Obituary of Eric Andrew Allen

Eric was born on 12/14/66 in Forest Grove, OR to Woody (Forrest) and Deanna (Alexander) Allen and passed away on 3/17/10 in his home in Wauna, WA after a long and courageous battle against brain cancer. He is survived by his parents, along with his wife, Jill, and brothers Steve and Dave (Marie). Eric’s family relocated to Gresham, OR where Eric grew up playing football and running track. He attended Gresham HS and graduated in 1985. He started his football career at Santa Rosa CC in CA, but later transferred to Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA to finish his degree and football. He obtained a Master’s Degree in education so he could become a high school teacher. His first teaching and Head football position was at Lincoln HS in Tacoma, WA. He began this job in the Fall of 1996. His coaching career at Lincoln went from 1996 – 2000. In the summer of 1997, he took his team to the only football camp he ever attended as a coach and met Jill (Sewell), who was the medical director of the camp for the athletic training services. They dated until the Fall of 1999 when Eric proposed and were married on July 9, 2000 in Tacoma. Eric remained at Lincoln as a teacher, but resigned from coaching football due to the discovery of a brain tumor in late 2001. He was in surgery within 2 days of diagnosis and home 2 days after that. Amazingly there was no treatment and he had no complications until the Fall of 2007. Eric did teach at Lincoln until Spring of 2005 and even coached the girls tennis team for 2 seasons. But his passion was football and when a position came open at Olympic HS in Silverdale, WA, he knew this was where he needed to be. He began as a History/Physical Education teacher at Olympic in 2005, as well as the new Head Football Coach. After starting his career at Olympic 1-9, Eric, along with his staff, turned the program around and had winning seasons the next 3, and the last 2 that Eric was coaching, went into the 1st round of post-season (which they also did for the 2009 season under interim coach and good friend, Tim Allbee). The 2006 season was highlighted by a 9-6 overtime victory over cross-town rival, Central Kitsap. Olympic had not beaten CK since 1999. During this time, Eric had annual MRI’s to monitor his brain and in the Fall of 2007, they felt his tumor had returned, but was a small pea-size. He coached that season knowing this, but not letting the kids make it about him. In December he went in to remove the pea, only to find it was actually all the tissue around the “pea”, which was more along the lines of grapefruit size. He was referred to University of Washington Medical Center and on February 14, 2008, Dr. Silbergeld and his team removed 80% of his cancer. This was followed by 27 days of radiation and chemotherapy, only to have Eric return to the sidelines that Fall. Unfortunately, the radiation and chemotherapy had its side effects and the administration at Olympic forced Eric to take a year off for his health. In the summer of 2009, the cancer crossed over from the right frontal lobe to the left, and Eric was once again referred up to UW. This time he entered a clinical trial and had no progression of his cancer for 6 months. Upon follow-up in January 2010, the cancer had begun to spread and was spreading quickly. Eric’s last few weeks were full of visitors, laughing with his wife at silly shows and “jamming” to rap music in the truck, lunches at Flotation Device with his friend Cris Larsen, and many other memories. He lived life to the fullest knowing this time-bomb was in his head. It did not detract from his energy and passion for football and his players, or his love for his wife. They were able to travel many places and enjoy life to the fullest and were side-by-side until the end, as he passed away at home in his bedroom while sleeping. A celebration of life is taking place on March 27th at 1 PM at Bremerton Nazarene, 924 Sheridan Rd., Bremerton, WA. The family is asking for donations to the Chris Elliott Fund at www.chriselliottfund.org. This gentleman has an eerily similar story and was very inspiring for Eric.