Rutgers-Camden Athletics

Assistant Coach        Vince Phillips (3rd season)
High School:              Burlington Township
College:                      Ursinus College (1973)
Major:                         English Literature
 
Having coached cross country and track at various levels since 1978, Vince Phillips joined the Rutgers-Camden program as an assistant in the Scarlet Raptors cross country, indoor and outdoor track programs in 2012, with a primary responsibility in recruiting.
 
A member of the first graduating class of Burlington Township High School in 1966, Phillips captained the cross country team to an undefeated season and a conference championship in just the second year of the school’s existence. He then enjoyed the privilege of captaining the Ursinus College cross country team to an undefeated season and a conference championship in 1968.
 
Following an interruption to his undergraduate education for military service, with a tour in Vietnam, Phillips graduated from Ursinus in 1973 with a B.A. in English Literature, earned an MAT in Elementary Education from TCNJ (then Trenton State College) and began teaching in 1974.
 
Phillips’ post-collegiate running included a 2:35 performance in the 1978 Boston Marathon and a bronze medal in the 1983 National Masters Indoor Championships two-mile.
 
Phillips’ coaching career began as an assistant to Bill Lewis, father of Carl, with the girls’ track program at JFK-Willingboro in 1978. Moving to the boys’ team the following year, Phillips assisted Gary Jankowski’s Gryphons in winning back-to-back State Group III Championships in 1981 and 1982. In 1983, Phillips began teaching mathematics at Rancocas Valley Regional High School, where, as head winter coach, his girls’ team won the 1987 Group III Indoor State Championships. Later, as head cross country coach, his Red Devils boys’ team enjoyed three consecutive undefeated seasons, and advanced either a full team or an individual to the state championship every year for ten straight years.
 
In 1994, Phillips founded the Burlington County Alternative High School at Burlington County College. In 1995, he earned an M.A. in Educational Administration and in 2007 he retired as Director of BCAHS, but took the helm of head cross country coach at his high school alma mater, Burlington Township High School. He took a team which had fallen on hard times and produced six consecutive winning seasons, and started a girls’ program which initially had difficulty fielding the minimum five girls but went on to three consecutive winning seasons.
 
Over his career, Phillips’ coaching honors included being named 1993 and 1996 Burlington County Cross Country Coach of the Year, 1994 Trenton Times “All Area” Cross Country Coach of the Year, 1981 inductee into the Burlington County Track and Field Hall of Fame, 1999 inductee into the South Jersey Coaches Hall of Fame and 2012 inductee into the Rancocas Valley High School Athletic Hall of Fame (as a coach).
 
Phillips and his wife Marie live in Southampton. They have three adult children living in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.