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Don Phillips is expected to be approved as the new East Liverpool High School football coach. (Special to the Journal/Jimmy Joe Savage)

EAST LIVERPOOL — East Liverpool High School is turning to a Western Pennsylvania coaching veteran to lead its football program.

East Liverpool City School District announced Tuesday that Don Phillips, 71, of Beaver, Pennsylvania, had the full approval of the district’s athletic committee and school board and will be hired at a special board of education meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Phillips will be meeting Friday with those in grades 7-11 interested in playing football for the Potters this coming fall.

“We’re not going to worry about my age,” Phillips said. “It scares some people. I know when they see me on Friday and see my coaching style, they are going to wonder how they can keep up with me.”

East Liverpool had 34 applicants for the job.

Phillips comes to the Potters from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa., where he spent last season as the Tornadoes quarterbacks coach. He went to Geneva College on Tuesday afternoon to tell the coaching staff he is leaving for East Liverpool.

“I wanted to be back into a head coach position,” he said. “I saw it was open and I’ve always heard good things about East Liverpool. I live close, it’s not that far away (a 25-minute drive).”

Phillips lives in Beaver, Pennsylvania, with his wife. They have two grown children. He is a retired guidance counselor.

“I really look forward to utilizing my time to make the kids better student-athletes,” he said.

Phillips is a 1972 graduate of Geneva College where he played football and has had three stints as an assistant there.

He has spent more than 30 years coaching in Western Pennsylvania schools where he produced a 162-149-3 career record.

His most recent prep football stop was Ambridge in 2019 and 2020. The school district called upon Phillips to turn around a program which had one win since 2015 but Phillips two-season run in charge of the Bridgers ended with an 0-16 mark (including the COVID shortened 2020 season). During that time the Bridgers were outscored 669-80.

Following his stint at Ambridge, he applied for the head coaching job at Beaver (Pa.) and his hiring as head football coach was on the Beaver Area school board agenda in February 2021.

In a bizarre move, only one school board member nominated Phillips. There was not a second motion and the board did not vote on the matter of his hiring, instead it nominated and hired Beaver assistant coach Cort Rowse to lead the program at the same meeting.

“They told me I was hired,” Phillips said. “Then we came to the board meeting and it didn’t happen that way.”

In 2016, Phillips ended an eight-season run at Ellwood City by going 0-9 in a final campaign where the team was outscored 269-70. During his time at Ellwood City he went 28-56 with playoff appearances in 2010 and 2011. Phillips’ last high school head coaching win came in 2015.

Phillips, who played football at Geneva College from 1968-71, began his head coaching career at Monaca in 1979 where he spent two seasons in charge. At Rochester (1982-1984) he won 10 games in 1984 and took the Rams to the WPIAL finals. He then went to West Allegheny for two seasons before spending 14 seasons at Center.

At Center, where he worked as a guidance counselor before retiring in 2016, he won four section titles, made the playoffs eight times and was section coach of the year in 1988, 1992, 1997 and 1998. Over his last four seasons at Center he went 35-10 and made the playoffs each season.

From 2001-03, Phillips took on the role of quarterbacks coach at Geneva College and then worked as an assistant at South Side Beaver from 2004-05.

“I really like the offensive side,” Phillips said. “I feel that’s strength because I played the position (quarterback) and coached the position.”

He said he’s coached running teams and passing teams.

“Over the next period of time, I’m going to keep working with the kids and seeing what their strengths are.” Phillips said. “I just need to learn what these kids can do. When they ran the ball last year they were very, very effective. A couple of their better runners are graduating and I want to see what the underclassmen can do. We’re going to see what their strengths are and go from there.”

He takes over a Potter program that has had one winning season in the last 11 years.

“I feel very fortunate I have an opportunity at East Liverpool,” Phillips said. “We have a great chance to get some excitement going. I’ve been able to watch some film and the kids play hard. The kids do some good things and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

Potter notes

• The only time Phillips said he had visited Patterson Field until recently was when he was an assistant coach for Pennsylvania in the 1990 Penn-Ohio Stateline Classic.

He was the head coach for the 2012 Penn-Ohio game at Springfield Local that was delayed due to weather.

• Phillips replaces Josh Ludwig, who decided not to reapply for the position after posting a 28-50 record in eight seasons as head coach,

• East Liverpool opens the 2022 season at Minerva on Aug. 19, the first of three straight road games. The Potters will follow that with road games against Indian Creek and Salem followed by the home opener against Beaver Local on Sept. 9.

The Potters will host Harrison Central on Sept. 16 and then follow with away games at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin and Edison. The Potters will close the season with home games against Canton Central Catholic, Oak Glen and Weir.

• As Geneva’s quarterback coach, Phillips worked with former United High School All-Ohioan Brutus Ogilvie, who saw some playing time as a freshman last fall.

“Brutus is really special,” Phillips said. “He is a great young man. He should start this year. He is tremendous.

“He learned our offense in the off-season. The kid worked so hard.”