“I like a good challenge:” Montevallo tabs Matthew Allen to succeed Tena Niven as head volleyball coach – Shelby County Reporter

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – For the first time in 15 years, the Montevallo Bulldogs will have a new face on the sidelines at volleyball games as Matthew Allen returns to his roots and takes over the program.

Montevallo officially announced Allen as the new head varsity volleyball coach in a social media post on Friday, May 16. He was officially introduced to the team at a special meeting on Tuesday, May 20 at the MHS library.

“Montevallo is always kind of been like a home away from home, so this is very exciting for me and my family,” Allen said.

Allen led West Blocton to its most successful season ever in 2024 before heading to Helena and now Montevallo ahead of the 2025 season. (Contributed/Allen Photography + Events)

Allen served as the head coach of West Blocton for three seasons. In his most recent campaign in 2024, he led them to a 12-6 record, a nine-win improvement over the 2023 season and the most single-season wins since the Tigers started their program in 2010.

As a result, Allen’s West Blocton team finished second in Class 4A, Area 6 and advanced to the South Super Regionals for the first time since 2014. He was also named The Tuscaloosa News Volleyball Coach of the Year.

Prior to that, Allen coached boys basketball for a season at Morgan Academy and made it to the state championship game. He got his start at Cornerstone Christian, doubling up as volleyball and boys basketball coach while amassing a 54-15 volleyball record in three years with the Chargers.

While Allen didn’t graduate from Montevallo High School, his roots run deep in the area. He attended Montevallo Elementary School as a kid before moving to the Bibb County, and many of his family members graduated from MHS.

After leaving West Blocton, Allen headed to Helena in March and was set to serve as an assistant coach for both the Huskies’ varsity volleyball and boys basketball teams.

However, Allen ultimately left Helena without coaching a single game after a curious internal job search within Shelby County Schools led to him discovering that Montevallo’s volleyball coaching job was open.

He then reached out to Tena Niven who he knew from sharing an area with the Bulldogs in 2022 and 2023. After he confirmed Niven was retiring, he took time to pray and consider the position while Niven worked to help the opportunity come together.

While he never meant to leave Helena after less than three months at the school, he felt strongly that God was leading him in Montevallo’s direction.

“I’m a man of faith, and I firmly believe that this was a door that the Lord opened, and me and my family have a lot of peace about it,” Allen said. “And like I said, this wasn’t something that I took easily.”

Allen steps in for a program legend in Niven, who coached volleyball for the last 15 seasons as part of a 24-year coaching career at MHS. She racked up 270 wins as well as 10 area championships, three regional titles and two trips to the Elite Eight in her time with Montevallo volleyball.

He knows the expectations will be through the roof as he takes over for a beloved coach who he himself respects, but he is prepared for what lies ahead and looks forward to building on what Niven left behind.

“I understand the legacy that coach Niven has, and I understand it’s going to be a challenge trying to step in for somebody like her, but I like a good challenge,” Allen said. “Stepping in for her, I think it’s actually going to be pretty easy because she has a really good foundation built and really good program built, so (it’s) something I’m excited to do.”

Allen is no stranger to overcoming the odds. He came to Cornerstone initially as a boys basketball coach with all of his volleyball knowledge coming from watching his sister play. However, after a year on the basketball court, the Chargers needed a volleyball coach, so he stepped up.

Allen didn’t let his lack of knowledge stop him, and as he dove into learning about volleyball, he fell in love with it. His fast learning combined with a strong senior class to help Cornerstone reach the AISA Final Four in his first season ever as a volleyball coach.

He chalks up his quick success to a strong work ethic and drive to be the best.

“I’m not going to just go in and halfway coach something even if I don’t know much about the sport,” Allen said. “I wasn’t there for volleyball. Basketball was my thing, so I could’ve easily just said, ‘I’m just going to get through it and get through to basketball,’ but started studying the game, started learning about it, and we had a fantastic year that year.”

He does carry over some principles from his time on the basketball court, namely a simple, fundamentals-based approach. In either sport, he isn’t focused on teaching specific plays or running a complicated offense and defense but instead wants to teach how to play the game the right way.

“I want my team to be very disciplined, want them to be very fundamentally sound, and once we get that established, we can start adding some things if we need to,” Allen said. “That’s the good thing about coming to coach Niven’s program is they’re going to be fundamentally sound, so there’s not much work to do there.”

With that foundation mostly laid, Allen hopes to instill a love of competition that paves the way for success both on and off the court.

“I want them to play together,” Allen said. “I want them to love competing, and not just competing on the court. Life itself is all about competition, and so if they can learn to compete on the court and learn how to overcome adversity, Nick Saban talks about the process, that’s what it’s all about. If we can get through that process of trying to be a winner, trying to be a champion, then they can learn some things that they can take with them throughout life and they can be a competitor in life.”

Montevallo enters its second season in Class 5A with high expectations after making the Class 5A Super Regionals in its first year in the classification. With a strong rising-senior trio of Emeli Guardado, Zoe Jones and Hunter Jordan returning fresh off All-State seasons, Allen will step into a program with a successful recent track record.

He wants to see the city of Montevallo get excited about the volleyball team this year and support them as they strive for even greater success in 2025.

“I really want to see is a big student section there every night, every game, big crowd there every night, every game, get this community rallied around these girls,” Allen said. “That’s what they want, and I think we can have a really special season.”