Tom Phillips has joined the Youngstown State football staff in April 2022. He is in his third year as the Director of Football Operations.
Phillips has experience as a high school head coach, most recently spending four seasons at Stow-Munroe Falls. He had previously served as the football head coach at Pickerington North High School for 10 seasons and Bexley High School for three campaigns. He has served a coach, administrator and educator at a number of institutions in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
At Stow-Munroe Falls he compiled a 25-14 record with two Division I playoff appearances. Stow went 5-5 in 2018, 6-4 in 2019, 5-2 in 2020 and 9-3 in 2021 under Phillips. The 2021 Bulldogs team won the Suburban League National Conference championship.
Phillips had a career mark of 116-62 as a head coach, won or shared conference titles in 2007, 2012, 2013 and 2021 while qualifying for the state playoffs six times and earned a berth in the state semifinals in 2012. He served as president of the Central District Football Coaches Association from 2013-14. The Central District Football Association named him Division I Coach of the Year for three-straight years from 2011-13.
At UC, he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the recruiting program including database management, organized all official and unofficial visits, coordinated special events associated with recruiting, managed the roster and recruiting budgets while serving as the compliance liasion.
Phillips, a three-time Ohio Capital Conference Coach of the Year, was 70-39 in 10 years at Pickerington North. He helped develop almost 50 players who went on to play collegiately at the division I and division II levels, including 2016 Rimington Trophy Award winner Pat Elflein (Ohio State) and 2016 John Mackey Award winner Jake Butt (Michigan). Six players he coached - Alex Bayer, Jarius Campbell, Pat Elflein, Alex Huettel, Butt and Godwin Igwebuike - went on to play in the NFL.
He worked for the Pickerington Local School District for 10 years as an assistant athletic director at Pickerington North from 2007-11 and as the Pickerington Community School Administrator from 2011-17.
Phillips was the head coach at Bexley High School in Columbus from 2004-07 going 21-9 and also working as the district’s drug and alcohol prevention coordinator.
He was the dean of students at two schools, Westerville North in Columbus and Mercer Area Junior-Senior from 2002-04 and 2000-02, respectively.
Phillips started his career as assistant football coach and physical education instructor at Boardman High School in Youngstown from 1988-2000.
The New Middletown, Ohio, native earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Akron in December 1987 and a master’s in sports science from Ashland University in August 1995. He received an administrative certificate from Westminster College in 2001.
Phillips and his wife Paula have three children, Eric (Kristen), Paige (Hayden - two grandsons Easton and Kash) and Jake.
