Golf, Bowling, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley.
Favorite team: All Philly sports teams. Favorite of them is the Eagles.
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite memory is throwing a perfect game in the championship when I was 11.
Funniest/most embarrassing thing that has happened while competing in sports: The most embarrassing thing was definitely losing 23-0 in one of my games.
Music on playlist: My playlist spreads out a lot. I enjoy some country as well as a bit of rap and some others. My favorite country song is “Jersey Giant” by Evan Honer. My favorite rap song currently is “Fight the Feeling” by Rod Wave. And my favorite songs outside of those are “Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Ho Hey” The Lumineers, or “Some Nights” by Fun.
Future plans: My future plans are to play college baseball at St Bonaventure, majoring in criminal justice hopefully ending in the FBI.
Words to live by: One of my favorite sayings is “You are what you eat.” I believe you will be who and what you surround yourself with, so choose the right people and do the right things.
One goal before turning 30: To be married to an amazing person and have at least one beautiful child.
One thing people don’t know about me” I have far more emotion than I show.
By Mary Jane Souder
Austin Allen just might be the best three-sport athlete you've never heard of.
It turns out the Harry S Truman senior excels in two sports that don’t find their way into the headlines – golf and bowling – and a third for a baseball team that has struggled to win consistently in recent years.
The Truman senior, however, caught the eye of college scouts at a Prep Baseball Report (PBR) Showcase last summer, and that’s all it took. The senior southpaw will be taking his talents to St. Bonaventure this fall (more on that later).
Brian Sinkiewicz got the idea that Allen was the owner of an arm baseball coaches would covet at – of all things – Truman’s annual dodgeball tournament the day before Thanksgiving break.
“I had heard about Austin when he was in middle school,” the Truman baseball coach said. “Austin’s group – their freshmen year – was my first year as head coach.
“I was a referee of the dodgeball tournament, which is a rite of passage at Truman. I remember Austin was on one of the teams, and he threw a dodgeball across the gym, and I am like, ‘Oh my – okay, I got it. This is awesome.’”
It has been an opportunity Sinkiewicz would not have wanted to miss.
“What’s cool about Austin is his temperament,” the Tigers’ coach said. “He’s never too high, he’s never too low. He’s just very calm, very coachable.
“Obviously, his first year, we made the playoffs and then the last couple years have been a little bit of a struggle. It’s easy to point fingers, and Austin has never done that. He’s been an amazing teammate.
“Maybe he hasn’t gotten the support that some other pitchers get in our league from their team when it comes to defense and offensive output, but Austin’s never showed a teammate up.”
That would never be a consideration for a student-athlete who has nothing but good things to say about his experience at Truman (and that includes a baseball team that won just three games.
“I feel like the outlook on Truman from everybody outside is just so negative,” Allen said. “But honestly, I’ve been here four years, and I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”
An X sensation
Allen grew up playing baseball but tried his hand at multiple sports. His first taste of baseball would not suggest he had a future in the sport.
“I played T-ball, and I didn’t like it at all,” he said. “It was just so boring – hitting off a tee and going one base at a time. I actually quit after that, and my parents got me to play again when I was seven or eight.
“As soon as I got back, I loved it way more when we could actually play the game.”
Always a pitcher, Allen showed immediate promise.
What began as rec ball turned into a travel team that stayed together until he was 10. That team eventually formed an AAU team of its own called Prospects that stayed together until he was 13. COVID temporarily put a halt to Allen’s summer career, but he stuck with it, and it was his one trip last summer to the PA State Games that his fortunes took a dramatic turn.
“It was crazy honestly because before the scout day, I didn’t really have any college interest,” he said. “Then I go here, I got like Millersville, and then the guy who runs it (Dan Cevette) actually posted a video.
“It said –‘I’m ALL in on Austin Allen.”
Cevette’s comment was in response to a video that was tweeted of the then 6-2, 200-pound rising senior showing his stuff on the mound.
“It was kind of blowing up on X, and from there, it was like every time I checked my phone, there was more college scouts,” he said. “It was pretty crazy.”
Allen visited St. John’s, Old Dominion, Albany and Quinnipiac.
