Leading silently

Kirk Allen answers the door at his family’s two-story home on 8th Ave SW in jeans, an Aeropostale t-shirt and socks.

He sits upright on the family’s blue couch in the pristine living room and never fails to make eye contact. He answers questions demurely. Facing a barrage of queries about his senior season on the Bethlehem Academy basketball team, he is achingly self-effacing.

He answers every question politely, yet is obviously uncomfortable talking about himself at length.

It’s not so much that he dislikes talking about himself, rather his shy demeanor speaks of a deeper quietness.

“I don’t like talking that much,” he admits. “I do a lot of teaching by example.”

“Kirk has always been quiet, except with his friends at school,” his mom, Cecilia, says.

It’s tough to be all that quiet, however, when you’re the lone senior tasked with leading the Cardinals basketball team. When you’re the only player left from the 2009 squad — which featured Chris Palmer and Drew Mathews — that went to state, the young kids look up to you. The coach expects you to take charge.

“A lot of people thought that since I was a senior this year, I should be a verbal leader,” Kirk says. “But you have to do what you’re comfortable with. You don’t have to push yourself to do what other people want you to. You have to stay in your comfort zone.”

“Typically, if you’re going to have a lone senior, you hope it would be someone more vocal,” BA coach Franz Boelter says. “But his work ethic and positive encouragement to the younger kids was extremely valuable. I think they would all tell you that. He’s a very polite and respectful kid. He’s a hard worker.”

Taking charge

In an overly simplistic view, there are two types of leaders: Those who stand up and demand attention, and those who command respect through determination and diligence on the court and during practices. No one questions that Kirk’s style lies in the second category.

“We knew that he led by example and he was a hard worker,” Cecilia says. “We knew he would be a leader with his presence on the court. He’s always been calm and even-keeled and doesn’t let things get to him.”

Even in the one game in which he had to make himself heard — give the rah-rah speech and rally the troops — his biggest impact came on the court, where he has always been most comfortable.

Kirk’s final game was a 60-49 loss to Glenville-Emmons in the Section 1A West semifinals at the Mayo Civic Center on March 8. In the opening minutes, the Cardinals were struggling. So Kirk spoke up in the huddle.

“Pick it up!” he yelled, uncharacteristically.

“I had to pump up my team verbally,” he says later. “They listened and started playing better.”

BA took a 28-20 halftime lead, thanks in large part to Kirk’s 12 first-half points.

“He definitely acted the role of a senior that night,” Franz says. “He elevated his game, especially in the first half. He probably played the best half of basketball he’s ever played. He gave us a chance to be in the game from start to finish. You could see the fire in his eyes that night.”

But all the passion in the world wasn’t enough to overcome a talented Glenville-Emmons squad. As the final buzzer sounded, Kirk walked off the court for the final time, into the waiting arms of his parents, Paul and Cecilia.

“I told him beforehand to put it all out there on the court,” Cecilia says. “We wanted to be sure, when he left the court, no matter what happened, that he could say, ‘I gave it everything.’ When the game was done, he could say he gave it everything. We were proud of what he did.”

“That’s for sure,” Paul says.

Learning the game

For some reason, the 2011 BA senior class never had many basketball players. By the time Kirk was in sixth grade, there were only six players on the team. They often had to call up a third-grader to fill out the squad.

With so few players, Paul, who was the coach, had to slow down the games so his players wouldn’t get too tired. They ran half-court sets and stressed limiting possessions.

“That helped him down the road. Franz has always stressed working for the best shot you can get every time down,” Paul says. “Every possession is important.”

Kirk got his first playing time as a sophomore, as the backup point guard on the state tournament-bound ‘09 squad.

“I was super excited,” Kirk says of his mid-season call-up from the B team, “because there was a lot of good people on that team.”

Franz had known the family since Kirk was a child. He remembers walking into the darkened school on weekends, hearing the sound of a bouncing ball reverberating from the Van Orsow Auditorium. He would peek his head into the gym, and inevitably there were the three Allen boys — Kendric, Kirk and Benjamin — hoisting shots and ribbing each other like only brothers can.

