UA Fort Smith Athletics

University of Arkansas - Fort Smith Athletics has announced that Mike Phillips has joined the Lions' staff as Head Tennis Coach. Phillips comes to UAFS after coaching at the Walton Family Whole Health and Fitness Center in Bentonville and Kingsdale Tennis Center in Bella Vista, Arkansas. 

"I want to thank Athletic Director Curtis Janz, previous coach Ben Anderson and the University for hiring me and welcoming to the Fort Smith community," Phillips said. "I am blessed to be able to coach these teams."

Phillips has been an industry leader in multiple fields of the tennis-industry, including helping start grassroots tennis programs and managing USTA adult, junior and college teams in Florida and New York.  Mike previously coached at the NCAA level for the Brooklyn College men's and women's tennis teams in 2015-2016.
 
Before relocating to northwest Arkansas this spring, Phillips managed tennis programs in Los Angeles where his coaching included training active UTR and USTA youth and adult competitors for his local tennis club.  Phillips recently participated in the USTA Men's 4.5 league match play in Bentonville and was a member of the Indian River Community College team in the 1990s.
 
"One of my jobs is to instill in our teams a culture of success by accepting the challenge of competing at your best regardless of circumstance. These traits carry over into our players' future academic, business and tennis careers. We want to be a part of that positive development and journey with them."
 
As a youth, Mike briefly lived in Springdale and took lessons at the Springdale Recreation Center. He has family members in Bella Vista and Fayetteville and his brother and sister are graduates from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.  His favorite competing moment was playing against his tennis hero, John McEnroe, alongside ATP No. 5 Tim Henman,  in an exhibition.