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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

One wrestling coach has resigned at West Forsyth, and another that the coach who resigned replaced is returning to lead the team after just one season away.  

Timmy Allen, who was named the head wrestling coach last year, has had health problems because of kidney cancer and he resigned as a teacher at the school in the spring. Earlier this month, Allen announced that he was resigning as the wrestling coach and would return to teaching at North Davie Middle School when he’s medically cleared.  

So, West Forsyth was looking for a wrestling coach. Enter Jason Hooker, who resigned as the head coach at the school after being hired before the 2017-18 season and resigning after the 2022-23 season. In addition, Tony Hairston, who was the girls wrestling coach at West Forsyth, resigned to coach boys wrestling at Wheatmore High School in Trinity. 

“Initially, the plan was (Allen) was going to stay away for a year and Jason Hooker was going to step back in for a year,” Athletic Director Mike Pennington of the Titans said. “And then, I think as time went on, he just decided that, ‘I just need to focus on my health and my family.’ And I think he just decided, you know, it would just be easier to do that in Davie (County). 

“I think it would’ve been hard for him – I think it’s just easier for him to just get totally away from it. You know, just to do something that he loved to do and to be so close to the gym and the mats and all of that. You know, so I understood him going back to teaching at Davie County. It kind of made sense, and that makes it closer to his kids.” 

Hooker never left West Forsyth as a teacher. 

“(Hooker will) be our coach now,” Pennington said. “He initially was interim and we’ll just slide him back in. So, that’s just an easy move to make. And Jason’s done it before and we just changed the interim tag to head coach.” 

It’s obviously been tough for Allen, who is just 36 years old, to make some difficult life decisions. 

“I went in for my six-month checkup in April, April 1, and they found another tumor on my left kidney, which was there the whole time,” Allen said. “They just kind of missed it on the scans. So, the whole time I had another tumor after they took out that other one.” 

He just had another recent checkup. 

“So, Aug. 1, I had another partial nephrectomy, which I’m healing up from right now,” Allen said.  

Allen was limited in how much he could do this past season because he had the first surgery last October.  

“I got back from the first surgery in time for the first practice, but I couldn’t do anything really other than kind of just, ‘Hey, this is kind of what I want going down today.’ Make sure that eligibility stuff was covered, so I kind of took more of a CEO approach, honestly, through the whole season. Just not as much on the mat as I would’ve liked. I did push it sometimes just because it’s in my DNA.” 

The second diagnosis hit Allen hard. 

“I’ll be honest, April was a rough month after I got the news again,” he said. “And I took it really hard, probably harder this time than I did the first time around because when they read the results in April it was a lot worse-sounding because it was a lot more possibilities of like really worse things going on.” 

Then, the decision of what to do about teaching, and eventually coaching came up. 

“I knew it was going to be early in the school year again and that was tough on me last year, you know, missing all the work days and stuff, getting acclimated to Forsyth County,” Allen said. “And, you know, this time around I was going to have to rinse and repeat. I didn’t want to leave my team out in limbo. And I just wanted to focus and spend more time with my family. My heart was just pulling me back to my family.” 

According to Allen, he resigned from coaching in May. 

“Things just started lining up,” he said. “Like, over the summer, my old principal (at North Davie) reached out to me asked me if I’d be interested. You know, I wasn’t even thinking about going back at that time. And then, I said, you know, ‘Yeach.’ It all kind of just happened.” 

Because of health concerns Allen never really had a chance to establish his own program. 

“It was difficult because, they gave me an opportunity of a lifetime, and, what I saw was a opportunity of a lifetime getting to fulfill my dreams as a coach,” Allen said. “You know, you don’t want to let anybody down. They believed in you. It was really hard. That thought went through my head daily.” 

When Hooker resigned after the 2022-23 season he wanted to spend more time with his family, as well. 

“I think that being away from it kind of revitalized him a little bit,” Pennington said. “His son is a freshman, who I understand is a very good wrestler. So, I think that’s kind of got him back involved in it, too.” 

Although Hooker didn’t coach last season, he wasn’t too far removed from coaching. 

“A lot issues in that situation,” Hooker said. “Timmy’s health where he had to step out – things didn’t happen like we thought they were going to happen.” 

Change is hard on everybody involved, especially when so much has changed in less than a year and a half. 

“It’s good. It’s good, but it’s also, it’s just hard on those kids that were there,” Hooker said. “The kids that were there as freshmen are juniors, so the year I left that freshmen class are juniors now. And I guess that’s sort of like divorced parents.” 

Practice starts for the season on Oct. 30 and the first available date for a match is Nov. 11. 

“Anyway, I’m back in,” Hooker said. “Trying to put together a staff and trying to get some kids to come out. See what we can do.” 

Hooker, who is teaching ninth-grade health and weightlifting at West Forsyth this school year, isn’t coming back to coach on a short-term basis. 

“it’s at least a five-year plan,” he said. “…My son and daughter – they started as freshmen this year and Jacob is in the eighth grade, and I have a younger daughter in the sixth grade. So, I don’t think I’ll stay all the way until she gets done, but we’ll see.” 

Other than family there was one other thing that helped Hooker while he was out from coaching this past year. 

“I was really in it every day,” he said. “We started a little non-profit, faith-based club at Immanuel Baptist Church. And we got almost 340 athletes that come through those doors. So, it’s been good to be able to kids the opportunity to see wrestling before they get to high school since Forsyth County, I guess, is never going to do middle-school wrestling.” 

Although practice starts in 2.5 months, there is still plenty for Hooker to accomplish in preparation for the season. The team is having an interest meeting on Thursday for perspective boys and girls wrestlers. 

“I’ve got a lot of things in mind to do, but we’re behind the 8-ball bad,” Hooker said.