Accidental coach built 1A girls soccer powerhouse

Rob Phillips still laughs when he thinks about how he was talked into coaching the girls soccer team at Seattle Academy

He was young, just a few years out of Seattle Pacific University. He was the school's principal and was leading students on a wilderness trip through Alaska. He was also charged with finding a new girls soccer coach.

One of the players approached him during the trip and asked, "So, you're going to be committed to the girls program?"

"Yeah, I'll get you the best possible coach we can," Phillips replied.

"What if the best possible coach is you?" the girl asked.

At the time, he didn't expect to be the one to take over, but he ended up with the job.

"The school's athletic program was pretty abysmal back in the early '90s, but it was also kind of fun to take a couple of the programs, girls soccer and track, and say, 'Let's see what we can do here,' " said Phillips, 44, who began coaching the girls soccer team in 1995.

His Cardinals, the defending Class 1A champions, play Bush in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup.

"He built a dream around having something bigger here," said athletic director Cathy Schick of Seattle Academy. "One of the reasons I came here eight years ago was because of him. He has a huge amount of passion for sports."

Getting to this point took time. The Cardinals won their first state title in 2005. The next season they started a run of four straight Emerald City League titles.

"[It's] easy to build a program when you have great players, D-I players who set that kind of tone," said Phillips, who has won five league Coach of the Year awards.

In addition to building up the girls soccer program, he also turned the track team into a power — one state title and 12 league championships — but he is starting to scale back. He was recently promoted to assistant head of the school and passed on the coaching reins to the track team. Phillips also sees a day when he will also turn over the girls soccer program to someone new.

"You've got to have the right person in place to fill that spot," Phillips said. "That's really going to be the determining factor, when there's somebody here I can hand it off to."

But that will come later. There is still a season to finish.

"Rob is definitely one of the best coaches I've ever had," said senior Achijah Berry, who will play at Oregon next season. "Regardless of the level of the sport, he just has a way of bringing a team together with a variety of different personalities and skills. We all connect on one level."

Mason Kelley: 206-464-8277 or mkelley@seattletimes.com