At a special Allen School Board meeting held Thursday, May 30, the board approved the hiring of several new coaches and teachers.

As for Allen sports, the hiring of new coaches was a huge windfall after several coaching vacancies in the last couple of months.

“We had to go ahead and have (a special meeting) because we’ve got summer baseball, and summer football, and summer basketball, and the coaches need to be here and get after it,” Allen Schools Superintendent Jeff Hiatt said. “We couldn’t wait another 10 days (until the next regular board meeting).

All but one new hire appeared before the board in executive session to answer inquiries and speak about past experience.

New head coach and defensive coordinator

Rob Green was hired as Allen Mustangs head coach and Allen Schools athletic director. Green comes with an impressive resume.

Last year, he led the Coalgate Wildcats to a 10-2 season, into the second round of the playoffs. Green also has more than three decades of coaching experience, including at the collegiate level.

He is looking forward to coaching at Allen and starting a new tradition.

“It’s always kind of fun to go into a place where you really don’t know anybody and you’re able to start from the base and work up,” Green said.

And starting from the base is certainly what he did at Coalgate. The year before Green arrived at Coalgate, the Wildcats went 1-9. Green was then hired as Coalgate’s offensive coordinator for a couple of years, with the Wildcats going 5-6 and 6-5. After taking over as head coach in September 2016, the Wildcats went 8-3, 8-3 and then 10-2 last year. Before Coalgate, Green coached in Liberal, Kansas, for three years, but also has many years coaching at the college level.

And Green will bring with him an assistant coach, Jared Green, no relation. Jared Green will be the new defensive coordinator.

“Jared coached with me when I was at Northeastern A&M College,” Rob Green said. “I was there, and at Missouri Southern University for a total of about 15 years, between the two of them.”

Jared Green coached at Coalgate for the past two seasons. Prior to that, he coached at Diamond, Missouri, McDonald County, Missouri, a junior college in Ellsworth, Iowa, and Independence Community College in Kansas.

At Coalgate, Jared Green was a defensive coordinator and coached the offensive line and linebackers.

Green, who lives close to Allen, is looking forward to a shorter commute to work, and, like Rob Green, looks forward to starting with a new team.

“It’s always nice to come into a new place, and you have that initial excitement,” Green said. “I also appreciate the awkwardness early on.”

A ‘couple’ of new coaches

Dottie Slabaugh is coming to Allen to be the girls head basketball coach. She brings with her a wealth of experience and success. She was previously the head girls basketball coach at Broken Bow for the past 10 years.

This will be her 13^th year coaching girls basketball. And, with her teams at Broken Bow, in three of the last four years, she led those teams to the state tournament -- twice finishing as semi-fi nalists, and once as quarterfi nalists.

In eight of the past 11 years, her teams won district tournaments.

“I’ve been fortunate to have really good kids,” Slabaugh said. “They’re very resilient, and they’ll give you all they have most of the time.”

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Slabaugh, who is from the area. She graduated from Calvin High School.

“That’s a big part of it,” she said. “My husband is from the area where we live and coach now, and we’ve been there about 20 years. And, so, it’s kind of my turn to come back home for a while.”

Slabaugh will also be the girls track coach and will teach. She is certifi ed in business and computer applications.

And speaking of her husband, Kevin Slabaugh is the new head softball coach. He will also be an assistant girls basketball coach, as well as teach social studies.

Kevin Slabaugh started off at Broken Bow as an assistant baseball coach, then eventually became the head softball coach as well.

“Then, after two years of the baseball and softball splitting in the fall and the spring, I went to fulltime just softball in the fall and the spring.

Slabaugh also served as the freshman girls basketball team coach and was an assistant coach for the high school girls basketball team.

He is looking forward to getting back on the softball field, picking up the challenge of taking over a new program, setting goals and working with the players to continue succeeding.

“I know they’ve had some success here recently, so I want to improve on that and try to take that next step, and get them to the state tournament,” Slabaugh said.

Prior to teaching and coaching at Broken Bow, Slabaugh was a teacher for four years at Idabel.

New special education teacher

Jolene Bakken was hired as elementary special education teacher. Bakken taught at Ada for 13 years; first and second grades for the last six years, and third and fourth grades for seven years prior to that.

It’s a homecoming for Bakken.

“I grew up here,” she said. “So I’m looking forward to coming back to that small school feel. I think, in Allen, the school is still the glue that holds the community together, and I look forward to that.”

New fourth-grade teacher

Pamela Sanders was hired as a fourth-grade teacher. And, Sanders has a lot of teaching experience. Prior to coming to Allen, she taught at Ada for four years, and 19 years at Tupelo prior to that.

It’s also a homecoming for Sanders, who graduated from Allen. She is looking forward to teaching once again at a small-town school.

“I invest in my kids, and watching them from their start to the fi nish,” Sanders said. “When you’re at a bigger school, you don’t get to see that as much.”

New Baseball coach

Mike Edwards will be the new head baseball coach for Allen High School. He was hired, Superintendent Jeff Hiatt said, but Edwards was unable to attend the special meeting. Edwards will attend the next regular meeting (Monday) to speak with the board.

Edwards was previously the baseball coach at New Lima for 14 years. Hiatt said Edwards will also teach at the school and is certified in business and history.