Katy Phillips: Director of Recruiting & Co-Owner

Phillips is the owner and director of staff development and recruiting for Pittsburgh Premier Lacrosse Club. Phillips is currently serving as the Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Coach of the varsity girls’ lacrosse team of Shady Side Academy. In her full-time administrative role, Phillips aids in the supervision of all athletic programs at the Senior School, continuing the development and growth of a forward-thinking athletic program for boys and girls from middle school, to junior varsity, to varsity/prep levels. She also serves as the primary liaison between the Athletic Department and the College Counseling Office, advising coaches, students and parents through the college recruiting process. Katy has elevated the varsity girls lacrosse program which competes in WPIAL Class AAA and has made the WPIAL playoffs eight of the last nine years. In 2018 the team finished 13-4 overall. In 2019, Phillips lead Shady Side to a WPIAL championship, an overall record of 16-3, losing in the second round of PIAA State Playoffs.

Phillips comes to SSA from Robert Morris University, where she served as head coach of RMU’s NCAA Division I lacrosse program from 2003-2017. She built the Colonials’ program from the ground up, taking a team that finished winless in its first season to one that made the Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament five of the last seven years. She was named NEC Coach of the Year in 2011. Phillips spent four years as the director of women’s events for Three Rivers Lacrosse in Pittsburgh from 1998-2002. While with Three Rivers Lacrosse, she created, organized and staffed various lacrosse events for high school female athletes, helping triple league participation and initiating team and league events. While also serving as the director of women’s events for Three Rivers Lacrosse, Phillips was the head coach of the Quaker Valley Girls Lacrosse Club, coaching the varsity squad from 1999-2002. At the same time she also served as an education specialist at Pittsburgh Voyager. Phillips came to Robert Morris after spending a year as the director of youth, teen and family programming at the Berkshire South Regional Community Center in Greater Barrington, Mass. She is a 1998 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where she played Division I lacrosse and earned a B.S. in marine and freshwater biology. She earned an M.B.A. with a concentration in sport management from Robert Morris University in 2010.