Soccer
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- E-Mail:
- pstephenson@athletics.tamu.edu
In his 26th year on the staff, including 15th as the associate head coach, Phil Stephenson has helped build the Texas A&M program into one of the elite sides in the nation and he has the Maroon & White planted firmly atop the SEC.
During his first 25 seasons, A&M has claimed nine conference regular-season crowns and seven league tournament titles. The Aggies have made it to the NCAA Championship 24 of his 25 seasons on staff, earned 15 Sweet Sixteen appearances, made it to the Elite Eight on seven occasions and played in the 2014 College Cup.
During the elongated 2020-21 campaign, Stephenson was part of a crew that earned United Soccer Coaches Southeast Region Staff of the Year recognition. In the unique split season, the Aggies scratched out a 12-4-1 season. In the fall, Ol’ Sarge’s charges earned a share of the SEC regular-season title with a 7-1-0 record. With two All-Americans leaving the squad in January, the coaching staff reworked the lineup to grind out an Elite Eight run in which Texas A&M got past three Top 20 opponents.
Stephenson helped guide the Maroon & White to a 14-5-3 record and 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament bid in 2019. The season was capped off by Ally Watt becoming the highest draft pick in school history, selected sixth overall by the North Carolina Courage.
In 2018, Texas A&M started the season with a 10-match unbeaten string en route to a 17-5-1 record, and 15th Sweet Sixteen appearance.
Stephenson’s efforts facilitated the Aggies posting the best winning percentage in school history in 2017 with an 18-2-2 mark (.864). The Maroon & White also posted a school-best 14-game winning streak, which included capturing three matches en route to the school’s third SEC Tournament title.
In 2016, Stephenson helped pilot the Aggies out of the first round of the NCAA tournament for the 19th consecutive year. In the second round, Texas A&M fell in penalties to eventual National Champion USC, giving the Trojans their toughest test of the tournament.
In 2015, guiding a team that returned just three starters and seven percent of their scoring from the prior season, Stephenson helped the staff with one of its best coaching jobs. The coaching corps steered the gritty Aggies to an NCAA Championship quarterfinal spot, handing the North Carolina Tar Heels their first exit prior to the Sweet 16 in the 34-year history of the tournament.
The 2014 campaign represented the grandest in school history and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America honored Stephenson as the South Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
With Stephenson’s assistance, Texas A&M experienced a historic season in 2014, setting a school record for wins on the way to its first-ever College Cup appearance. The Maroon & White went 22-3-2 on the season and won the SEC Double with a regular-season crown and tournament title. The Aggies became the first team to earn the SEC Double in back-to-back seasons since Florida in 2001. They also became the first SEC team since Florida in 2001 to advance to the College Cup.
In 2003, he earned National Assistant Coach of the Year honors by AFLAC and Scholastic Coach & Athletic Director magazine.
Stephenson joined the Aggie program after four years as head coach at Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C., where he led the Lady Monarchs to the 1995 NCAA Division III national championship match. In the same year, Stephenson was named Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (DIAC) and South Region Coach of the Year.
During his tenure, Methodist posted a 42-28-3 (.596) record and placed among the top three in the DIAC each season, including winning the conference crown in 1995. His teams hold conference and school records for most wins in a season (18) and longest winning streak (13). Stephenson chaired the NCAA South Regional Committee and sat on the Division III Women's Soccer Championships Committee while at Methodist.
Prior to Methodist, he was the Director of Coaching for Buffalo and western New York. He was also the coach of the Germania Harriers boys U-19 squad, taking the team to the Snickers Eastern Regional Youth Championships. Stephenson also worked with the Buffalo Blizzard in the National Professional Soccer League.
Stephenson was the assistant men's soccer coach at Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, Pa., from 1990-1994. During that time, his team claimed two Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crowns and reached the NCAA Division II quarterfinals in 1994 while being lauded as the highest scoring Division II team in the country.
Other credentials to Stephenson's credit include an A-license from the United States Soccer Federation and the Advanced National Diploma awarded by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Additionally, he served as the Director of Coaching for the High Point Soccer Association in High Point, North Carolina.
Stephenson is the former head coach of the Region III Olympic Development Program (ODP). With a wealth of international experience, Stephenson led teams that have played all over Europe as well as Mexico and Costa Rica. In 2005, he was named the assistant coach for the ODP Adidas All-Star team that competed in Scotland, Germany and Holland. As an age group coach for Region III ODP, Stephenson's teams have won six inter-regional championships.
Never too far away from youth soccer, Stephenson has also coached ODP teams in Pennsylvania, New York and North Carolina. In 2004, his Aggieland Soccer Club Boys '90 team won the South Texas Super Two Championship.
A native of Hornsea, England, Stephenson received his B.S. in 1987 from Lock Haven. As a player, the former England Schoolboy trialist was a four-year all-conference and all-regional selection and was selected as one of the top 25 players of the century for Lock Haven. The three-time team captain earned PSAC MVP and first team All-America honors as a senior. Lock Haven inducted Stephenson into their Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.
Stephenson and his wife, the former Lori Silvasy, herself an All-American soccer player and former assistant coach on the Texas A&M soccer team, reside in College Station. They are the parents of Brittany and Christopher.
06/2024
