Don Phillips never considered getting into athletic administration at the high school level. He has always been more interested in coaching, but some times when one door swings shut, another opens.

Phillips, who has been a successful high school football coach at just about every stop, applied for the New Brighton head football job in the winter. With his son, Michael, in college, Phillips wanted to run a program again after helping out at Geneva College and South Side Beaver. He resigned as Center's coach after the 2000 season.

Despite a resume that includes a 134-77-3 record and numerous trips to the WPIAL playoffs, Phillips did not get the New Brighton job.

He understood the reasons he wasn't hired at New Brighton and today, Phillips finds himself as the new athletic director at Center High School. Instead of coaching, he is going to oversee coaches in 20 varsity sports.

"This is a whole new world to me," said Phillips, who is a guidance counselor in the middle school at Center. "Every time I turn around, there is something else that needs attending to."

But circumstances and the resignation of Ray Hoppa, who had been serving as Center's AD, led Phillips to the job.

The catalyst for his move to athletic administration was his son transferring from Kent State to Westminster College in Lawrence County for the fall semester. Michael Phillips was a quarterback at Beaver High School, missed playing the game and wanted to give it a try at the college level.

"He'll be a junior and while he played quarterback in high school, he might try to make it as a strong safety or maybe an outside linebacker," Phillips said of his son. "He said if he goes as a quarterback he probably wouldn't get much of a chance to play on special teams, but if he plays defense his chances of at least getting on one of the [special] teams would be better."

How did his son's transfer affect Phillips' desire to be a head coach?

Phillips has been helping Rich Schneider at South Side Beaver, which is one of the few schools in the WPIAL that still plays home football games on Saturdays. In fact, South Side Beaver has seven Saturday games this season.

Westminster, a Division III school that competes in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, plays all of its games on Saturday. If Phillips continued to help out at South Side, he would not be able to see many of his son's games.

"Then the opportunity came up for this [athletic director's job] and it kind of just fit," Phillips said. Center plays all of its games in the Class AA Midwestern Athletic Conference Friday nights.

"Even if we have something at the school Saturday morning I'll still have time to make it to Westminster for Michael's game. It's a short drive, not even 50 minutes."

What's interesting is that Phillips was a standout defensive back at Geneva, which is Westminster's main rival. Now, his son will be playing for the Titans.

Phillips said he is fortunate to have two former high school coaches as administrators at Center. Dan Matsook, who guided Rochester to a couple of WPIAL and PIAA Class A titles, is Center's superintendent and Tony Mendicino, who coached at Beaver Falls, is the high school principal.

"It's been an eye-opening experience," he said. "There aren't many schools our size with as many sports as we have. Between the varsity and junior varsity, we have something like 35 and most of them have been pretty darn successful. We take a lot of pride in that."