Perhaps no one will enjoy tomorrow's Independence Day holiday more than Don Phillips; he could use a rest after the past two or three weeks.

Not only has Phillips had to take care of his duties as athletic director at Center High School, he has been trying to put together a staff and hold conditioning workouts as Ellwood City High's new football coach.

The past two years Phillips made no secret about his desire to return to coaching. He applied for the New Brighton job in the winter of 2007. Phillips ended up shifting gears when he didn't get that job and took over as Center's athletic director.

Still, he wanted to return to the sideline. When Frank Colao resigned as Ellwood City's coach May 4 after just one season, Phillips applied for the job.

With an outstanding resume that includes a 134-77-3 record and numerous trips to the WPIAL playoffs, Phillips appears to be the right man to turn around Ellwood City's beleaguered program -- the Wolverines were 0-9, shut out six times and outscored, 429-27, last season.

He agreed to a five-year contract.

"I like being involved in two things at the same time and doing all this running around. It keeps me young," said Phillips with a laugh when caught between a meeting at Center and getting ready to head to Ellwood City for conditioning drills.

"It's a good thing that I was able to get the job at Ellwood City. You don't find coaching openings this late in the year and here there was the one at Ellwood, one at Hampton and the one over at Shaler that I saw Neil Gordon got," he added.

"But for me, I feel that I'm back where I belong."

Phillips resigned as Center's coach after the 2000 season. He wanted to be able to watch his son, Michael, play football for Beaver. But when Michael went off to Kent State, Phillips, who had been an assistant at South Side Beaver and Geneva College, got the itch to again run his own program.

He is no stranger to turning programs around. Phillips has been the head coach at Monaca from 1979-80, Rochester (1982-84), West Allegheny (1985-86) and Center (1987-2000). In a couple of those situations, he took over teams that were in a down cycle.

At Center, his teams won four conference titles and qualified for the WPIAL playoffs eight times, including his final four seasons as head coach.

Ellwood City has not been in the WPIAL playoffs since 2000. The lone bright spot since that season has been a 5-5 record in 2005. Take that .500 season away and Ellwood City is 10-47 since 2000.

"It's going to be a challenge, but I'm used to that," Phillips said.

"The thing is that I'm familiar with the [Midwestern Athletic] conference and the teams in it, and I know Ellwood City has tough, aggressive kids who are willing to work.

"We've already started to get into it. We were [conditioning] four times two weeks ago and last week."

What he doesn't have -- at least not right now -- is a complete coaching staff. He didn't think it would be hard to put a staff together, but is finding a lot of guys he would like to work with have signed on with other schools.

"I'm working at it and hope to have it complete in the next couple of weeks," he said.

Phillips will remain a guidance counselor at Center, but has already submitted his resignation as the school's athletic director.

He said there was no way he could be the AD at one school and coach football at another.

He realizes competing in the tough Class AA MAC against the likes of Aliquippa, Beaver Falls, Beaver and Center won't be easy.

Plus, the WPIAL didn't do Ellwood City any favors, cross-scheduling the Wolverines against Montour, which advanced to the WPIAL Class AAA final last season, losing to Thomas Jefferson, and is expected to have another solid team this season.