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CHAMPAIGN — He is on their minds and in their hearts.
Who is the Illinois baseball team playing for at this weekend’s NCAA tournament? Easy answer: pitching coach Mark Allen.
Early in the season, Allen was diagnosed with cancer and had to step away from his duties.
Illinois opens regional play Friday night against Indiana State in Lexington, Ky. Allen will doubtless be following the action from his home in Mahomet as he continues his battle with the disease.
No surprise, Illinois coach Dan Hartleb has given Allen his full support.
“We’ve all had people around us that have been ill,” Hartleb said. “It’s been very difficult with Mark, someone you’re used to seeing every day and interacting with every day and all of a sudden, you don’t see him.”
They exchange text messages and Hartleb talks to Allen on occasion.
“He doesn’t feel great, so it’s one of those situations where you try to give him his space, where he doesn’t feel like he needs to grind with us all the time,” Hartleb said.
With Allen away from the team, Hartleb added Cam Hill as interim pitching coach. Hill is living with Allen.
“They are very close,” Hartleb said. Allen “has done a tremendous job of staying on top of things as far as watching games. Still working with scouting reports. He’s very much in the mix on everything. He just can’t be here.
“You feel for him and his family. We just all pray that he continues to move forward and get healthy.”
Allen first saw doctors locally, then moved to care in the St. Louis area.
“Some of the best doctors in the country,” Hartleb said.
Allen has had treatments to deal with the cancer.
“He’s got a lot in front of him,” Hartleb said.
The Illini are doing whatever they can to keep his spirits up.
After they clinched a share of the Big Ten title on May 17 with a win at Purdue, the team called Allen from Alexander Field in West Lafayette, Ind.
“It was good to talk to him,” Hartleb said. “Typical Mark, he congratulated them, told them how proud he was and, ‘More work to do tomorrow.’”
Allen’s illness drives the players.
“We’ve come together around it,” junior catcher Cam Janik said. “He’s a huge part of this team. We would not be here without him.
“Hugely motivating.”
“It’s been unreal,” senior second baseman Brody Harding said. “Before every game, we say a prayer for him. We talk to him quite often. He’s battling. He’s a fighter. He’s instilled that in us from the moment he got here when I was a freshman. It’s been awesome to have him in our corner and know we’re playing for something a little bit bigger.”
Allen’s fight with cancer puts baseball in perspective.
“We’re playing a game,” Hartleb said. “You need to really look at the difference between playing a game and fighting to get your life back to something that’s normal.”
Support system
Ben Miller understands what Allen is going through. In 2021, the Illinois football assistant coach was diagnosed with colon cancer.
In late January of this year, Miller had a liver transplant and is on the road to recovery.
After Allen was diagnosed, Hartleb reached out to football coach Bret Bielema and asked if Miller would talk to Allen.
His response was “of course.”
“He’s been really good,” Hartleb said of Miller.
The two have been in regular communication ever since.
“We’ve never actually met face to face,” Miller said. “We just chat on the phone and text back and forth.”
Miller offered insight during the early days after diagnosis.
“That initial blow, you have no idea what even to do,” Miller said. “Here’s what to expect. You think about all terms they throw at you. The dictionary of cancer terms you’ve never heard of. I was trying to be that guy for him that I wished I had two years before.”
Pitching in
Ryan Tabeling has gotten to know Allen through his son Logan, a pitcher for the Illini and former standout from Tuscola who won The News-Gazette’s All-Area Player of the Year honor in 2019.
When Tabeling and the other baseball parents first heard about Allen’s cancer diagnosis, they wanted to help. With him taking the lead, they started a GoFundMe page to assist the family with some of inevitable expenses.
“We knew he wasn’t going to ask for help,” Ryan Tabeling said. “As much as he does for our kids, we wanted to show some appreciation.”
The goal is to raise $25,000. As of Thursday afternoon, the total for Allen and his family is at $18,645.
“We want to give him a little freedom not to worry about it when he’s going through all this,” Ryan Tabeling said.
Logan Tabeling and Allen have built a close bond.
“The parents understand how much time he puts in with our kids and the impact he’s had in their lives,” his father said.
The GoFundMe page was started April 17. Ryan Tabeling didn’t ask the Allens before it was up and running.
“Ask for forgiveness instead of permission, because I knew he wouldn’t want it,” he said. “I was trying to keep a secret and just surprise him.”
Once the word got out, Ryan Tabeling heard from Allen’s former players, other coaches and family members across the country.
“It was so cool,” he said. “It was like, ‘What can we do?’”
