Dr. J. Phillip Roach recently retired after 14 years as the director of physical education and athletics at Rollins College.  Dr. Roach has been involved with collegiate athletics for more than 40 years.  A former coach with an illustrious list of accomplishments and honors, Mr. Roach began his collegiate career as the assistant basketball and soccer coach in 1965 at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Dr. Roach’s administrative career began with his tenure as athletics director and head basketball coach at Marietta College in Ohio.  During his 20 years at Marietta, Dr. Roach created the first athletics handbook, established the booster club and developed the athletic hall of fame.  Active in the Ohio Athletic Conference, Mr. Roach served as chairman and president of the Conference and also was president for both the soccer and basketball coaches.

Among other accomplishments at Marietta included publishing his dissertation, Athletic Budgeting, serving as director for the NCAA Division III baseball championships, editing the Ohio Athletic Conference sports guidelines and earning Civitan Area Citizen of the Year honors in 1986.  In 2009, Dr. Roach was named the inaugural recipient of the Division II ADA Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1989, Dr. Roach was named Athletics Director at Guilford College in Guilford, NC where he remained for three years.  At Guilford, Dr. Roach wrote the athletic staff handbook, was a major writing contributor for Managing Sports and Risk Management and served on the Greensboro Sports Commission.  Dr. Roach moved Guilford College to NCAA Division III membership from the NAIA in 1991. 

Dr. Roach remained at Guilford until 1992 before moving to his position as Athletics Director at Rollins College.  Among his many accomplishments at Rollins include establishing the booster board of directors and team booster representatives, writing the staff handbook for the department of Physical Education & Athletics and establishment of the athletics council.

Dr. Roach has been active both within the Winter Park and athletics community, serving on the Winter Park Rotary Board of Directors and holding leadership position within the Winter Park Methodist Church.  Dr. Roach has also served on the Florida Citrus Sports board, the executive committee of the Sunshine State Conference and is an active member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).

Rollins has acknowledged Dr. Roach’s many achievements by awarding him the 2004 Spirit of Rollins Award and the 2005 Alfond Award of Excellence and in 2004 the city of Winter Park honored Dr. Roach with “Phil Roach Day.”

Dr. Roach has a B.A. in health & physical education from Ohio Wesleyan University, earned his M.Ed. in physical education and Ph.D. in higher education administration from Ohio University.