Phillips is currently in his 23nd season as head coach of both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs in the 2024-25 season. Phillips also serves as Assistant Athletic Director at the University, working closely in the areas of diversity and inclusion, faculty outreach, and compliance.
Some of Phillps' other roles throughout the years include Aquatics Director, admission liason, academic advising, alumni relations liason, and was a faculty liason for athletics. He has served as Assistant Athletic Director where he focused on admissions. Phillips helped coordinate diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the department and was one of the founders of CAIC in 2019. He also helped create the Cougar Pride commity in 2010. Phillips also started the Faculty Mentor Program in an effort to engage faculty with athletics.
As head coach, he has overseen the proud tradition of the program by developing record-breaking student-athletes, who have earned honors on both the conference and at the national level. In recent years, the program has developed several NCAA qualifiers, 3 NCAA participants, 2 NCAA All-Americans, 2 NEWMAC champions, the NEWMAC Men’s Swimmer of the year and 3 Women’s Diver of the years.
The 2011 New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's swimming and diving coach of the year, Phillips has seen the record books rewritten during his tenure with 20 of the 27 men's records and 24 of the 27 women's records having been established under his watch.
In 2016, Melissa Orzechowski also qualified for Nationals and was a 4x All-NEWMAC Performer and finished second overall in the NEWMAC Championships in the 1650 free, 500 free, and 200 free.
Ryan Garr '12 also qualified for NCAA Championships, with a 10th place finish in both the 100 and 200 backstroke, was a 2x All-American, NEWMAC Swimmer of the Year, and 5x NEWMAC Champion/All-Conference Performer.
E Garcia '12 was a 6x All-American, 5x NEWMAC Champion, 3x NEWMAC Diver of the Year, a Clark Athletics Hall of Famer, and was featured on ESPN the Magazine National Feature.
Phillips also founded the swim lesson 1 to 1 program that serves over 150 families from the local community. In the summers he works with Tenacity at the Dolan and also holds swim events in the summer. The swim team also hosts a pool party twice a year for the kids at Columbus Park and host the boys and girls club of Worcester.
In the classroom, every semester Phillips has been the head coach at Clark, the team has received CSCAA Team All-Academic honors.
Individual awards aside, Phillips has guided the Cougars to their highest finish in the NEWMAC Championships ever, and under Phillips’ tutelage, the men own nearly every single individual record and all six relay records have come under his watch.
In addition to his role as head coach, he designed and supervised the extensive Kneller Center Pool renovation project which was completed in the fall of 2004.
He has also served on the Athletic Director and Dean of Students search commities during his time with the Cougars.
Prior to Clark, Phillips was an accomplished high school and club team coach in his native state of Rhode Island. At Lincoln High, where he was coach from 1998-2003, he led the school to its first-ever co-ed state title (1999-2000) and directed Lincoln’s girls’ team to three consecutive Rhode Island state championships and the boys’ team to three division championships.
On the club level, he built a roster of 165 swimmers in just two years at the Boys & Girls Club of Cumberland-Lincoln and led the Penguins to four straight Rhode Island/Massachusetts League championships. Phillips also developed several Rhode Island state champions and was named 2002 Rhode Island/Massachusetts League Coach of the Year.
An outstanding swimmer in his own right, Phillips is the only swimmer to earn All-State honors from North Providence High, where he was a two-year captain and 1991 Rhode Island swimmer of the year nominee. On the collegiate level, Phillips was a school-record holder and team captain at Brandeis University, where he earned a B.A. in philosophy in 1995.
In 2017, Phillips was selected to the Rhode Island Aquatic Hall of Fame, and honored by Brandeis University with the Charlie Napoli Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the North Providence Sports Hall of Fame.
The team travels to San Juan, Puerto Rico each year and has also traveled to San Diego and Anaheim, California.
Prior to Clark, Phillips was an accomplished high school and club team coach in his native state of Rhode Island.
At Lincoln High, where he was coach from 1998-2003, he led the school to its first-ever co-ed state title (1999-2000) and directed Lincoln’s girls’ team to three consecutive Rhode Island state championships and the boys’ team to three division championships.
On the club level, he built a roster of 165 swimmers in just two years at the Boys & Girls Club of Cumberland-Lincoln and led the Penguins to four straight Rhode Island/Massachusetts League championships. Phillips also developed several Rhode Island state champions and was named 2002 Rhode Island/Massachusetts League Coach of the Year.
An outstanding swimmer in his own right, Phillips is the only swimmer to earn All-State honors from North Providence High, where he was a two-year captain and 1991 Rhode Island swimmer of the year nominee. On the collegiate level, Phillips was a school-record holder and team captain at Brandeis University, where he earned a B.A. in philosophy in 1995.
