she was team captain. At the University of California, Berkeley, Allen was part of two NCAA-championship crews (2005 and 2006) and captain her last two years.

She won the 2009 World Rowing Championships in the U.S. women’s eight before joining her Cal coach, Dave O’Neil, on his staff at the University of Texas. With Allen on the coaching staff, the Longhorns won two NCAA championships, and in 2023, as associate head coach, she trained and guided the Texas four who won their event at NCAAs.

“I’ve known Mara for a really long time and I’ve enjoyed every moment working with her,” said O’Neil, “both way back in the days at Cal as a student-athlete and in the years working with her coaching at Texas.”

At UCF, by contrast, life was not so rosy, as rowers on the women’s team clashed with their coach about training standards. The discord led to the suspension and eventual resignation of Becky Cramer, who had coached at UCF for 20 years, first as an assistant, and then, from 2008 on, as head coach.

During her time in Orlando, Cramer led the Knights to five consecutive NCAA-championship appearances between 2015 and 2019, but it didn’t end well, and Athletic Director Terry Mohajir, who is also a vice president of the university, made changes to the rowing program as UCF moved from the American Athletic Conference up to the Power Five conference Big 12—the big leagues of NCAA sports.

UCF is serious about athletic success and isn’t shy about describing Mohajir’s job: “hiring coaches who win championships, raising money for first-class athletics facilities and support resources necessary to be nationally competitive.”

Tim Allen served as director of football operations at big-time football schools Kansas, Minnesota, and Michigan State during some of the best years in each program’s history. Mohajir had worked with Allen at Kansas and invited him to join the senior management team at UCF.

“When [legendary football coach] Mark Dantonio retired at Michigan State, Terry asked me if I wanted to come be on his senior management team. I didn’t want to be involved with football any more, so I was here for a couple years, and then last spring Terry made a change in rowing.

“I walked in the day the change happened, and he said, ‘Hey, you want to be the sport administrator for rowing?’, and I can tell you it’s been one of the great experiences of my life.

“When I started the search, the first thing I did was call some of the top coaches in the country, and one name kept coming up: Mara Allen.”

In the spring, Tim Allen was in Austin visiting family and had lunch with Mara.

“I couldn’t have been more impressed,” recalled Tim. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is exactly who we are looking for.’”

But Mara Allen had no plans to leave a place where she was successful and happy. She told Tim she was flattered that he took the time to interview her but there was only “about a five percent chance” she would say goodbye to Texas.

“I walked out and I called Terry [Mojahir] on the phone. I said, ‘Terry, I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is this is exactly who we want. She fits perfectly’” into UCF’s plans to elevate its rowing program to national prominence.

“The bad news is that I’m not sure she’s interested.”

So Tim Allen continued his search, staying in touch with Mara Allen by text. When she was at nearby Nathan Benderson Park for the USRowing Youth National Championships in June, Allen convinced her and and her husband to visit UCF and it’s fully buoyed 2,000-meter course on a private lake with student-athlete housing that resembles an Olympic Village.

No one would speak on the record about the size of UCF’s offer, but it was described as “life-changing,” while Texas lost Allen by refusing to pony up a raise in the single-digit thousands of dollars.

“We gave her a five-year contract because we want her to know that we are totally committed to her. We’re going to make this work,” said Tim Allen. “To be quite honest, she’s exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were high.”

“What I love about UCF is that it feels like a small athletic department right now that’s in its growth stage,” said Mara Allen.

O’Neil, who fought to keep Mara Allen at Texas, is gracious about Allen’s taking the head-coaching job at UCF.

“She’s a valued friend,” O’Neil said, “and I’m really proud of her and excited to see what she turns the UCF program into.”

“She’s done a great job. She’s hired a really good staff,” said Tim Allen. “They’re aggressive, they’re positive, and they know how to build a team.”

“The same reason that I came to UCF is a reason for any 17-, 18-, or 19-year old to come as well,” Mara Allen said. “We can get in on the ground floor and we’re looking to move up and do great things over the next four or five years.

“We focus a lot on rowing and spending time in boats and spending time on the water. Rowing is the sport. So let’s do that. And then if we do well at that, that is the reward.”

Senior rower Teegan Fookes, who has experienced all the changes at UCF, loves rowing for Allen.

“I cannot speak highly enough of Mara,” Fookes said. “She is not only an incredible coach but also an incredible person. She really cares about us as athletes and people. She’s so driven, and the culture she brings to the team—enjoying the hard work and being out there—has made UCF an awesome place.

“I’ve definitely seen a huge shift,” said sophomore Tash Voulanas, “to an environment where the athletes on the team strive to improve, to make changes that may not come easily, and to become the best versions of themselves.”

In Allen’s first season, UCF hasn’t shied from competition. The Knights hosted the University of Connecticut and Jacksonville University at home, a victorious start to the season, and then made the first of three short trips to Sarasota’s Nathan Benderson Park to face 15 other Division I programs in the Sunshine State Invitational, finishing second overall.

As this issue went to press, UCF was preparing to return to Benderson to race higher-ranked schools at the Big 10 Invitational and will compete there again in the Big 12 championships. It’s a brutal racing schedule for any team but especially for a first-year, first-time head coach taking over a program emerging from turmoil.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Mara Allen. “But we’re getting some things figured out. It’s been good.

“Most of the administrative staff here also were coaches, so everyone above me supporting me understands what my job entails, and that is really special, because at a lot of universities, the administrators have always been administrators.”

UCF began receiving votes in April in the third weekly Pocock CRCA Coaches Poll. If the Knights make it into the top 20, the athletic administration will be “over the moon,” Mara Allen said.

Meanwhile, Allen is dealing with the same challenges as any other coach of young adults.

“We had a team meeting this morning about the fact that words matter. Words are really important—how they talk to each other, how they talk to the trainer, how they talk to me, how they talk about me—all of that matters. Those kinds of life lessons will help them become not only better athletes, I hope, but also better people.”

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