Allen Culp

Allen Culp is an amazing teacher, mentor and coach. He works at Washington High School in Tacoma, WA. He teaches science, coaches cross country and track. He inspires his students and his athletes to push themselves to their highest level. He runs in community races and encourages us to join him. We give our best to him because of the respect he shows us. He gets us to strive for health and teaches us to take care of our bodies so we can safely push ourselves. I am autistic and Coach never put me down or let me get lost when running. He's so kind and up for the challenge of learning to train me the way I needed to be trained. Being part of a team has increased my confidence and has decreased my anxiety. Last year starting in January my dad became critically ill and was in the ICU for 3.5 months. Coach Culp worked with my school case manager to keep me on track and to be sure the other teachers knew why I was having a hard time. I did not miss a day of school and passed all of my classes; I was not going to let Coach down. He kept an eye on me and informed my mom if I was ok. He made sure I was remembering to eat healthy and getting enough sleep. In July my dad passed away. Coach Culp kept me going with summer training. It would have been easy for me to just retreat or shut down. Coach came on his own time to my dad's memorial. The school is underprivileged and the coach often uses his own money for the needs of the team. Coach finds ways to fundraise to keep the athletes in uniforms and support the teams like setting up and managing community races.

Tate Stecker