LITCHFIELD – A little more than a year ago, Bobby Allan was a lot like many other recent college graduates in a tough economy. While searching for a job in his field he signed on with a local landscaping company to help pay the bills.
Last November, in following the want ads he noticed that Campbell High School in Litchfield was looking for a paraprofessional to work with a special education student, and boys and girls sub-varsity basketball coaches.
Allan applied for all the jobs, thinking he was probably better suited to coach boys because he had never coached a girls team. But during the interview process Allan, a former varsity basketball player at Merrimack High School who graduated from New England College with degrees in kinesiology and physical education, was intrigued by the prospect of coaching a girls team.
“It wasn’t just about physical toughness and quickness,’’ Allan said. “It was the movement and the timing and the technicalities, going to school for kinesiology that was the basis for everything.’’
He signed on and now, still a paraprofessional at Campbell, he is the school’s new varsity girls basketball coach.
Shawn Flynn, who guided the Cougars to five straight championship games, resigned last summer to take on the challenge of coaching in a higher division at Merrimack.
Allan figured he was a longshot to take over such a successful program at the age of 24, but athletic director John Patterson apparently liked what he heard during the interview process.
“We’ve tried to keep the same flow, the same feeling we had when Shawn was around,’’ said Allan, who coached Campbell’s junior varsity to a 10-6 record last winter.![]()
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