‘Dark time’: Concord coach says opioid dependence once took away his passion for tennis

CONCORD, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Injuries once led Mark Allen to his tough opponent yet: opioid dependency.

He shares his story with Queen City News, hoping others will learn from his cautionary tale.

“It was a very dark time. I certainly can see how people can become addicted to drugs,” he said.

Allen, the director of tennis, prepares young players for every possibility.

“I’ve produced over 40 collegiate tennis players,” he says.

“Alright, come on, let’s go,” said Allen, walking onto the court with two of his success stories at Sportscenter Fitness and Athletic Club. “I want you to get loosened up.”

Belmont Abbey College star Mackenzie McCarthy is the ITA Rookie of the Year. Her younger sister, Cassidy McCarthy, will also play for Belmont Abbey.

The court has always been Allen’s sanctuary, but what happened to him outside the lines derailed his way of life. In his 40s, after six surgeries on his right knee, including an ACL replacement, his opioid struggles robbed him of his passion for the game.

“Then I got addicted to opioids, and struggled for two years with that addiction, fighting depression, lack of sleep, brain fog, all those types of symptoms,” he remembers.

Not playing was a shocking change, considering his lifelong tennis history.

Allen was a state-ranked junior player, and in college, he played Division I at Charlotte in the early 1980s.

At the 2017 Senior Olympic Games, he and his partner won a national mixed doubles championship.

But there was a period when he couldn’t defeat his dependency.

“I was not able to play. I really didn’t play for about a year and a half because I just didn’t feel right. I wasn’t strong enough or wasn’t healthy enough to do it,” says Allen.

He credits his wife, Leah, for fighting for her husband’s health.

“Once you get to a certain point, it’s very easy to fall off the edge. If I hadn’t had my wife, who helped me, I probably would have gone down that road,” he said. “Thankfully, I didn’t.”

When Allen had surgery on his left knee last fall, the couple found a doctor with non-opioid options.

“He was going to use a robot to do the cuts, he was going to use a block on the back of the knee, and he was going to use the infiltration of non-opioid pain medicine so that he would not have any pain in the first 98 hours after surgery,” he explains.

Allen is now pain-free, he says. It’s been six months since he last took opioids.

Working with young tennis players is his labor of love, and he says he’s happy to mentor the next generation.

His experience now gives him a message that goes beyond tennis.

“Patients need to realize they do not need to take opioids to fight pain,” Allen said.