News Page
Allen to coach Menlo College womens wrestling team
Mark Foyer /Half Moon Bay Review
6/7/2001
Lee Allen helped host the first women’s national wrestling tournament in 1989.
A few years later, he was the first women’s coach at Skyline College in San Bruno, when the Trojans twice won the Northern California team title.
Now Allen, a resident of El Granada, is to become the first women’s wrestling coach at Menlo College in Atherton.
Menlo, which went from a two-year school to a four-year school in 1986, has never had a wrestling program in its 75-year history.
While Allen will be the first women’s coach, Keith Spataro will serve as the first men’s coach. The two worked together when Spataro was the coach at Skyline.
Spataro left his position at Skyline following the end of the 2000 season. He served as coach at Burlingame High School this year. Spataro has now left that position as well.
Though Allen left Skyline a few years ago, he did not leave the wrestling scene. He is an assistant coach at Half Moon Bay High School.
Both Menlo and Half Moon Bay wrestling programs run during the winter, but Allen said he would be able to handle both duties.
He is excited about the prospect of coaching at Menlo.
"I am looking forward to it," Allen said.
In addition to coaching at Skyline, Allen also coached a women’s club team, the San Francisco Peninsula Grapplers. But the team slowly disbanded as members either retired or moved to other parts of the country.
Once his daughters, Sara and Katherine, began to enjoy wrestling, Allen was there to coach and give guidance.
"With Sara and Katherine, that makes wrestling a year-round sport," Allen said.
In addition to coaching at high school meets and tournaments, Allen has been to national tournaments and some international tournaments.
But his focus right now is getting the women’s program at Menlo up and going. Since Menlo is a Division III school, it cannot offer athletic scholarships.
Allen is a two-time Olympian, participating in 1956 and ‘60. In 1980, he was named head coach of the U.S. Olympic team. However, he could not serve in that position due to the U.S. boycott of the Moscow games.
While Menlo will be new to the college-wrestling scene, Allen is not. He knows the top programs on the West Coast and which colleges to schedule.
All the while, he will still be involved in the program at Half Moon Bay High School.
"I have to be there for my daughters," Allen said.
------------------------------------------------------.
Athlete of the Week--Sara Fulp-Allen
Mark Foyer /Half Moon Bay Review 2/21/2001
Sara Fulp-Allen, a sophomore at Half Moon Bay High School and an El Granada resident, won the first ever girls’ state wrestling tournament at 105 pounds on Feb. 3. One week later, she won the Peninsula Athletic League title at that weight division. She was named Lightweight Wrestler of the Tournament.
-----------------------------------------------
Fulp-Allen claims state girls title
Mark Foyer 2/23/2001
Sara Fulp-Allen has amassed an impressive résumé in her wrestling career.
To add to that list of achievements was winning the 104-pound title at the initial CIF-sanctioned Girls State Wrestling Tournament, held Feb. 3 in Vallejo.
Fulp-Allen was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Wrestler.
Fulp-Allen was not the only wrestler from Half Moon Bay High School to participate in the event. Alisa Gammon finished third at 109 pounds, and Bri Freeman took sixth at 119 pounds.
A total of 67 girls participated in the tournament. Helaina Day from San Mateo High School also came away with an individual title, winning the 140-pound division.
Fulp-Allen arrived to the tournament both nervous and tired. She was tired because she had already participated in two dual meets earlier in the week.
The nerves came from the fact that she was one of 12 girls participating at the 104-pound division.
Whatever nerves she had were not a problem, as she won her first two matches by pin. Both of those pins came in the first round.
That set up the title match against Melissa Moore from Del Mar High School in San Jose.
Fulp-Allen dominated Moore, eventually winning the match 12-4.
"I was happy to have won it," Fulp-Allen said. "I was so tired that I was glad to be done with it. I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the tournament."
Since this is the first-of-its-kind tournament, Fulp-Allen, along with Day and the other winners, can claim a special piece of history. There will never be another first-time winner in a State Girls’ Wrestling Tournament.
"It’s a special win," Fulp-Allen said. "I am proud of that win."
But on the other side of the coin, she has done other things that have impressed her just as much.
"It’s not the biggest win of my career," Fulp-Allen said. "But I’m happy to have won it."
