Allen Community College athletics lies in the safe hands of Doug Desmarteau who for the last seven of his 17 years at ACC has served as its athletic director.
Desmarteau both played and coached soccer for over 25 years and was most previously the men’s soccer head coach at Manhattan High School where he went 49-19 overall. Throughout his soccer coaching days, Desmarteau was twice named the Central Region Coaches Association Class 6A Coach of the Year.
His stops have included playing soccer at Kansas State, coaching club soccer as well as developing a soccer club, taking it from about 75 kids to 450. Along with high school women’s soccer and creating his own club team, Desmarteau has worked with U.S. Olympic development programs, state level and regional level soccer teams and the Kansas State Youth Soccer Organization for over a decade.
Currently in these summer months, Desmarteau and his staff are working mainly on getting student athletes’ transcripts and other necessary documents filed so they can enroll at the school both academically and athletically. The summer months can also be a time to hire new athletics staff members.
“We’re currently looking to replace a couple athletic trainers so that’s always a fun,” said Desmarteau. “I do a lot with eligibility, making sure our kids are eligible, making sure they all have the proper paperwork.”
Desmarteau said one of his favorite parts of the job is developing young athletes and students and transitioning them from high school to a bigger four-year university.
“I always say kids come here for three reasons: socially, they aren’t ready to go to a big four-year school, emotionally they aren’t ready to go to a big four-year school, and academically they aren’t ready,” Desmarteau said of the students he deals with.
ALLEN Community College fields 14 different sports teams. It competes in the NJCAA division. Last week, the NJCAA announced the All-Academic team for the upcoming school year and Allen has 85 student-athletes represented on the team.
“We’re in the Kansas Jayhawk conference, which includes 21 schools. The NJCAA is our national governing body. The difference in ours is the amount of scholarships. For us, our philosophy is like a Division II college because we’re a smaller rural community, we can’t afford to be giving out 350 full-ride scholarships or our doors would be shut,” he said.
Desmarteau’s sports background is a natural fit as an athletic director. Taking care of student-athletes on the field, in the classroom and in their everyday lives is Demarteau’s biggest responsibility.
“I love athletics and I’ve always wanted to have some spot in it, whether it’s coaching, whether it’s athletic director, whether it’s overseeing an athletic director, whatever it is. I always wanted to be involved in athletics. It’s my life, it’s been my life. My dad was a coach growing up and I played traveling sports all over,” said Desmarteau.
