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Sheila Allen works tirelessly to ensure that Callaway High athletics don’t just stay afloat, but thrive. For 11 years now she has been the Callaway athletic secretary, but that title is in name only as she offers that and so much more to the school.

“Sheila is our athletic secretary, but she does so much for our school. She loves the school and she has such a great relationship with our faculty and our students at the school,” Callaway athletic director Pete Wiggins said. “Sheila is always working behind the scenes and she’s always you know, trying to try to make our school better and it doesn’t matter if it’s handling money from tickets to selling merchandise to selling tickets at a football game.

“She is very special to all of us at Callaway and she worked so hard and she puts in a lot of time to make our school and make our programs better.”

Allen moved to  Troup County when she was nine years old and graduated from LaGrange High in 1983, this is home for Allen. With a strong background in clerical work, Allen jumped at the job opening in 2013 and the rest is history.

“It’s a different environment than my previous job, I’ve been in clerical work, but  I did medical transcription for over 25 years. So I’ve always done office work. But this was a new environment and I did not know what exactly to expect, and what the job was going to entail,” Allen said. “There was a lot of learning on the fly, but I can’t imagine working anywhere else now.”

“I would frequently run across stuff that was part of my job that I needed to do, but there was not always an example to follow,” Allen added. “For example, for Title Nine, we have to file a report every year. Well, by the time Title Nine rolls around, I had already been here almost a year, because we do it in the spring. I didn’t know what to do, so I had to dig through old files and just try to see what she had done before me and just try to go from there.”

There was an adjustment period, but Allen has found a home at Callaway High. The tight-knit group of coaches and athletic staff helped her fit right into the Cavalier family.

“All the coaches do a good job and the coaches all just kind of gel together, everybody just wants what’s best for the kids and they really try to bring what they can to make the program successful, not just their sport, but also help make that child successful in the classroom,” Allen said. “This is such a great environment.”

During these last 11 years with Callaway High, she has just about seen it all. State championships, new athletic programs being formed and coaches coming and going. Through it all, she has remained a constant presence for Callaway High. Allen has seen athletes from Callaway reach professional sports leagues, but few things bring her more satisfaction than seeing a former athlete come back to a game or an event with a degree, career, or family.

“Just knowing that I’ve done whatever I can to help the coaches do their job and then I love to see the kids when they come back, they’ll come to a football game or a basketball game and it’s always so great to see them,” Allen said when asked about what is the most satisfying part of her job. “I might not always remember their name, but I always remember their faces and what year they graduated. I love to get to see them and I love when they come back and visit, there is nothing better.”

Most of her work is unsung. It is behind-the-scenes work like helping with fundraising, balancing the checkbook, helping organize signing days and so much more.

“So there’s that kind of little stuff, this little stuff that I guess it does add, helps make the events and department flow smoothly,” Allen said. 

Even in the summer, she is tirelessly working. Before the interview, she sat in her office, reading glasses hanging off the edge of her nose, working out how many kids would be coming to the annual Pete Wiggins football camp next week.

Being an athletic secretary is far from a 9-5 job. There are a lot of long evenings when Allen is at a sporting event helping in some form or fashion with a big smile on her face.