Arizona women’s basketball hires Chris Allen as Assistant Coach of Performance Enhancement

Not all success on the basketball court is about basketball skills. A lot of it begins in the program’s strength and conditioning program. Arizona women’s basketball is working to improve that aspect of the program with the hiring of Chris Allen as the assistant coach of performance enhancement.

Allen will be returning to Tucson after a five-year period spent working with programs around the country. His most recent position was as the assistant director of strength and conditioning/director of speed development with West Virginia football.

Allen last worked at Arizona as the associate athletics director for strength and conditioning from 2012-18. During that period, he oversaw 17 of the department’s programs and ran a staff of nine.

The WVU alumnus was a sprinter on the Mountaineers’ track team from 1996-2000. The native of Kingston, Jamaica earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting and management information systems in 2000. He went on to earn his master’s degree in athletic coaching education from West Virginia in 2005.

While working on his master’s degree in Morgantown, Allen began his career as a strength and conditioning coach in 2003. He held that position until 2007 when he became the Mountaineers’ coordinator of strength and conditioning and director of skill development. He spent one year in that position before following former WVU and Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez to Michigan. Allen worked as the Wolverines’ associate director of strength and conditioning/director of skill development until 2011.

Allen again followed Rodriguez when he came to Arizona in 2012. After working for the Wildcats for six years, Allen spent two years at Kansas State then went to Indiana for one year before returning to his alma mater.

Most members of the Arizona women’s basketball team, including the transfers and freshmen, have already reported to campus.