Eric Phillips is in his seventh year at Saginaw Valley State University, where he serves as the Men’s Distance Coach. He joined the Cardinals in July of 2019 to lead both the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country & Distance programs before transitioning to becoming the Men’s Coach exclusively in the Fall of 2022.

Under Phillips’ leadership, the SVSU Men’s Cross Country programs have qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships in a program-record streak of four consecutive seasons, highlighted by a 6th place finish this fall, another program best in the NCAA era, at the 2025 Championships. That performance was notably achieved with all seven competing runners being Michigan natives, making SVSU the only top-10 program composed entirely of in-state competing student-athletes.

Across his career, Phillips has mentored 126 student-athletes to the NCAA Championships across Cross Country, Indoor & Outdoor Track & Field comprising 9 Cross Country teams, 7 relays and numerous individual qualifiers. These performances have resulted in 55 NCAA Division II All-America honors, 2 individual national titles, 1 relay national title and a national runner-up team finish in Cross Country. Additionally, Phillips’ student-athletes have accumulated 109 All-Region Awards with 3 individual regional titles, 194 All-Conference performances highlighted by 30 individual conference titles and 16 relay conference titles, along with multiple school records along the way across three programs covering three separate NCAA Division II Conferences & Regions.

Academically, Phillips’ current and former student-athletes have earned 28 NCAA All-Academic Team honors, 77 NCAA All-Academic Individuals honors and 439 Conference All-Academic honors.

Prior to joining SVSU, he served as the Head Cross Country and Assistant Track & Field Coach at Carson-Newman University during the 2018-2019 season. He also spent two years as a Graduate Assistant Coach at the University of Mary for the 2016-2018 seasons

A native of Saginaw Michigan, Phillips earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science with a minor in Psychology from Grand Valley State University and his Master of Science degree in Kinesiology from the University of Mary.

He resides in Saginaw with his wife, Alaina, and their two children, Lilah and Liam.