Scott Allan, a 1995 Georgetown graduate, returned to the Hilltop in early 2026 as the assistant sailing coach. Allan will assist longtime head coach and former Georgetown teammate, Michael Callahan, with a range of issues, including boat handling and boat speed development, sail trim adjustments and match racing tactics. He will also work closely with Georgetown sailors on their academic progress and post-collegiate career choices.
While at Georgetown as an undergrad, Allan captained the 1995 team and was part of the first Hoya teams to qualify for the fleet racing and sloop national championship regattas.
An Annapolis native, Allan grew up sailing opti’s, lasers, snipes, J-22’s, 420’s and FJ’s out of the Severn Sailing Association and the Newport Harbor Yacht Club as well as serving as a longtime bowman for Hall-of-Fame sailor Stuart Walker. He won A Division at the 1990 Mid-Atlantic High School Sailing Championships and worked summers at UK Sailmakers. Allan spent 1995-1996 coaching several Annapolis-area high school sailing teams through the Annapolis Yacht Club’s scholastic racing program, guiding one team to a fifth-place A Division Mallory Trophy finish.
Following his first coaching sint, Allan attended Duke University’s School of Law before clerking at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, working for three years at a Wall Street law firm and serving as Special Counsel to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. He then spent 20 years in government as one of the country’s longest serving counterterrorism policy officials. This included being a Counsel to the 9/11 Commission, Senior Counterterrorism Strategist for the State Department and a White House Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff, where he focused on terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan and addressing al-Qa’ida’s Senior Leadership. He continues to lecture on terrorism threats and counterterrorism strategies to students, professionals, and foreign officials.
Allan’s family has a long connection to college sailing. The A and B Division Intercollegiate National Championship trophies are named after his great-grandfather and grandfather, respectively. His uncle was a member of college sailing’s first All-America team, and his aunt was one of the first women inducted into the College Sailing Hall of Fame. His father was the first College Sailor of the Year before becoming the Naval Academy’s head dinghy coach and the 1972 Olympic helmsman in the Flying Dutchman class.
In his free time, Allan is an active competitor in the Harbor 20 racing class and enjoys saltwater fly fishing, watching Georgetown basketball and skiing with his wife and two teenagers.
