From the Vernon Morning Star: (Click link to see original article with photo)
Township of Spallumcheen chief administrative officer Doug Allin is the head coach for the Canadian Men’s U23 softball team, and an assistant coach for the men’s national team too. Peachland’s Doug Allin, also CAO in Spallumcheen, helped Canada win silver at Pan Am tourney in Argentina
BLACK PRESS MEDIA
The sport of softball has allowed Doug Allin to see the world.
As the assistant coach for the Canadian Men’s National team, he helped earn a silver medal at the Pan American Championship in Argentina at the beginning of May. The high placing means he will be joining the club at the Men’s Softball World Cup in New Zealand in November.
The journey for the Peachland resident, and chief administrative officer for the Township of Spallumcheen, started with games on diamonds in and around Vancouver Island.
“It’s where I spent my childhood,” Allin said. “As a kid growing up, it was a hot bed for softball. On any given night there were great teams playing up there.”
He recalled friends playing hockey in the winter, and softball in the summer, and noted some exceptional players have come out of Campbell River.
While many of the kids he competed with moved on from the sport, Allin always stuck with it.
Stints pitching with teams in Victoria, Vancouver, Squamish and Portland preceded his retirement from playing in 2012, but he continued coaching his daughters.
“Next thing you know I got called by the head coach of the men’s (national) team to help scout at the 2015 world championship in Saskatoon,” he said.
The home team would claim its fourth title, and first since 1992 at the games.
Allin scouted the opposing pitchers, and provided helpful hints to the team’s batters over the tournament.
In 2019, he was named the assistant coach, and last year more responsibility was put onto his plate when he was given the reins of the men’s national under-23 squad.
He credits his success to a lot of listening.
“I’ve learned from the guys I’ve played with,” Allin said. “All my teammates throughout the years offered up the way they think and look at the game.
“It was through collecting all of their information, that I figured out a way to go about things. It’s been a lot of talk in a lot of dugouts about what to look out for, and how to look out for it.”
ronan.odoherty@campbellrivermirror.com
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