Move over, Deion. Back up, Bo. Here comes?Joey? Okay, okay. Comparing Joey Allen to Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson might be taking it a little too far. Even Allen gets a chuckle out of it. "I'm not near the caliber of those guys," says Allen, a College junior. "But it's fun to think I am." While Allen will probably never break a 90-yard touchdown run or highstep it down the sidelines while returning an interception, he does share something in common with Sanders and Jackson -- he plays two sports. Allen spends his fall Saturday afternoons wearing shoulder pads, playing linebacker and special teams for the Penn football team. And when one season ends, another begins. Allen also wrestles as a heavyweight for Penn. He even reached the NCAA Championships last year. Participating in even one sport during college can be difficult for a student, so it might seem two would be impossible. But while Allen admits it can be really time-consuming, he thinks playing two sports has helped him. "It definitely sharpens your time management skills," Allen says. "In a way it helps your academics because you don't have time to screw around." One negative of the time crunch, Allen notes, is a severely hampered social life. But it is unlikely he will give up either sport. Allen simply loves to compete and has since childhood. His mother, Jacqueline, remembers Joey playing everything as a kid, from swimming to tennis to baseball. "I tried my best to support him in everything he would do," she says. "I wouldn't say no." As for the two sports he now competes in, Allen took up football first. When his older brother, Adam, began to wrestle in high school, Joey became interested. His mother remembers when Joey first saw his brother wrestle and began to imitate him. "I told him, 'Joey, there's a technique for you. Get your own technique and wrestle your way,' " she says. "And that's how it started." An old-fashioned sibling rivalry with Adam also helped. "I can remember wrestling at home, going at it in the basement or the living room," Allen says. "That kind of got me into it." Allen continued to wrestle and play football during his time at Pottstown (Pa.) High School, and he was recruited by several schools for both sports. Initially he decided to attend Army and play football, but after a short time at West Point, he decided it was not for him. So, with the help of Penn wrestling coach Roger Reina, Allen transferred. In his first year at Penn, Allen only played football. He did not wrestle because of an illness and the fear that competing in two sports would be too stressful for a freshman, especially academically. Last year, after playing football again, Allen competed in his first season as a wrestler for the Quakers. He finished the year with a 22-6 record, placed second at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships and earned a trip to the NCAAs. Although he lost his first match at the NCAAs when he was disqualified for "passivity", Allen gained a lot from the experience. "I didn't really know what to expect," Allen says of his first year as a wrestler. "I surprised myself. I was thrown right back into it and got to nationals." Allen's success, coming after he missed one year of wrestling and the beginning of another because of football, made him wonder how well he could do if he concentrated on wrestling full-time. "I felt I could compete with these guys and do some good things," Allen says. "But I needed to make a commitment." So Allen spent last summer debating whether or not he should drop football and focus solely on wrestling. After much discussion with his family, he decided to continue with both sports. "I like the contact of football," Allen says. "I've grown up playing football. Football has always been in my blood." Allen converted from running back to linebacker this season, backing up star senior Pat Goodwillie and starting on special teams. Although he enjoyed defense and remains committed to football, Allen has decided he likes wrestling more. "I love being on the mat, especially at Penn since we're starting to build a national reputation," Allen says. "I don't know what it is. The excitement of being on the mat and going one-on-one and showing what you can do. It's a team sport as well as an individual one, which is what I like." Reina would love to have Allen competing for Penn as a wrestler exclusively. According to Reina, Allen has the "potential to be an all-American, and if he really made a commitment, he could win it all. He could win the NCAAs. We don't think there is any limit to his potential." It takes Allen weeks to recover from the fall and get into shape for wrestling, and he realizes football takes away valuable time he could use to gain experience as a wrestler. "The better guys wrestle all year round," Allen says. "I'm missing half the year. Only a fraction of my year is devoted to wrestling, and most of it should be." Instead, he does both sports. Because he likes it.
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