Jan. 13—As Saint Anselm College searches for a new athletic director, a familiar face both on the Hilltop and around the Granite State will assume the role in the interim.
Phil Rowe, a former coach at Saint Anselm who has worked at six New Hampshire colleges, was announced as the Hawks’ interim director of athletics on Monday.
Daron Montgomery, who served as Saint Anselm’s director of athletics for the past nine years, was announced as the vice president for athletics at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, last Wednesday.
Rowe was the head women’s soccer coach at Saint Anselm for the 1984 season and previously served as an assistant men’s basketball coach for the Hawks.
The Exeter resident has also worked in athletic administration at Saint Anselm, previously acting as the interim associate director of athletics twice.
Rowe, a graduate of Plymouth State University (undergrad) and Boston University (grad), has worked in athletics as either a coach or administrator for more than 35 years.
In New Hampshire alone, Rowe was the men’s basketball and baseball coach at New England College from 1978-84, the director of athletics at the now-defunct Daniel Webster College from 1993-96, the head women’s soccer and men’s basketball coach at Plymouth State from 1985-90, the Keene State College men’s basketball team from 1996-99 and the men’s basketball coach at the University of New Hampshire from 1999-2005.
Rowe has also coached and been an athletic administrator outside of the Granite State.
Coaching wise, Rowe spent stints at Endicott College, BU and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rowe was the Endicott College men’s basketball coach from 2009-14, winning the Commonwealth Coast Conference championship and reaching the NCAA tournament during the 2011-12 season. The Gulls went 20-9 overall that year.
Rowe was an assistant men’s basketball coach at BU from 1990-92 and an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at MIT in 1992.
Rowe was the commissioner of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference from 1995-96, the director of athletics at both Wheelock College and Newbury College during the 1992-93 school year.
Before his most recent return to Saint Anselm, Rowe worked in athletics administration at William Peace University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
