College Baseball Daily has learned current Illinois assistant coach Spencer Allen will be named the new head coach at Northwestern University. Allen has spent the past season as an assistant coach with the University of Illinois leading them to them to the Super Regionals. Before heading to Champaign, he spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Creighton.
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EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Jim Phillips announced today, June 14, 2015, that Spencer Allen will take the reigns as the 26th head coach of the Wildcats baseball program.
“To be named the head baseball coach and join the Northwestern University family is a tremendous honor and opportunity,” said Allen. “The combination of a highly regarded athletic department and a prestigious academic institution was very appealing to me. My family and I are extremely excited for this new opportunity at Northwestern.
“Jim Phillips and the Northwestern staff devoted a great deal of time to this search,” said Allen. “Their passion and dedication illustrated the level of commitment that the entire athletic department has for the future of Wildcats baseball.
“Our goal will be to improve each day, both on and off the field. My staff and I will work together to make this a world-class experience for the student-athletes,” said Allen. “I am grateful for the opportunity to lead the current and future Wildcats, and to connect with our dedicated alums and supporters, as we strive to win championships at Northwestern.”
Allen comes to Northwestern after serving as an assistant coach at Illinois in 2015. He helped the Fighting Illini set the school record with 50 wins and win the first NCAA Regional in program history. Illinois won its 30th Big Ten championship this spring, and it earned the No. 6 overall seed for the 2015 NCAA Baseball Championship, marking only the second time that a Big Ten program earned a national seed.
Under Allen’s tutelage, the Illini ranked near the top of the Big Ten in numerous offensive categories, leading the league in hits, runs, RBIs, total bases, home runs and slugging percentage in 2015. The team won a school-record 27 consecutive games between March 30-May 20, falling only seven games shy of matching the NCAA record of 34.
“We are incredibly thrilled to be able to welcome Spencer Allen, his wife Jessica and their daughter Jada, to the Northwestern family,” said Phillips. “His tremendous talent and leadership have been shining examples in collegiate athletics and we are excited that he is bringing those gifts to our student-athletes and this community. Whether it is in the classroom, the community or on the field, Spencer has truly been successful at every step of his journey, and to that end we are confident that he is the right man to lead our baseball program into the future.
“Throughout our exhaustive search process, Coach Allen’s name came up continuously as one of the very best recruiters and top teachers of the game nationwide,” said Phillips. “Amongst those in the college baseball community, he is widely considered to be one of the brightest young coaches in the game anywhere in the country.”
Prior to his stint with Illinois, Allen served a two-year stretch as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Creighton. The Bluejays won 62 games in 2013-14 and the BIG EAST regular-season championship during its first season in the league in 2014. That was Allen’s second stay in Omaha, as he also worked on staff during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. The 2005 squad won 48 games and the first Missouri Valley Conference championship in program history.
From 2010-12, Allen worked as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Washington State University, where he helped those squads average more than 30 wins per season.
Before returning to his home state, the Olympia, Wash., native spent time on staff with another Big Ten program, Purdue. Allen was the recruiting coordinator for the Boilermakers during the 2008-09 campaigns. Additionally, he has worked as a scout in the Detroit Tigers organization, and as a volunteer coach at Iowa (2004). Allen’s coaching career began at Edmonds Community College in 2002, where he was an assistant coach.
Allen played three seasons at Iowa State from 1999-2001. He was a team captain during his final season and a 2001 All-Big XII Academic selection.
Allen succeeds the legendary Paul Stevens who retired following the 2015 season. Stevens, the head coach of the Wildcats from 1988-2015, dedicated 31 years to the Northwestern baseball program and finished his tenure as the winningest manager in program history.
“It is a privilege to follow in the footsteps of the man who won more games than anyone in program history in Paul Stevens,” said Allen. “I am incredibly grateful to him for his 31 years of service to Northwestern University.”
Allen is married to the former Jessica Draemel, a former softball student-athlete at Stanford University, where she helped the Cardinal reach the 2001 Women’s College World Series. The couple has one daughter, Jada.
