Clay Allen Named Goucher Men's Tennis Coach
TOWSON, Md. – Goucher College Director of Athletics and Associate Dean of Students Andrew Wu announced Friday that Clay Allen has been named head coach of the Goucher men's tennis program and will begin his duties on Monday, December 6.
"I want to thank Andrew Wu and the rest of the Goucher staff for giving me the opportunity to lead the Gopher men's tennis program," said Allen. "The Goucher program has had some great success over the past decade with coaches like Brendan Kincaid and Eric Spangler and I hope to follow in their footsteps. I am excited to lead Goucher men's tennis to not only Landmark Conference and regional success, but national success as well."
"The men's tennis program has enjoyed an excellent several years, and I'm confident that Coach Allen will continue to build on that solid foundation," said Wu of Allen. "Clay was recommended to me by multiple individuals as a great fit and he showed very quickly during the interview process that he understood both the potential and challenges of this role. I'm thrilled he's joining us and excited to watch this program thrive under his leadership.
Most recently, Allen was the head coach of the men's and women's tennis programs at McPherson College, an NAIA program in McPherson, Kansas. In his lone full season he guided the men's program to a 14-2 record, the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) championship and an NAIA tournament berth. The women's program finished 10-5 and reached the KCAC semifinals.
Allen spent three seasons (2017-2020) as an assistant coach at Centennial Conference program Washington College. During his tenure in Chestertown, he coached Koby Bonta to the men's Centennial Conference All-Conference team. In 2018 the Shorewomen were regionally ranked and reached the Centennial semifinals, while that same season the Shoremen also qualified for the Centennial championship.
He began his coaching career as the head boys tennis coach at Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia) from 2015-17.
Allen played four years of collegiate tennis at Colby-Sawyer College (New London, N.H.), graduating with the fifth-most singles wins in team history and playing for three NCAA Division III Tournament teams (2013, 2014, 2015). He was named his team's MVP as a senior and twice earned All-North Athletic Conference (NAC) honors in singles, landing on the first team in 2013 and the second team in 2012. He was also a member of Colby-Sawyer's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for three years.
He earned his Bachelor's in Sports Communications with a focus in Media Studies from Colby-Sawyer in 2015.
Allen inherits a Goucher men's tennis program that captured four straight Landmark Conference championships from 2016-19 and reached the conference semifinals in the shortened 2021 spring campaign.