BACK TO THE FUTURE...with Allen Mack returning to the bench and plenty of talent returning, the Vikings look to get back to the level they were a decade ago.

Story by Bob Moore

The Allen Mack File

• Current Position: Junior High Principal at Miami East Junior High. 15 years as a Math Teacher and the last 6 years as Principal, all at Miami East.
• High School: 1983 Covington Buccanear (Valedictorian)
• College: Manchester College
• Coaching Career: Returns to his 15th season has head coach after a 6 year break. Career record 219 – 104 with only two losing seasons in 14 years. Went to the State Tournament during his tenure at Miami East 3 times (1992, 1996 (Champs) and 2001 (against Lebron).

You could almost hear the cheers from the Miami East school district reverberate through the whole conference when it was announced that Allen Mack was returning as Miami East’s head boys basketball coach. While the east side of Miami County shook, the rest of the basketball world in the CCC with any knowledge of Mack’s coaching resume raised a curious eyebrow. ‘Mack is back’ they thought. Instantly the thought of a State Championship and two other appearances in the final 4 raised the ‘street cred’ of every team in the conference. The Mack attack is back and he doesn’t come with a large fry and Diet Coke.

While I make it sound like Allen Mack is making a triumphant march back to coaching after being courted by every mom and dad on the athletic boosters, it is quite the opposite. It was Allen who sought the position and the approval of the School Superintendent before he even submitted his application.

You see Allen Mack missed coaching, but not for the state championships and the accolades of being a successful coach. He missed the relationships. Since Allen Mack values the relationship with his employer he wasn’t going to apply for the job without getting the OK.

“I think it really surprised a lot of people initially because over that time (away from coaching) I really wasn’t involved with the high school program. That was intentional and partly my choice of being involved with things I wanted to be involved in with my new job, coaching youth sports and family activities. I felt the time was right to see if it was a possibility and the Superintendent, Athletic Director and school board were supportive of me applying for the job and being a Principal and a Varsity Coach.”

Once he applied for the job the resume spoke for itself.

Allen Mack began his teaching career at Miami East in the fall of 1987 after graduating from Manchester College. He taught math for 15 years and 14 of those 15 years he was the varsity boys’ basketball coach. After coaching JV his first year, he became the varsity coach after the program sustained 10 losing seasons in a row. In his first year coaching, the Vikings were 7 – 14. There was but one losing season in the next 14 years. Subtract the first year off the career record of 219 and 104, the Vikings averaged over 16 wins and just under 7 losses per season. By the time career one was over Miami East made three appearances in the final four and brought home the State Championship in 1996. Before the Mack years the Vikings had one district championship in 1961.

Mack enters his 6th year as the Junior High Principal (6th – 8th grade) at Miami East. He notes that he has an excellent staff to work with and that the students at Miami East are pretty good students. He noted that the school district and the Jr. High received an Excellent rating last year on the State Achievement Tests. With his priorities in place you understand why he sought the counsel of the Superintendent and others before putting in application for the coaching position.

It doesn’t take long into a conversation to realize that Allen Mack is the ultimate team player. You sense immediately that it is in the relationships that he has with his family, employer, assistant coaches and team that success has found him over the years.

The other impression you get is balance. He is a very smart, humble person, who is quiet spoken, and appreciative of the blessings and good fortunes that have met him during his coaching, teaching and personal life. You also sense a very determined person, who is confident, disciplined, competitive, while displaying a Teddy Roosevelt, ‘walk silently and carry a big stick’ demeanor.

In his basketball life, Mack gives credit to the coaches he was exposed to as a player in high school as a Covington Buccaneer and the assistant coaches that have sat next to him during his career as Miami East Viking.

Mack played basketball and baseball at Covington, and as he explains it, “I tell people as a student athlete that I was a better student than I was an athlete!”

Mack was a role player his Junior and Senior years on teams coached by the most successful coach in Covington boys’ basketball history, Bob Huelsman (won 77% of games played). The assistant coach was also a successful coach as Steve Fisher led Bethel to the State Championship in 2001. As valedictorian of the Class of ’83, Mack paid attention in the class room, but he also absorbed and paid attention while sitting next to the coaches on the bench.

“Growing up as a player at Covington I took a lot from their program” noted Mack.

The zone defense played by the Buccs during his playing days is very similar to the zone D that Miami East played during his first 14 years and will likely be the D of choice as this year’s team continues to develop.

“Team work was emphasized greatly there,” noted Mack and is certainly one of the parts of his previous teams’ success at Miami East.

Keys to Success

Coaching Staff
Mack believes one of big keys in the success at Miami East during Mack’s first 14 years was the assembled coaching staff.

Consistency within a coaching staff is one of the facts that Mack uses when noting successful teams at the high school level. One example he noted was Al Hetrick and his football program at Versailles. “When you look at Versailles and Al Hetrick on how many years he was there, I think you also need to look on how long his assistants were there.”

“I’ve been blessed to have great coaches in our system.” Paul Hershberger was his assistant coach for 12 years and he and all the coaches had a big part in their success. The camaraderie and the coaching staff‘s common focus is a big part to a successful team. “It’s also one of the fun parts of coaching when you have a staff that you enjoy being with.”

This year’s coaching staff and the commitment they have shown is one reason why he is excited about coming back to coaching.

Rick Hickman was on the coaching staff as a Varsity Assistant last year and his son Dan returns as the leading scorer. Hickman was head coach at Troy Christian, coached on the college level, and brings similar experience to that Coach Mack saw in Coach Hershberger.

