Sports

Longtime assistant Allen takes over at Canarsie, looking to continue winning tradition

Kyle Allen saw the looks of sadness, disbelief and anger on his players’ faces when they realized longtime Canarsie coach Mike Camardese wasn’t coming back and one memory immediately came to mind.

It was the same feeling he had almost a year ago exactly, when he lost his sister Dana, 38, to brain cancer. As Allen walked out of the hospital that day, grief-stricken as he was, he noticed everything around him was as he remembered it, a memory he passed on to his players in his first speech as their new head coach.

“I realized life goes on,” he said. “I said to them, we all love Coach Camardese. When he left, it was like a funeral. I said to the kids, it’s the same situation, football has to go on even though he’s not here.”

Allen, the 37-year-old former Canarsie and C.W. Post wide receiver, was named Canarsie’s new coach May 31 after Camardese was fired from his post after receiving an unsatisfactory rating by school administrators he clashed with.

The school’s track & field coach as well and a longtime assistant under Camardese, Allen described his elevation as bittersweet – he was happy to get a varsity head-coaching position, but disappointed with how it all played out with Camardese.

“I’m trying to keep the program together and make him proud,” Allen said of Camardese, who has taken the junior varsity coaching position at Poly Prep after 28 mostly successful season at Canarsie. “I’m a product of him directly. I feel like I’m his football offspring.”

He isn’t changing much. Canarsie will still rely on running the ball and lean on its typically stingy defense. Star fullback/middle linebacker Donchervell Smith, in fact, said aside from Camardese and several other assistant coaches being gone, preseason has felt the same.

“It’s not really different,” Smith said. “The system is the same. The discipline remained the same; the way the coaches are coaching remained the same.”

Allen said getting the job so late came with pressure, pressure of organizing a camp on such short notice, getting uniforms ordered in time, assembling a coaching staff, but it all worked out. Smith lauded Allen for all he has done since taking over, from driving players home after practice to hosting several in the summer at his Long Island home for workouts.

“He’s definitely dedicated to the job and he’s stepping up to the plate,” said Smith, who scored 10 times on the ground and added 100 tackles on defense a year ago.

The Chiefs should be a playoff contender yet again, led by the 5-foot-11, 240-pound Smith, who is drawing interest from Syracuse, UConn and Rutgers. Canarsie will have a new quarterback as last year’s starter Giovanni Alexis is academically eligible. Allen said junior running back-turned-quarterback Charles McCrae is his No. 1 option right now, but junior varsity call-up Damian Charles (420 yards passing, 780 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns) is also in the mix. Both are capable of stretches opposing defenses vertically, but their strengths are creating with their feet.

Junior Antonio Snell, who hauled in 25 catches for 375 yards and three touchdowns last year, is back at wide receiver and will be joined by speedster Darius Grant. Offensive guards Ishmael Sweat and Jakim Henry anchor a sold offensive line.

Defensively, Smith is the focal point at middle linebacker while junior pass-rushing demons Ramshar Clarke and Justice Scott are back as well. Starting safeties a year ago, Snell and Grant will lead a ball-hawking secondary.

“We have remarkable talent, a lot of kids returning and we had a great regular season last year,” Allen said. “It’s all going to come down to discipline and the relationships they have each other. I preach that a lot, to trust each other.”

Allen hopes he began to develop that circle of trust in his first speech to the team as its new head coach.

zbraziller@nypost.com