HASELDEN: Phillips, Flashes come a long way

Steve Phillips vividly recalls in the mid-1980s the first time he took some Johnsonville High School track and field athletes to the state track meet in Columbia.
He had one female distance runner and two male pole vaulters.

“We loaded up in the (Pontiac) Sunbird, stuck the poles out the back of the car and hit the road,” Phillips recalled, chuckling.

At the athletic banquet that year, Phillips said he told the school’s booster club that was the one and only time he would drive his car to the state track meet. From that time on, he promised, he would have enough participants to take a bus.

Of course, for all Phillips knew at the time, he could have been doling out meaningless words.

But they turned out to be true. He’s taken at least 20 kids, he said, every year since then. And in 12 of those years, many of those athletes have returned home as state champions.

While Phillips’ boys’ teams have claimed a pair of titles, his girls’ squads have built their program into a dynasty. Two weeks ago, the Flashes won their 11th state championship, which set a state record among girls’ track and field teams.

Not bad for a coach who never even ran track in high school.

“We were going to have (track and field) one year,” said Phillips, who went to Olanta High School, which no longer exists. “We met, ran around the block a couple of times, maybe threw a shot put once or twice. Then two days later, we didn’t have a track team. I think they said we’re just going to forget this.”

Understandably, Phillips was a little apprehensive shortly after he was hired as a football assistant in 1985. Then-athletic director John “Bubba” Coker, who also coached baseball, was handing out assignments and gave the track and field duties to Phillips.

“I said, ‘Bubba, I don’t know anything about track. Let me do baseball,’” Phillips recalled. “I had to learn through the experience of going out there and doing it. I was kind of thrown into the fire.”

If he hasn’t already done so, maybe Phillips should call his old boss and thank him.

Beating the bushes

It hasn’t always been as easy as it is now.

At first, Phillips said getting students to come out for track was a chore.

“I used to have to beat the bushes to get kids to come out,” Phillips said. “I haven’t had to do that in a while.”

Certainly, the Flashes’ success has had much to do with that.

So, too, has Phillips himself. He has a charismatic personality and it is doubtful many coaches have a more competitive nature.

In short, he’s the type of coach true athletes — those who don’t mind being pushed — love to play for.

And while Phillips might be tough on his athletes, they’ve responded.

He estimates that since the track and field program really arrived — the girls won their first title in 1991 — the school has boasted about 70 all-state athletes. Many of them have used their sport as an avenue to a college education, as well.

“We’ve set a standard that we want to achieve high things here,” Phillips said. “We expect to be competitive every year, not only within our class but really with anybody in the state.”

This year was a prime example. The Flashes, Phillips said, weren’t as loaded as some years. And during the season, the team lost a key participant for disciplinary reasons.

In the end, it didn’t matter.

“I’ve had groups I knew were really good that could just show up and win,” Phillips said. “This crowd, they overachieved.”

That’s one reason why Phillips will take his team to Columbia next week so it can be recognized at a State House ceremony.

It’s a commonplace event for state champions every year, but Phillips has never done it.

“This was a little more special though,” he said.

New day

Phillips, the principal at Johnsonville Middle School, is about to wrap up another school year and he has mixed emotions about the fact that it will his last at what he calls his home away from home.

Phillips has either taught or been an administrator at the middle school since 1985.

“It’s been a school I’ve loved,” Phillips said.

He’s not going far away, though — just a good little walk or a short drive over to the high school, where he will take over as principal there.

While Phillips already knows most of the students and faculty well enough to make a mostly seamless transition, there always are new challenges with a new job.

And he knows there probably are some whispers, whether he can take on added responsibilities as a high school principal and maintain the track program, as well.
But Phillips has no plans to give up coaching, at least not yet.

“I’ve told (superintendent) Dr. (Dale) Strickland that if it becomes a problem and it interferes with my responsibilities to the school, then I’ll step aside,” Phillips said. “The school will come first and be my first priority. Track will be second.”

But probably a very close second.

Just like any program needs a coach like Phillips, he needs the sport just as much.
Some people have fishing, jogging or golf.

Phillips has track.

“It gives me an out, takes me away from the day sometimes,” he said. “It kind of keeps me going a little bit when days are hard.”

And the evidence shows that as long as he keeps going, so will Johnsonville’s track program.

There are 13 state championship trophies to prove it.

— E-mail Mark Haselden at