Justin Roeth is the JV coach. He was a backup post player on the ’96 team that won the state championship. “Justin is a bright, young coach and is highly motivated in his teaching and his coaching.” Roeth also coached outside of the Miami East school system at Vandalia Butler before returning home.

The Freshman and Junior High coaches also return from last year.

“I feel that I have some guys with experience and knowledge to help guide the players and to give me some insights as well. In addition to that, I feel fortunate that they are just great people. They are going to be great influences for the kids in our basketball program to be around.”

“A big part of having a successful season” noted Coach Mack, “is that staff around you. So many times it is overlooked by people just coming to watch the varsity teams on a Friday or Saturday night.”

Defense
Defense is the number one focus. “It’s an old cliche, but ‘offense wins games and defense wins championships’ and I am a believer in that” said Mack. “It was a big part of our success in getting our kids to commit on playing hard on the defensive end and I would probably include rebounding in that since it kind of goes hand in hand to secure the ball on the rebound. That has been our vestige. As we went through the summer and were allowed to coach the kids what the state allows, that was the first thing we started with.”

The defense of choice: Zone. “We tend to play a lot of zone. I think it is important for the coach to have confidence in a particular defense or at least a system that you can get the job done in a number of different ways based on your kids and talents. We played a lot of zone and I think our kids knew their roles and responsibilities in that defense.”

Teamwork
“Trying to convey the importance of teamwork and accepting roles that will help the team be successful is another key part” stated Mack.

When asked whether that is harder now than it was 15 years ago, he replied, “I think it is the same challenges as when I started. It’s a game where individual plays are highlighted and celebrated on TV for the Pros and College. It was a challenge then and it still is a challenge to get players to mesh together, play to their strengths and yet still develop that teamwork.”

I asked if being a role player at Covington helped him relate to the role players that he coached and in part helped his teams to be more successful. He noted that it really didn’t, plus he can recall numerous coaches that were star players that coached successful teams. He did say that even though he was not the star player, that he totally enjoyed being associated with the successful teams at Covington. His senior year the Buccs were one point away from making their own appearance into the final 4.

He notes that school sports and church activities are an important part of small rural communities like Miami East and other communities in the CCC. Team sports and extra curricular activities are important because you learn about hard work, team work, commitment, and the focus it takes to be a part of a successful team.

Balance
Great teams have talent that is balanced between a good point guard, post player and a player that can shoot the three. Allen Mack knows that coaches don’t win basketball games and no coach has success unless he has talented players.

“It goes without saying that a lot of our keys to success were our talented players. We had some outstanding point guards in those 14 years I was varsity coach and I was fortunate enough to have some players that were there 2 to 3 years as a starter. With post people we had decent enough size all three years that we went to the state. It seems like we were always fortunate enough to have another guard or a wing player that could shoot in the three. You have to have that balance in your offense so people have to respect all five players on the court.”

“Another thing we have tried to emphasize is that not everybody shoots the same amount, but if you’re on the court you have a role to be ready to score if you are open. I remember a shot that one of our players who wasn’t a big scorer hit to win the state in ’92. Another kid who was not a starter the whole year hit a big shot in the semis when we won the state. We want a player that’s open to take the shot versus forcing it to a certain person. We’ll try to develop the same type of thing. One person may do more scoring than another, which is going to be the case most of the time; but you still want to develop the threats from all your players.”

The State Tourney Appearances - 92, ’96, ‘01
When you consider that some coaches go their whole career without a district championship, let alone a state appearance, it is quite remarkable that a small public school in rural Miami County makes three appearances within nine years with a State Championship stuck in the middle in ’96.

The Arcanum Trojans and Dick Graef were the only team and coach on a CCC type of scale able to do that in a similar tri-fecta from ’67, ’69 and ’76 with their State Championship in ’69.

After talking about what makes and will make a successful team and knowing all the factors that it takes to make it through a tourney run, I asked Coach Mack, “How special was it to make not one, but three trips to Columbus?”

“It was very special” noted Coach Mack. “When we went in ’92 and lost in the first round in the State semis, it was echoed that this is a once in a lifetime type thing. It was first time that Miami East had been to the State and only their second time past the District game since 1960-61. And then to be able to get back a couple more times and coach a team that won the State Championship and then lost to a team in the finals that some polls had in the top 5 in the country (Lebron James) and the player of the year in the nation.” You can say we had some breaks. Each of those runs had some close games in them.”

“In ’96 we won the State with a 13 – 7 regular season record. That team served as a model for our other teams because you don’t always need a great regular season to have a successful tournament run. You hear that a lot from other coaches that ‘Hey, it’s a second season,’ but that sure was a model for our other teams after that.”

“That was certainly a special time for our kids and we would love to create some special memories and give them some opportunities to experience that at Miami East. But, those are the kind of things you want the kids to dream about. You really want them to focus on what really matters and that is preparing to win the game at hand, doing the things right for that game and improving each game. To be successful you must know how to play the game.”

The words quoted above were what stuck with me in my conversation with Allen Mack. You realize that success found Allen Mack because he prepared himself for the next step. Opportunity is what was seized and success just happened to be the end result.

You know that place; Opportunity. It is where luck and preparedness happen to meet.

You can bet that Miami East will be prepared under the helm of Allen Mack and his assistant coaches.

Like the successful teams that he was fortunate to coach, Allen Mack appears to have balance with his administrative, coaching and family life.

Either way, I’m sure anyone associated with Allen Mack is thankful that they have a team player on their side.