PREP FOOTBALL ’99 : SOUTH COAST LEAGUE : Allen Hopes to ‘Fly’ Again at San Clemente : Running back, whose debut included 250 yards in misdirection offense, looks to become Tritons’ all-time rushing leader.

James Allen is expected to become San Clemente High’s career rushing leader this season, breaking Allen Vaughan’s record of 2,377 yards. But those who saw Allen make his debut two years ago against El Toro are probably wondering what took him so long.

In that auspicious beginning to his high school career, Allen rambled for 250 yards and two touchdowns in San Clemente’s 42-20 victory.

“I still have the article from that game,” Allen said. “I had no idea I had gained that many yards when it was over. I was just running. I thought it was kind of normal until everybody came up and starting talking to me.”

Allen has gone on to have a solid career--rushing for 1,639 yards over two years and being named first-team All-South Coast League last year. But he realizes now that nothing about opening night in 1997 was normal.

“We had that huge offensive line and an offense [The Fly] that nobody had ever seen,” he said. “All I did was run. I heard later that the El Toro players were so confused by our offense that they were coming off the field crying.”

As a sophomore, Allen played the sweeper position in The Fly, an offense that specializes in misdirection and deception. Often, defenses didn’t even know Allen had the ball until he was running in the secondary.

But last year, then-San Clemente Coach Mark McElroy moved Allen to running back to capitalize on his ability to block and run in traffic. McElroy said Allen never complained about his role.

“He’s one of the best kids I’ve ever coached,” said McElroy, now coach at Saddleback College. “He does whatever the team needs done. If he carried the ball one time or 20 times, he wouldn’t care.”

Said Allen: “I’ll do whatever’s best for the team to win. If people are starting to key on me, I don’t mind being the decoy. I probably could run for more yards in a different kind of offense, but I don’t think it really matters.”

Eric Patton, in his first year at San Clemente, said he will keep The Fly intact, and he has no plans to change Allen’s role. Junior quarterback Andy Coviello, who passed for nearly 1,000 yards as a sophomore, should keep the defense honest by throwing downfield more and that could open up the field for the running game.

Allen hopes so. He has a few goals to achieve.

“I’d like to make first team all-league, first team all-county and play in the Orange County All-Star game,” he said.

And there’s one more.

“I want to play college football pretty bad, but I don’t think many people know who I am,” said Allen, who carries a 3.6 grade-point average.

That might have something to do with the fact that Allen is not a burner--he runs about a 4.6 40-yard dash. And at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, he’s probably not big enough to play fullback at the Division I level. Allen has received some letters from Division I schools, including Michigan State, Washington State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Diego State and the Naval Academy, but none of those programs has been persistent.

“I’m really surprised more people aren’t recruiting him,” Patton said. “But I guess there’s a picture of a running back they have in their head of someone who’s a little quicker.”

Allen will increase his market value this year by adding linebacker to his resume. But even at linebacker, his size is still a negative.

If Allen doesn’t make it at the Division I or II level out of San Clemente, he would try Plan B: Saddleback College. McElroy would love to have him.

“James Allen can play college football,” McElroy said. “There are a lot of different levels of college football and this wouldn’t be a bad place for him.”