Yesterday, Penn announced the hiring of Scott Allen as Director of Golf. In that position, Allen will serve as head coach of the men's program and will oversee the direction of the women's program.
He replaces Francis Vaughn- who was a part of Penn's golf program in various ways for the past 12 years - as Director of Golf. Vaughn stepped down from his position June 30 to focus on other business interests.
Allen comes from George Washington University, where his 14 years as head coach of the men's team stand as the best in that program's 80-year history.
While the decision to leave the school where he had so much success was tough, the appeal of Penn was too good to pass up.
"It would take a very special situation to get me to leave GW; I spent half my life there, I'm an alumni and I'm going to always want to see GW succeed," he said.
"But the opportunity to come in and be competitive both on the men's and women's side in the league right away as well as still being close to family and friends and to be at an institution like Penn that does everything it does academically as well as athletically made it a choice that I couldn't pass up."
He also cited the fairness in the Ivy League as a motivation for the change. In GW's conference - the Atlantic 10 - some schools enjoy strong financial advantages over others and therefore regularly perform better.
In 2006, Allen led GW - his alma mater - to its first NCAA berth in 60 years and earned 1,270 career wins, four times as many as any other GW head coach. His 13 tournament victories and 41 top-three finishes are more than every other coach in the program's history combined.
He knows that, due to the similarities between the schools, he won't have to change much to enjoy success with the Quakers. Allen believes that had a strong impact on his hiring.
"When Penn looked at me and saw someone with my experience coaching in the region," he said. "And my experience coaching at a school with strong academic standards, at a school in a major metropolitan area and hopefully my success in fundraising, they thought I was a good choice."
Now, all that remains to be seen is whether his coaching pedigree translates into success on the links in Philadelphia. He believes that, in the long-term, both the men's and women's program should be competing for Ivy League titles on a yearly basis. He knows that the women may be a few years removed from this goal, but that the men should be an immediate threat.
The hiring indicates that the athletic department is again restructuring the golf program. A women's golf coach will be hired separately, with minimal input from Allen, who says he will have enough adaptations to make without the concern of hiring a new coach.
