Cedric Lloyd resigns, James Brown is Allen's new football coach

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Make it five coaches in six seasons for the beleaguered Allen High School football program.

When the Canaries offically begin practice for the 2011 season on Monday, Aug. 15, James Brown will be the team's head coach and not Cedric Lloyd.

That's because Lloyd resigned late last week and has returned to Indianapolis where he was a coach and teacher before coming to Allentown in January of 2010.

Lloyd went 1-9 in his one season in charge, but drew positive reviews for what he was trying to accomplish with the program.

However, back in early June, Lloyd was laid off from his teaching position, along with 264 others in the Allentown School District.

He said back on June 2 that he intended to stay and coach the Allen football team even without the teaching position.

"It's business," Lloyd told colleague Stephen Miller. "Whenever this part of the world attacks, everybody's got to know you're susceptible. I just look forward to doing the job I'm asked to do. At the end of the day, you're still contracted to do a job until that contract ends.

"We've worked hard in the offseason," he added. "I'll do what I have to do to take care of my family and things. We're looking at working this one through."

But Lloyd evidently had a change of heart and reportedly took a job back in Indianapolis where practice for the new season started on Monday.

Lloyd did not respond to a text message asking for confirmation of his departure and his cell phone is overloaded and not taking messages.

Several in the local sports community learned of Lloyd's departure in recent days, including Todd Schafer of Schaf's Video Productions, which videotapes almost all of the local teams.

"Coach Lloyd told me himself that he was leaving," Schafer said. "It's a shame because I think he did a lot of good things for that program and was a positive role-model for those kids."

However, the uncertainty of a teaching position along with the fact that several student-athletes transferred out of the Allen program to other schools, may have influenced Lloyd's decision to leave.

Dr. Russ Mayo, the deputy superintendent for the school district, confirmed Lloyd's resignation on Monday night and announced that Brown would be the interim head coach through the 2011 season.

Evidently, only Dr. Mayo was designated to speak on this matter on behalf of the school district, which finds itself in another difficult position.

Dr. Mayo didn't have complete information on Brown, who was a member of the coaching staff last season.

Allen has won just two games in the last four seasons after Kevin Ronalds resigned at the conclusion of the 2006 season. Andy Polony's team was winless in 2007, and Chris Kinane was 1-19 in 2008-09 with the one win coming over Dieruff in the 2009 season finale.

Allen was outscored 418-130 last season.

Dieruff's coach John McDowell was also laid off as a teacher in June, but hired by the district in another capacity. McDowell, who has yet to win a game in two seasons, is expected to be the Huskies head coach when practice begins in two weeks.


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