Photo by Gary Gold
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Pitching Coach Honored with National Award
As Rensselaer’s baseball recruiting coordinator, coordinator of club sports, and program manager for the Mueller Center, Steve “Smoke” Allard wears multiple hats at Rensselaer. But perhaps his most important hat is worn in the shape of a baseball cap as assistant coach of the Rensselaer baseball program. In that role, Allard has taught college players for the last 15 years how to become top-notch pitchers. He has been at Rensselaer since 1987.
Allard’s coaching style has not gone unnoticed. He recently was selected as an AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year by AFLAC (American Family Life Assurance Company) and Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director magazine. Allard was one of 524 high school and college assistant coaches chosen among more than 300,000 candidates.
Under Allard’s tutelage, Rensselaer’s pitching staff has tied or set almost 40 school records and four NCAA pitching records.
Four hurlers, selected in the Major League Baseball Entry Draft, have gone on to play professionally.
Last season, Allard helped the Red Hawks to a school record 33 wins and the team’s second-ever Division III World Series appearance.
Allard’s friends don’t call him “Smoke” for nothing. A lefty who could hurl a ball at 87 miles per hour, he was one of the top 64 high-school baseball players in the country in the 1980s. As a high school All-American, he was a member of the gold medal-winning East Team at the 1983 U.S. Olympic Festival. He also was selected to try out for the 1984 Olympic baseball team.
Allard graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1987 where he was a scholarship player for the Division I Minutemen baseball team. Over his eight-year pitching career, Allard threw 17 no-hitters.
He was recruited by the Toronto Blue Jays while still in high school, but he decided that going to college instead would make him a better player in day-to-day life, especially once his baseball career ended.
Allard says students have the best of both worlds at Rensselaer. “Students come here to play baseball, but they also come for the academics,” he says. “At Rensselaer, they have the opportunity to excel in both, and I’m glad to be a part of that.”
