Matt Allen still remembers the first time he watched his older brother Jack play football in a Michigan State uniform.
He was a freshman at Hinsdale Central, and the Spartans were playing at Wisconsin on Oct. 27, 2012. They won 16-13 with Jack Allen as a redshirt freshman lineman.
“We were on the 50-yard line and it was nice out there,” Matt Allen said. “It was weird, remembering how hard Jack worked for that stuff. He helped motivate me.”
Matt Allen, the Red Devils’ 6-foot-3, 275-pound senior offensive lineman, will soon have his own moment taking the field for the Spartans. He verbally committed to Michigan State in February and will follow his older brothers, Jack and Brian, to East Lansing. Jack Allen graduated from Hinsdale Central in 2011 and Brian Allen followed in 2014. Both will start for the Spartans this fall. Brian Allen is a sophomore left guard and Jack Allen is a senior center.
John and Leslie Allen, Matt Allen’s parents, are downsizing now that the last of their three sons is headed to Michigan State. The Hinsdale couple placed their home on the market and are planning on moving to a smaller home in Oak Brook, where John Allen grew up before graduating from Hinsdale Central in 1980.
The backyard of their current home is the same one where John Allen, a former commodities trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, used to play pickup football games with his sons.
All of the Allen brothers played for the Hinsdale Falcons youth football team while at Monroe Elementary School and then Clarendon Hills Middle School. Despite flashing some offensive skills, Matt Allen always played on the line.
According to John Allen, Matt Allen’s greatest moment in youth football came in fifth grade. He intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown, but the play was called back. Matt Allen was what is called “striper,” meaning he had a stripe painted on his helmet to signal that, as a player who weighed much more than his counterparts, he was unable to advance the ball.
“Matt could catch better than the other two,” John Allen said. “We play a little knucklehead game in the backyard pitting one against the other. Matt can catch anything you throw at him.”
Matt Allen played all sports when he was younger, including soccer, basketball and baseball. He won the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation state championship at 210 pounds as an eighth grader.
“We never really pushed any of the kids,” John Allen said. “We wanted them involved in something. I was a wrestler. I preferred the kids to wrestle.”
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Jack and Brian Allen each own a high school wrestling state championship. The brackets from those victories hang on a wall in the family’s basement. John Allen said he believes his sons’ wrestling careers have been a big factor in their football success.
“The two sports go hand in hand,” John Allen said. “If you want to be a lineman, I don’t think there is anything that compliments being a lineman more than the wrestling as far as the initial burst, the hand fighting and the balance, the mental toughness.”
Hinsdale Central assistant wrestling coach Jim Zajicek is the Allen brothers’ uncle. John Allen’s father died when he was 2 years old and his mother remarried several years later, so he and Zajicek are half-brothers.
“All the kids are different,” said Zajicek, who added that he feels closest to Matt Allen. “Matt takes the time to listen to what I want to talk to him about. He’s a very coachable kid.”
One of the more influential people in Matt Allen’s career has been his personal trainer, Gabe Salinas, who has worked with him for at least three years. Salinas is a former strength and conditioning coach for Virginia Tech’s football team and owns OA Athletics in Addison. In the offseason, Matt Allen will visit Salinas three to five times a week.
“To me, the biggest thing that has changed is Matt’s mental development,” Salinas said. “A year ago, he realized, ‘This is what I want to do.’ He said, ‘I’ll make the sacrifice. I will try to treat it as a job.’ “
Twitter @geomwilcox