“In the end, I just had to make a decision,” he said. “I had a couple of good offers, but once I went to St. Bonaventure – it was a beautiful campus. I loved all the buildings, the coach was amazing, and it just seemed like a great place to be.”
As for Allen’s strengths as a pitcher, there are many, according to his coach.
“He’s a southpaw, and what is great is that he’s just got so much movement on the ball,” Sinkiewicz said. “A conversation I’ve had with him since freshman year is a lot of people today – we worry so much about velocity. I explained to Austin – it’s not all about velocity. It’s about hitting spots and pitching,
“If you watch Austin pitch on the side, it doesn’t do justice, and you’re like, ‘Man, I can’t believe all these kids are swinging and missing,’ and then you stand behind the backstop, you notice that his two-seam fastball just runs like crazy. When he throws his changeup, it drops off the table, and then he mixes in his curveball.
“His changeup is significantly slower than his fastball. It’s a strength where when guys get on his fastball a little bit, we move to another pitch, and he’s just very versatile in that aspect. He pitches so much with his lower half that he’s never sore the next day – oh, he’s sore, but he just has such a fluid movement. I think he’s one of the better outfielders. When he throws even from the outfield, it looks like a two-seam fastball coming to the catcher. It’s unbelievable.”
As for the Tigers’ struggles, Allen is able to put them in perspective.
“Freshman year, we were good - we went to the playoffs, and that was a great time,” he said. “The last three years have been a struggle, but I’ve known we have the talent to be good. We just need to believe we can be good.”
A captain, he has a lead-by-example style.
“I’ d got to hold my teammates accountable and let them know it’s okay to make mistakes, but you’ve got to learn from then as well,” he said.
Then there’s bowling and golf
Bowling has been part of Allen’s life for as long as he can remember.
“I’m not the biggest fan of bowling, but I would say that I am pretty good at it, so I stuck it out,” he said. “Bowling’s been my whole life.
“I started at Levittown Lanes, and I was probably five, bowling with my aunt and uncle and my brother, and it’s kind of just gone from there. Bowling is kind of like t-ball – it’s just a little boring and takes so long for practices and matches. It runs in the family, so I had to keep it alive.”
Just how good Allen is is evidenced by the fact that he has advanced to regionals in each of the last three years and last year went to states.
Golfing, meanwhile entered the picture later but will undoubtedly be a lifetime passion.
“Golf’s been amazing,” he said. “I’ve played for school all four years, and I play with my dad, so it’s been great.
“That’s something I have to get out in the summer and play.”
There’s no mistaking Allen’s contributions to Truman’s golf team.
“Austin was hands down our number two if not our number one, golfer,” Truman coach Charlie Bachman said. “This was just my best group ever. He’s just an athlete, he’s a natural athlete, and he’s good at anything he does.
“He’s a good kid too. Hundred percent good grades, good kid. The crazy part is if he picked any of those three sports, he would probably get a scholarship for all of them if he wanted to.”
The past two seasons have been the best in program history.
“And Austin was part of that. We shot the lowest scores we’ve ever shot, and he was part of those low scores, so we did great,” Bachman said. “We were in every match and probably should have won most of our matches. People thought they were going to come in and beat us, and they were like, ‘What just happened?’ It was great.”
A bright future
A strong student, Allen is active in school life. He plans to major in criminal justice.
“I would like to be in the FBI one day,” he said. “That would be sweet.”
Allen will also be playing a sport he loves at the Division I level.
“It’s always been a dream to play in college, and hopefully move on from college,” he said. “It was unreal when it happened. Honestly, I couldn’t believe all the texts that I was getting and just college interest. It was like a dream come true.”
When his coaches talk about Allen, it’s not just his talent on the diamond and golf course that stands out.
“He gets it, he totally sees it all,” Bachman said. “He’s so ahead of himself. He’s just a great kid.”
“I don’t have enough great things to say about Austin,” Sinkiewicz said. “He’s always just so positive, and I tell him all the time – ‘I wish I could be more like you.’
“It’s a trait you have to have as a pitcher, especially if you want to succeed at the next level. You have to have a short memory, you have to be a good teammate, and I am so excited to see what’s in store for him at the next level. I think he’s going to do a lot of great things.”
