About Mark Allen
As a junior Mark captained England to first place in the World Junior Team Championships
and finished fourth in the 1990 World Junior Individual Championships. At 18 years old he turned professional and spent two seasons playing in
Cape Town for The Camps Bay Club - during this period he helped Western Province to win two Inter Provincial Jarvis Cup titles (1991 and 1992).
He competed for 3 years on the P.S.A. tour, and during this time achieved a highest world ranking of 41. Highlights included tournament wins
over some of the best players in the world including Peter Nicol, and Jonathan Power. In 1993 Mark made a difficult decision to step down
from professional squash in order to attend Nottingham University. He graduated in 1996 with a B.A. in industrial economics. While there,
he continued to play at the university level capturing 3 British University Individual Championship titles in addition to captaining the
British Universities Squash Team to victory in the 1996 World Student Games.After graduation Mark moved back into professional squash, but this time as Coach and Director of Squash on the island of Guernsey. During his two years in the channel islands, Mark taught England #1 junior Chris Simpson, and he coached/managed the Guernsey squash team that competed in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. In 2000 Mark qualified as an English SRA Level IV Coach with Elite Status, this is recognized worldwide as one of the highest coaching qualifications in squash.
From September 2000 to August 2003 Mark worked for The National Capital Squash Racquet's
Association teaching squash in the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. area. During this time he was also coach at The Potomac High School in McLean,
Virginia For the last four years Mark has been working for Western Athletic Clubs, as head squash professional at The San Francisco Bay Club:
an 86,000 square-foot, five squash court, multi purpose fitness club with over 5,000 members
and an estimated 800 squash players. As head squash pro for The Bay Club, Mark was responsible for programs, instruction, tournaments, and international squash events. Over this same period he was also Director of the squash program at Bay Club Marin -
another W.A.C. facility with an additional two squash courts and 150 squash players.
From September 2003 to August 2005, Mark was Head Coach and Manager of the U.S. National Junior Women's Team. The U.S. Team finished 4th in The 2005 World Junior Championships, and #1 player Lily Lorentzen finished in the top 8 places in the individual event; both of these were best ever finishes for the United States in a world championship squash event. For this success, and other record performances from members of the team during his two year tenure, Mark was voted by U.S. Squash as the National Coach of the Year, 2005.
Mark is a U.S. Squash Coaching Panel Tutor, qualifying U.S. Coaches to teach at Level I and Level II, and he is currently writing the syllabus for the U.S. Level III program.
In December 2007 Mark decided to make a move back to Cape Town, South Africa, where his professional squash career first started. He is available for lessons, camps and clinics.