‘Coach Phillips. I mean, Addy.’

Senior cheerleader Addy Phillips has been on the varsity DGS cheerleading squad since her sophomore year. However, she has been coaching her past team [Downers Grove Panthers] for the past four years.

Panthers helped create the love Phillips has for cheer and she wanted to share that with the girls she has and is now coaching.

“I always enjoyed having my junior coaches while on the Panthers because they were so close to my age and they did a lot for me and helped me grow as a cheerleader,” Phillips said. “I’ve wanted to be a teacher ever since I was younger and one day it just hit me that I had a passion for coaching and teaching.”

The bonds grew stronger as the years went on with DGS cheer as some of Phillips past girls are now on her team for south. Her younger sister, Aubrie Phillips, being one of them.

“At the time, I hated having my older sister being my coach, it was just weird. But then once I got to DGS I realized what she was coaching was everything we do now,” Aubrie Phillips said. “It helped prepare me more than I knew and now since we’re on varsity together it all makes sense.”

Phillips cheers alongside multiple of her past athletes and since they already created the coach-athlete bond, they often come up to her for advice when head varsity cheerleading coach Shannon Lahey is not around.

“She has a voice and she’s not afraid to use it and what is amazing about that is that she has the respect of all of her teammates on both the varsity and JV team. You know, when you’re in high school it doesn’t come that easy,” Lahey said. “So the fact that they look at her not only as a leader but a peer and they respect her and actually listen to what she says is amazing.”

The past four years of coaching for Phillips will carry onto her college experience as she hopes to become a kindergarten teacher when she grows up. Phillips is currently co-teaching at El Sierra elementary school.

“Even though it’s my last year coaching the Panthers, I am so excited to have my own class and use everything I have learned along the way with coaching and apply it to my teaching,” Phillips said. “Just thinking about it gives me butterflies.”

Phillips will end her Panthers coaching career in November this year. However, she will be carrying on her coaching through the end of the DGS cheer program in 2025 by her past athletes always looking up to her.

“I don’t want to admit this but I have always looked up to my sister. As a friend, a coach, a teammate or even her clothing style,” Aubrie Philips said. “I will definitely miss her once she’s off to college but her mark that she has made on Panthers and even DGS cheer will always stay standing.”