How did Dustin Allen build a track dynasty at Cuthbertson High? By focusing on football
When Dustin Allen arrived at Cuthbertson High School as a coach 12 years ago, he wasn’t the school’s track and field coach, and that program hadn’t won a state title.
As the 2025 spring track season gets underway, Allen has built one of the state’s greatest dynasties with at least one state title every year since 2017, and 14 state championships overall.
How did he do it?
By following a simple script: Hire good assistant coaches, attract large numbers of athletes and give them football-based training methods that maximizes their talents.
“That’s basically it,” Allen said. “The other big thing is this: We treat this program like football.
“Everybody treats football like it’s the most important thing in the world. And we treat our track program the same way.
“We lift weights, we train and the kids know it’s a 365-day-a-year program and we’re doing all the things you’d see at a high-level football program in this track program.”
The benefits have been obvious, with indoor girls’ track championships in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024; outdoor girls’ track championships in 2021, 2022 and 2023; indoor boys’ track championships in 2022 and 2023; and outdoor boys’ track championships in 2021 and 2022.
“Treating the program like we’ve done creates confidence and expectation,” Allen said. “And, for the athletes, if you’re going to be a part of this program, you know you’re going to put some work into it. It’s going to be a grind but with that comes some success as well.”
Success seemed light years away from the Cavaliers’ track program when Allen was hired as a defensive coordinator for the school’s football team.
After two years, when Allen also coached wrestling and lacrosse, he was offered the school’s track head coaching job.
“I’m like, ‘I’ve never been to a track meet in my life,’” Allen said. “They said, ‘Well, try to help out the program because last year was a disaster. The kids are doing whatever they want. You don’t have to know anything, just get in here and organize this and hire some assistant coaches that know what they’re doing.’
“So that’s pretty much what I did.”
After graduating from Airport High School in Columbia, S.C., where Allen played baseball, football and wrestled, he was a student assistant for coach Steve Spurrier’s University of South Carolina football program.
At Cuthbertson, he coached football until 2020, when his wife was pregnant with their twins.
Allen says one of the things that separates his track program from others is that he never cuts athletes from his team.
“A lot of people think that’s crazy given all the people that we have,” said Allen, who expects to have 250 athletes on his team this spring. “We have a program here that relies on the athletes to come in and work hard and achieve something.
“We have so many examples of kids that would’ve been cut as freshman or sophomores but have gone on to do amazing things after developing. So I think we’ve done a great job of developing the athletes that we have.”
Allen’s coaching staff of Jeremey East (assistant head coach), Derek Lemay (hurdles), Katelyn Grell (sprints), John Liu (pole vault), Michael Hicks (throws), Mark Vilardo (distance), Mike Daley (middle distance) and Jame Kermes (distance) has also helped coach and promote the Cuthbertson Middle School track program that Allen estimates has 115 athletes per season.
“So building that program up has really helped,” Allen said. “A lot of the coaches we have also help out the middle school team so there’s some continuity there. Also, I do a track camp every year for kids in the area. So all of the kids in the elementary school and middle school know about track and our program.
“I think we’ve created a culture where kids want to do track. And obviously success breeds more success.”
Allen is extremely proud that his program currently holds four national girls’ high school track records — in the 4x800 indoor, 4 x mile indoor, and distance medley relay (DMR) indoor and outdoor events.
“To win the state championship is always our biggest goal,” said Allen, whose team will have competitors this spring in the Texas Relays in Austin, Tex. and Penn Relays in Philadelphia. “But we have a motto, ‘Win the day!’ So we try to focus on each and every day before we get to those big goal events. We really don’t talk about the state championship very much but we know that’s what we’re working for.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
