ROD ALLEN GUIDES COLORADO FEDERATION THROUGH EXPLOSIVE GROWTH
PHOTO COURTESY ROD ALLEN
Rod Allen ( left ) oversaw explosive growth in the Colorado Federation in the seven years he served as the president of the state ’ s Federation .
Boater Stephen Way and co-angler Dillon Robertshaw will represent the Colorado Federation in the National Championship in March , and there ’ s a fair chance neither angler would ’ ve made it this far without the staggering growth and development of the Colorado TBF over the past few years .
Rod Allen took over as president of Colorado TBF in 2016 , when the organization only had 46 active members on its roster . With no prior experience in a leadership role in tournament bass fishing , Allen knew that he had his work cut out for him when he took the reins seven years ago .
“ It was intimidating when I first took over ,” Allen admitted . “ I gathered some people I had faith in to build my board of directors , and those were the best decisions I made during my time as president . Together , we saw drastic improvement in such a short amount of time because I had the right people working alongside me .”
In just two years , the organization grew to 186 members – more than quadruple what Allen and company started with . Allen believes the greatest impact on the Colorado Federation ’ s turnaround was simple attention to small , seemingly mundane everyday tasks that seem to have been forgotten in previous years .
“ I feel as though we did a lot of little things well that added up to the better bigger picture ,” Allen explained . “ Whether it was showing up early to get the coffee going for the anglers , setting up a propane heater for those cold Colorado mornings or lighting up a dark boat ramp with lights we bought at Walmart . They may seem small , but they meant a lot to our membership .”
Another feather in the cap of Allen ’ s tenure was the growth and success of the Colorado youth program : Colorado won Junior World Championships in 2020 and 2022 . It was the team of
Cody Miller and Ryan Steinhoff in 2020 , with Madison Robertshaw and Steinhoff combining for a win in 2022 . Allen says Youth Director Sam Heckman should get the majority of the credit , but Allen did his best to show his support for the young upand-coming hammers .
“ It was important to me and the rest of the Colorado TBF to show those kids that we cared about them ,” Allen said . “ I went to all of their meetings and tournaments to show my face and offer up support . We were all extremely proud of our youth program .”
Although it was a memorable seven years , Allen is now moving on to a new challenge . However , he ’ s still in the TBF realm : He took over as a member of the TBF National Board of Directors in 2023 and looks forward to helping grow an organization he dearly loves . Still , he says he will always miss Colorado and will appreciate the memories he made there forever .
“ The entire atmosphere and camaraderie in the Colorado fishing community we helped build is what I ’ ll miss the most ,” Allen said . “ You always want to leave something better than you found it , and I believe that myself and the team I had around me really did that .”
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