'The family business': Fresno State grad Payton Allen joins baseball coaching community

Payton Allen grew up going to the ballpark with his dad.

His father, Jody Allen, has been the head baseball coach at College of the Sequoias since 1994.

Today, Payton has joined the family business and is in his first year as the head skipper at Mt. Whitney High School.

Before taking charge of the Pioneers, Payton was a standout infielder at Golden West, College of the Sequoias and Fresno State.

At just 23 years old, Payton is one of the youngest head baseball coaches at the prep level in the Central Section.

“It was a route that I wanted to get into someday,” Payton said. “I didn’t know how soon or how it was going to work out. I knew it was the direction I wanted to go, so when this opportunity kind of came my way, I decided to go for it.”

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Payton has jumped right in.

He graduated from Fresno State last May with a degree in kinesiology and wrapped up his Bulldogs’ baseball career appearing in 89 games — 64 of them as a starter — while playing for head coaches Mike Batesole and Ryan Overland.

Batesole guided Fresno State to a College World Series championship in 2008 before retiring in December 2022.

Payton was hired as an elementary school physical education teacher with Visalia Unified shortly after graduation.

When he heard that the Mt. Whitney coaching position was open, he reached out to Pioneers’ athletic director Luke Vidak and left an impression.

Mt. Whitney announced Allen as the school’s new baseball coach in July 2023. This is Payton’s first coaching job at any level.

What drew Payton into coaching?

“I wanted to be able to help out someone like what I had,” Payton said. “I had great coaches growing up, a couple of great coaches at Fresno State. I wanted to be able to share that knowledge and impact someone the way those guys have impacted me.”

With Payton now at Mt. Whitney, all four of VUSD’s varsity baseball head coaches are Visalia natives.

Redwood’s Dan Hydash and El Diamante’s Andrew Riddle both graduated from Mt. Whitney, and Golden West’s Jeff Housman is a Trailblazers alum.

“It is cool that a lot of homegrown talent come back and want to give back to the community,” Payton said. “I think that’s a great thing. I think that’s what it’s all about.”

Payton won his first game as a coach in Mt. Whitney’s season opener on Feb. 13, helping direct the Pioneers to a 12-1 victory over Hanford West.

Mt. Whitney kicked off this month with a 5-4 win over city rival El Diamante on April 3.

What is Payton’s goal as a coach?

“I just want these guys to move on,” Payton said. “Whether they play baseball after high school or not, I want them to be able to take some of the lessons that they learned and the experiences they had here and use it in other areas of their life. Not everyone goes on to play baseball after high school, but the ones who do, I want them to be able to use the knowledge that they learned here and help them at the next school that they go to. If they choose not to play baseball after, they can use some of the lessons and some of the experiences they had here in their work life or their school life.”

Payton has followed a similar road map as his father.

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Jody played junior college ball at Kings River College, which is now known as Reedley College, and spent two seasons at Fresno State under late coach Bob Bennett.

After Jody’s playing career, he went into education and coaching.

What’s it like to see his son take a similar path?

“First of all as a dad, you’re proud of him for getting his degree,” Jody said. “You’re proud of him for looking into and giving back to the community that he was raised in. So I think that part, it’s very exciting for me. I just think that we need more people to invest in young people, especially nowadays, and I think athletics is a great avenue to do that. I’m excited for him and the opportunity he has before him. He’s really young to be a head coach but I think it’s going to take a while to be able to get a feel for everything but I think he appreciates the opportunity and I’m hopeful that he will do a good job.”

How has baseball connected the Allen family?

“It’s a special relationship,” Jody said. “It’s always been the family business with my three daughters and my son. I’m proud of all of them, and it just makes it extra special when you look at what you did, in a sense that when you coach, you have to sacrifice a lot and the need to see your family. You hope they don’t resent that but that they enjoy it and I think by him getting into the game, it shows that he did enjoy that. He loves the game. He’s going to be good for the game.”

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Fresno State grad Payton Allen joins coaching community