------------------------------
HMB wrestlers win 4 individual titles
Mark Foyer 2/15/2001
Saturday’s Peninsula Athletic League Wrestling Tournament was a long day of wrestling.
But at the end of the day, no one from the Half Moon Bay High School team could find much to complain about.
"We could have done better, but I’m satisfied," said Cris Serrano. "It was a successful day for us."
The Cougars finished second in the team competition, trailing Terra Nova 257.5-232. On the individual side, all 13 wrestlers that the Cougars entered in the tournament placed.
Leading the way was Sara Fulp-Allen (105 pounds), Josh Brown (127), Nate Rey (142) and Serrano (217) all of whom won individual titles.
Fulp-Allen was named the Most Valuable Lightweight Wrestler of the tournament.
Sam Temko (137), Mike Asche (147), Kyle Torre (191) and Roy Cockrell (heavyweight) were all second.
Steven Steinhoff (154) claimed third in his weight classification, with Ben Gammon (121) and Ronny Melo (162) both finishing fourth.
Those wrestlers all qualified for the Central Coast Section Tournament, slated to take place Feb. 23-24 at Independence High School in San Jose. The top four finishers in each weight classification at CCS will move on to the state tournament, slated to take place the following weekend in Stockton.
Daniel Ho was fifth at 114 pounds, with Nick Rey taking sixth at 132 pounds.
In Friday’s junior varsity tournament, Half Moon Bay finished tied for third with Hillsdale, trailing only Mills and champion Terra Nova.
Bri Freeman won the women’s 119-pound division; Malia Nolan was second in the women’s 114-pound division.
Steven LaMascus (142) and Dan Silveria (147) won their respective weight classifications. Matt Antone was second at 217 pounds, and Joey Moreira finished third at 160.
On Feb. 6, the Cougars fell to Terra Nova 38-22 in the final dual match of the season. Fulp-Allen, Brown, Nick Rey, Mello and Serrano all won their matches for the Cougars.
Fulp-Allen, the crowd favorite, rallied to win her title match in the final seconds. Trailing Hillsdale’s Jordan Felix 7-5, Fulp-Allen got a reversal to tie the score. She then placed Felix on his back with only seconds left in the match.
Time ran out before she could record the pin. But she was rewarded three points for the near fall when the horn sounded, giving her the win.
"Comebacks are more exciting," Fulp-Allen said. "He was good in the beginning, then slowed down."
Being named the Most Valuable Lightweight Wrestler of the tournament shocked her.
"There were a lot of good lightweight wrestlers here today," Fulp-Allen said. "I did not expect to get it."
Among the good lightweight wrestlers was Brown. He was able to beat his opponent in the finals 17-6. But the match was a difficult one for Brown.
Brown is still suffering from the lingering effects of the flu, which turned into bronchitis. He had to miss the Feb. 1 dual match against Burlingame because of the illness.
"I could not wrestle near my fullest," Brown said. "But now I have two weeks to recover until CCS."
While he was happy with winning the title, he sees taking the PAL crown as the first step to bigger things.
"This is a stepping stone to CCS, which is a stepping stone to the state meet," Brown said.
Like Fulp-Allen, Rey scored his match-winning points in the final seconds. With the score tied 6-6, Rey was able to get an escape from Woodside’s Steven Lorenzo with 12 seconds left to get the win.
"I had never seen him before," Rey said. "I heard he was a strong guy. I did not expect this to be an easy match."
It wasn’t. Lorenzo got the match’s first take down. But Rey was able to tie the score, thanks to two technical violation calls on Lorenzo for illegal clasping. Each violation netted Rey one point.
The match went back and forth until, with 12 seconds left, Rey was able to escape from Lorenzo for the winning point. Had the match ended tied, the two would have battled in overtime.
"I did have enough for the extra round," Rey said.
Serrano did not need to worry about going the extra round. He pinned his opponent 89 seconds into the match. It was his third pin of the day.
"I did not force anything," Serrano said. "I let things happen. Everything happened sooner than I expected it to."
While there was some disappointment in finishing second in the team competition, the Cougars do have respect for Terra Nova.
"I knew it would be close for the team title," Rey said. "The match could have gone either way. Terra Nova is a good team."