Ryan Phillips grew up around the game of baseball. Living close by Hart County High School, he remembers summers spent at the ball field with his dad which was where his passion for the sport began. 

Ironically, he would go on to have a successful career as a pitcher for the Hart County Bulldogs, getting recruited by Emmanuel University.

"After my sophomore year, Coach (Jeff) Kilgore came in and I went from a relief pitcher to a starting pitcher," Phillips remembers. "I got the bulk of my playing time at Emmanuel in my junior year."

But then, Phillips tore his UCL, and he was left with a difficult decision to make. He could either elect to have Tommy John surgery and miss his senior season with the Lions, likely ending his baseball career, or play through the injury.

For Phillips, the decision was a no-brainer, and he suited up for the Lions for one last season. 

After graduating from Emmanuel in 2015, Ryan knew his pitching career was finished but still wanted to be around the sport and give back to the younger generation. 
"After college, I realized coaching would be a good career path for me," Ryan said. "I thought being a head coach would be cool, but at the time I just wanted to coach – it didn't matter what level."

After a season coaching the Hart County Middle School baseball team, Ryan was brought on as the new pitching coach for the Franklin County High School team. After serving 8 years as an assistant coach for the Lions, Phillips was given the keys to the program in 2024 and was named the Head Coach. 

"Being a part of this community for so long as an assistant, I developed relationships with families and have coached so many sets of siblings," Phillips said. "Franklin County is a county that loves baseball and supports the program, so it was a blessing to be named the head coach of a program I knew so well."

In his 8 years as an assistant for Franklin County, the Lions had great success with 4 regional championship titles and a trip to the State Championship game in 2021. The 2025 season was no different.

"From the start, we had high expectations knowing that if we played together as a team, we could make a good run and give ourselves a chance to win a championship," Phillips said. "We started hot, but toward the end of the season lost the last 5 of 8 regular season games heading into the playoffs."

Following a game 2 loss in the first round of the playoffs, the team had a meeting and Phillips saw a noticeable shift. 

"The next day, in the first-round elimination game we played the best baseball we had in two months," he remembered. "You could see it on their faces, we knew we had a chance to make a run, so we went to work."

The Lions went on to have a great run, ultimately falling in the State Championship series against Rockmart. 

Although Franklin County graduated several of its power hitters in May, Coach Phillips is confident the 2026 squad can make some noise.

"Our strength next year will be our pitching and defense," Coach Phillips said. "Our seniors were a great example for the younger players – next year losing them we're going to need some leadership and accountability.  When you're building a winning program, that's just what you have to have. We like to say at Franklin County, you don't rebuild, you reload – that just tells the underclassmen they have to put the work in now so they're ready to go in January."

If Coach Phillips has learned one thing in his coaching tenure, it's to not only enjoy the moment but stay grounded.

"I know in coaching there's always highs and lows," he said. "You've got to make sure to stay humble when you're at your highs and thank God for his many blessings. As a coach, it's important to be a great role model for the team, to show them how to handle themselves when they win and lose."

What's a piece of advice he'd give to someone looking to go into coaching?

"Find someone who approaches the game with the same style you do and learn as much as you can from them," he said. "Make sure that you work to be a leader yourself because being a coach is about bringing people together. If you can bring a team together and make them have one common goal and chase it together, you're going to have success. That's what I've tried to as a coach bring my team together, instill in them that they will play hard together, give each other everything they've got, and let the chips fall where they may."

Throughout his playing and coaching career, one thing has remained constant for Coach Phillips – his love for the game of baseball, and it's not going away anytime soon.