“Discipline is choosing what you want the most versus what you want now.”

29-years-old Dennis Allen lives by those words everyday since started playing American Football at the age of 12.  He started playing Flag Football at 19 and has been playing since. He plays as center, wide receiver and the backup quarterback but defines himself more as an offensive player. He also is one of the three captains for Team Panama.

Allen and playing football

American football is a big part of Allen’s life. Besides playing, He is also a personal performance coach and owns a gym. He started coaching at 17.

“For me playing it's a big, big deal. But me being 29, it's not like I'm in the younger part of my career. I'm reaching my thirties, and I know that my national team play it's more ending than beginning, but I mean, it's really important to be there and to perform and to represent my country,” he said.

Playing requires a lot of sacrifices, but sacrifices that are rewarding at the end of the day.

“When you have to play, you have to make personal sacrifices, stop being with your family, stop being with your partner, and stop going out with your friends to practice and to train and be with your teammates. Because for each tournament for the national team, we have tryouts. You have to be on top of your shape and your game. Every opportunity you have to play for your country, you cherish it because it could be the last one,” Allen said.

Allen also works as a commentator for a TV station in his country. When all is done, Allen wants to become a sports counsellor.

Allen’s biggest influence

Although they are the opposites of each other, Allen’s dad remains his biggest influence.

He’s never played any sports. He's a lawyer, he likes reading and eating things I don’t eat. He believes in stuffs that I don’t believe in. But, at the same time, every time I get up and speak with him, he's like very open minded. He will be like if this is what you like and wanna do, just do it and believe in yourself.

Allen on Team Panama and the meaning of building a legacy

For the first time last December, the men’s team won a medal. They took the bronze medal home.

“Panama was never in the big picture of football, like we only played here and there or some clubs’ travel. Whenever the team gets to quarter finals, for some reasons we lose. Then in Israel we finished 3^rd. We started crying because we were so happy,” Allen said.

Since then, expectations are running high for the upcoming World Games in Birmingham, Ala. There won’t be any novice.

“I think it's going to be the hardest one ever, because to be there you have to be in the top 8 in the world. Everyone has been on some type of international stage. Everyone has won games. Every game is going to be an adventure to set in a way that you're perhaps going to be down in the scoreboard until the last minute, or you're going to be winning until the last minute,” he said.

On those notes, Allen wants his teammates to concentrate on one drive at a time. “If you give your hundred percent in each play and focus on everything, we can win or lose. And if we lose it's probably because the other team was better. So, we should be fine with that too,” he advised.

As they are creating a dynasty for their country, they are also seizing the opportunity to teach the future generation.

This is something I always look up to do, because you want to have a legacy. You want to have something to teach. You always want to spread your knowledge or everything you've learned, because if you don't do it, like everybody is gonna make the same mistakes and everybody is gonna do what you did, and you don't want that, he said.

You want every generation to be better than yours. So if we were able to make it to the top 3 in the world, if we teach the younger guys what we did, and then they started working on top of that, maybe they can be number two. If they do the same thing with the next generation after theirs, they're gonna be number one. I mean,  if you don't do anything, if you don't teach, if you don't spread your knowledge and you don't tell everybody what you did, then everybody's gonna do the same thing, he added.

Photos courtesy: @dezzcontrol