Living legend Coach Lincoln Phillips joins me to reflect on his incredible life journey. Be inspired by his perspective as an athlete and coach as he shares stories from his incredible past and insights from his work ahead.

Coach Lincoln Phillips is a Trinidad and Tobago legend who went on to serve as a pioneer of football in the United States. His outstanding goalkeeping performances in the Pan Am Games earned him his first pro contract; signing with the Baltimore Bays of the newly established North American Soccer League(NASL). Two years later he signed as a Player/Coach of the Washington Darts and earned the distinction of becoming the first black professional soccer coach in the US; a role that would shape his future.

Coach Phillips left the Darts to become the head coach of Howard University soccer team in 1971 and led Howard to two national championships making the school the first and only predominantly Black school to win an NCAA national championship.

His status as a pioneer of the U.S. game was established with his service to youth football as a coach, administrator, referee, and business owner. The Lincoln Phillips Soccer School and Goalkeeping Academy. made its debut in the mid 1970s as one of the first specialist, co-ed youth football camps in the U.S. As in the case with Howard University and Washington Darts, Coach Phillips assembled a cast of football practitioners at the camp that included a number of Trinbagonians who credit the camp as a launching pad for their own youth football coaching careers. 

He joined the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) Coaching School Staff and became the goalkeeping coach of the US National Team in 1992; preparing the country’s top Goalkeepers in preparation for the 1994 World Cup. It would be ten years later in 2004 that Coach Phillips would return to Trinidad and Tobago as Technical Director of the TTFA. During his tenure, they made history with their qualification to the 2006 World Cup. 

Coach Phillips would go on to introduce a massive coaching and player development program aiming at the development of coaches and player identification. Over 900 coaches were certified under this program and the men’s National U-17 and U-20 teams both qualified for their respective World Cup finals. This period (2004-2011) is regarded as the most successful era in the history of TTFA.

A holder of a BA and MA in Physical Education from Howard University, Coach Phillips published two outstanding books and was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame at the United Soccer Coaches Convention.

Books:
Soccer Goalkeeping – Soccer Goalkeeping: Phillips, Lincoln: 9781570280771: Amazon.com: Books
Rising Above and Beyond the Crossbar - Rising Above and Beyond the Crossbar: The Life Story of Lincoln "Tiger" Phillips: Phillips, Lincoln: 9781491862483: Amazon.com:

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