By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

Robbie Allen grew up playing baseball in Tabor City and became a mainstay in the tradition-rich TCHS Red Devil athletic programs of the mid-1970s.

He went on to Clemson University where he played for the Tigers in the 1979 College Baseball World Series and gained All-ACC honors at shortstop.

He played nine seasons of professional baseball, mainly in the Los Angeles Dodger organization, advancing as high as Triple-A.

He coached the past 18 years at Waccamaw Academy in Whiteville where he guided the Warrior baseball team to 10 state NCISAA 1A championships, winding it up with four in a row.

Now Allen’s career in baseball is embarking on another phase ... another challenge.

Last week, the 47-year-old Allen was named head baseball coach at Brunswick Community College. The school will inaugurate its first-ever baseball season in February of 2008.

Allen had been a prime candidate for the position since the groundwork for starting a baseball team at the Bolivia campus first hit the drawing board a couple of years ago.

“It had kind of been in makings a while,” said Allen. “They first started talking about the possibility of it when I coached the (Southwest Brunswick) American Legion team there a couple of years ago.”

Allen said that it long been one of his goals to coach at the college level.

“I feel like it is an ideal situation for me,” Allen said. “Brunswick County is a rapidly growing area and it brings on all sorts of strong possibilities for a junior college baseball team.”

Allen, who has his own landscaping business, has also been coaching the Fayetteville Academy baseball team this spring.

Allen has already begun work toward attaining 40 players to fill the Dolphin roster for its inaugural season.

BCC should instantly become a strong rival of the long-established baseball program at Southeastern Community College.

The Dolphins will play their 2008 home season at the West Brunswick High School field, but they will be on their own field at the start of the 2009 season.

Allen and his wife Gina have three children - Kadi, a junior at Campbell University, Trey, a senior at South Columbus High School, and Hunter, an eighth-grader at Williams Township.

Allen is the second Columbus County native to be named a head coach at BCC.

Walter Shaw, who grew up in Riegelwood and graduated from East Columbus High School, has been BCC men’s head basketball coach since 2001.