When Franz needed to add another player to his ‘09 team, he called upon Kirk.

“There was a certain toughness to him,” Franz says. “As a young player he had a good ability to shoot the ball. His overall ball skills at a time where we needed a little bit of depth in those areas made him the obvious candidate to join our rotation.”

Even though his playing time was limited, that experience gave Kirk a certain gravitas as senior, as those underclassmen could recall spending their middle school years idolizing that team.

“That gave him some confidence and some credibility,” Franz says.

As a junior, he was the team’s sixth man, playing point guard. In a game against New Life Academy, he hit two shots with 10 seconds left in overtime to secure a 64-62 victory.

“I was nervous at first, but then I realized it was just a basketball game,” he says. “If we won or lost, it was still one of the better games I’ve played.”

While talking about his basketball career, that phrase — “It was just a basketball game” — comes up several times. He told his teammates the same thing before they played Glenville-Emmons. He repeats it when describing what it was like making the transition from sixth man as a junior to starting as a senior.

From point to post

Making that move into the starting lineup wasn’t a big concern for Kirk, because he was spending his time concentrating on his switch from point guard to swingman. Going into his senior year, the team needed someone who could man the post and score from the perimeter. Kirk fit the bill.

“It came about accidentally,” Franz says. “We were playing about eight kids, and sometimes because of the combination of kids we had on the floor, Kirk needed to go inside. As he did go inside, he did some nice things in there, not just from a scoring standpoint but from a passing standpoint. He’s a nice high-post passer.”

The team took advantage of Kirk’s mid-range shooting game, feeding him around the free throw line and watching as he sank 12-to-15-foot jump shots.

“It was nice to see him make that transition with some success,” Paul says. “A lot of kids can’t quite make that, but he did it really well.”

“You saw a transformation from a kid who felt he needed to carry a heavy share of the load to a kid who developed the confidence of his teammates and led them in a number of ways by sharing the ball as well as he did,” Franz says.

He finished his final season as one of the team’s top-three scorers and its second-leading rebounder. He averaged 7.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and two assists a game. But the statistic that Franz brings up first is his 13 charges. The second stat he mentions is the number of games and practices Kirk missed: Zero.

“Kirk has always had bad knees, but he never missed a practice,” Franz says.

End of an era

As the season wound down, the realization of the end of his competitive career was dawning on his parents more than Kirk.

“It was kind of tough, but yet really fun to watch him evolve as the season went on,” Paul says. “It was neat.”

“It was hard, knowing it was his last year,” Cecilia says. “He’d given his heart and soul to the team and the sport. Knowing it was going to end was hard.”

After every game, Kirk’s dad would come down from the stands and find his son for a quick talk.

“Sometimes even when I didn’t want to,” Kirk says. “Especially after tough losses.”

But those post-game chats were invaluable to Kirk’s confidence and psyche.

“Most of the time he would tell me that I did a really good job and did my best,” Kirk says. “Most of the time it would cheer me up. I did try my best.”

Next year, Kirk, a B-student, will attend Winona State University where he will join his older brother, Kendric, who he played alongside for two years at BA.

Before that, he has his senior baseball season to play. An infielder, Kirk joined the team after playing golf his freshman and sophomore years.

He will continue to try to be a little more out-going, breaking out of his comfort zone.

When his senior basketball season started, Kirk concedes he rarely talked to his teammates.

“At first, it was weird, because I didn’t really talk to anyone,” he says. “After awhile I started talking to a lot of the people on the team and we became very close.”

A tradition on the team is for each family to host a pasta night, where the players and coaches gather to carbo-load before a game. Kirk’s family hosted twice.

“I’m always going to remember that family was very important for them” Franz says. “I think that’s why it’s easy for Kirk to buy into the team concept. His ego never got in the way.”

Nor did his mouth.