“Someone of inspiration for me was Christian Collins, who gave me a perfect example of what it means to be a Notre Dame running back,” said junior Kingston Allen.
Collins, who graduated in May, led the Triton football team to last year’s state championship and now plays at Northern Iowa University.
Allen started playing football in fourth grade and is interested in playing college football. He currently holds three offers to play Division 1 football.
He doesn’t have specific personal goals, but his overall goal is to do whatever it takes for his team to win.
Another person who has helped Allen develop so well as a running back is Head Coach Mike Rader and all of the coaches that he has had up to this point.
He also appreciates the support from his family.
“I am grateful for my mom and my grandpa for always being at every game and cheering me on and my grandpa who taught me everything about football from a very young age.”
A big challenge for him is finding a way to calm down before games.
“I always get too worked up, and to ease my mind I have started listening to R & B music before games instead of loud hype sounds,” said Allen.
Going to state last year was a great experience, he explained, because it taught him what the end goal was.
The environment was “amazing” and showed him what it means to be at the top.
“The best thing about it is how addictive it is, and now the only thing I want is to be back at state,” said the junior.
In his opinion, the best feeling in any sport is scoring a touchdown.
Before a game the team has to lock in as a team to get the job done, but if they win, they like to go to The Distillery and get some food.
Besides football Allen also participates in track, and a fun fact about him is that he is colorblind.
“I see myself being the best teammate possible and after high school continuing what I’ve been doing my whole football career up to this point, which is working to get better and better,” said the running back.
One person who appreciates Allen’s attitude and believes “he is capable of anything he puts his mind towards” is Track Coach Cassidy McGowan.
“Kingston has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, but he handles those pressures with grace and humility. Both in and out of the classroom he is a stand-up guy. We all know he is our running back and is already having a monster year, but this past spring he was the anchor on the school record-breaking 4 x 1 team, and he set the school long jump record which had stood since 1991,” said McGowan. “We are all thankful that Kingston Allen came to Notre Dame Academy to share his gifts with us.”
