Story Photos
 Rainier's Andrew Allen rushed for 1,435 yards and 17 touchdowns last season as a junior. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
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Q&A with Rainier's Andrew Allen, a punishing presence on both sides of the ball
Thursday, September 4, 2008 3:20 PM PDT
By Rick S. Alvord
Printable version
E-mail this articleRAINIER — His head coach simply calls him “the man.”
Correct that.
“He’s the unreal man,” Rainier coach Thor Ware said of 240-pound senior Andrew Allen. “He’s definitely a load. As a fullback, he’s tough to bring down. If you plan on tackling him, you better be ready to make a play — or get out of his way.
“And as a linebacker,” Ware added, “well, if you have the football, sometimes it’s not going to turn out too good for you.”
Allen enters his final season in Rainier green and black as perhaps the top all-around football player in the Lower Columbia region. He rushed for 1,435 yards and 17 touchdowns a year ago for the Columbians, who advanced to the Oregon 3A state semifinals before losing to eventual champion Gold Beach.
Allen, 18, also is widely regarded as one of the best linebackers in the state, using his speed — blazing for a young man his size — to blitz quarterbacks and drag down ball carriers.
We sat down for a preseason Q&A with Rainier’s “full-meal deal,” who rushed for 196 yards on 26 carries in the Columbians’ 14-7 season-opening win at Santiam Christian last Friday.
Q: What’s your favorite movie? And please don’t say “Mamma Mia.”
A: “Probably ‘Remember the Titans.’ I still watch that movie. It came out when I was little and I just remember thinking, ‘Wow, I want to play football like those guys when I get older.’ Plus, my mom loved Denzel Washington, so it was pretty popular at our house.”
Q: What’s your favorite food? (Note: Allen said his answer was not influenced by the photo shoot for the cover of this section.)
A: “Well, it’s steak. We have a new barbecue at home and it gets a lot of use. We barbecue steaks a lot. They’re always in the freezer.”
Q: Favorite TV show?
A: “Probably ‘SportsCenter’ or anything else on ESPN.”
Q: Favorite subject at school?
A: “English.”
Q: How much can you bench press in the weight room?
A: “About 300 pounds.”
Q: What’s tearing up your iPod right now?
A: “I like this rap artist named T.I. He’s not cliché or anything like that. He sings stuff that motivates me and pumps me up.”
Q: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not going to class and playing sports?
A: “Probably playing Xbox. ‘Gears of War’ and ‘NCAA ’09’ are my favorite video games.”
Q: Who’s your favorite football player?
A: “Probably Vince Young (Tennessee Titans quarterback). I watched him in college a lot when he played for Texas. He was just amazing in that (BCS) title game against USC. He totally blew me away. He has the ability to make plays in big games, and that makes me want to go out and do that for my team.”
Q: You started at quarterback for the Rainier varsity as a freshman. What did you learn during that season?
A: “That I probably wasn’t a quarterback. My family kept telling me, ‘Hey, you’re going to be a running back, not a quarterback.’ I heard all that talk. When I was a sophomore, we had a senior, Bobby Harding, who said he’d play quarterback, so they put him back there and I got switched to fullback. And it has worked out pretty well.”
Q: You’re very fast — straight ahead and laterally — for a guy your size. How’d you get to be so quick?
A: “I have no idea. When I was younger, I was super chubby. I’d play football at every recess. One day, I think in the sixth or seventh grade, they threw me the ball and I outran everybody. People were like, ‘Hey, you’re surprisingly fast.’ I can’t tell you why, though.”
Q: What’s your favorite memory as a fullback?
A: “Probably the Clatskanie game last year (154 yards, two touchdowns). It was a close game and Coach Ware got in the huddle during a timeout. We needed 20 yards and Coach Ware said, ‘Andy, put this one in.’ And on the next play, I scored. That kind of got us rolling right there.”
Q: What’s your favorite memory as a linebacker?
A: “When I was a sophomore, we played a game at Banks. The year before, Banks crushed us on our home field. They had a guy named Matt Miller, who tore me up so bad I was seeing stars. Anyway, the next year we go up there and they had Gabe Linehan at quarterback, who was a great athlete. They decided to go for it on fourth down, and I blitzed around the end and sacked him. He fumbled the ball and Jesse Renoude picked it up and ran for a touchdown. That was a great memory.”
Q: What do you like best about playing football?
A: “Just how it feels to play on Friday nights. It’s the feeling you get with your whole town watching supporting you. It’s like you have the town’s back. Playing in front of family and friends, trying your best out there. It’s a real big rush.”
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