Davenport University Athletics

Tra'von Phillips brings a wealth of experience at the NCAA Division II level to the coaching staff in the sprinting events. He joined the staff in September 2022 and then left for a coaching opportunity at Virginia Tech, before coming back to the Panthers in 2025-26.

In his first season with the Hokies (2025), Phillips assisted with the coaching and development of nine females and nine males. Notably, those 18 individuals collected six All-American honors and broke six program records (women's outdoor 400m, women's indoor 500m, men's DMR, men's indoor 4x400m, men's indoor 200m and men's indoor 500m).  On the men's side, Judson Lincoln IV dominated the indoor season, capturing individual titles in the 200m and 400m at the ACC Indoor Championships to bring home ACC Track MVP honors and two All-ACC honors.  On the women's side, Caitlyn Bobb etched her name into history at both the indoor and outdoor ACC Championships, claiming silver and the Bermuda national record at the indoor with her personal-best 52.69, then capturing the gold, program record and Bermuda national record at the outdoor with her 51.11.  The event squad totaled 15 All-ACC honors between the two championships and 32 Virginia Tech all-time top performances.

Phillips also spent time at Saginaw Valley State as a student-athlete and coach prior to his arrival at Davenport.

Program Accomplishments as a coach

• coached and developed women's school records in the 60m (I), 200m (I)(O), 400m(I)(O), 4x4(I)(O), 4x1(O). Highest scoring women's team in program history (115 pts)
• Conference Accomplishments: Recipient of GLIAC Women's Coaching Staff of the Year in 2020 (I), Led 37 athletes to all-conference honors across two seasons - indoor and outdoor. 
• Indoor conference titles: Women's 400m (2021) (2022), 200m (2022)
• Outdoor Conference titles: Women's 400 (2022), 4x100m (2021) (2022)
• All-Americans Indoor: Women's 400m (2021) (8th) Women's 400m (2022) (4th), Women's 200m (2022) (7th), Women's 4x4 (2021) (2nd team) (2022) (2nd team)
• All-Americans Outdoor: Women's 400m (2021) (6th), Women's 400m (2022) (2nd team), Women's 200m (2022) (2nd team), Women's 4x4 (2021) (1st)

• Graduated from Saginaw Valley State University in May 2019, began coaching in the fall of 2019
• Ran track and field at SVSU from fall of 2014 to may 2019 as a short sprinter
• Records & Athletic Achievements: 2019 record holder in 4x100m (O), 2018 school record holder in 200m (I), 8-time All Conference in 60m,100m, 200m, 4x100m