EDITOR'S NOTE: The Kennesaw State Department of Athletics will induct five new members into its Hall of Fame this fall at a ceremony on Friday, Nov. 6 at NorthStar Church in Kennesaw. The inductees will also be recognized during the Saturday, Nov. 7 KSU football contest against Delaware at Walens Family Field at Fifth Third Stadium.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., providing guests an opportunity to mingle before dinner begins at 6:15 p.m. The induction ceremony is scheduled to begin at 7:10 p.m. Tickets for the Hall of Fame dinner are available for $90 individually or $600 for a table.
 
KSUOwls.com will profile each inductee leading up to the ceremony, and our third one is on Annie Phillips (Women's Soccer).

When Annie Phillips first arrived at Kennesaw State in August of 2003, she was not a member of the Owls’ soccer team. She actually had no plans of playing the sport at all at the next level. However, shortly after arriving, she found herself still having that itch. After just one conversation with then KSU Head Coach Rob King turned into one of the greatest careers in KSU women’s soccer history. 
 
Phillips’s soccer journey was an unusual one. Growing up in the 1990s in Savannah, Georgia, there weren’t many opportunities for girls to play soccer. As a kid, there were other sports that dragged her attention, but that all changed with the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup that was hosted by the United States. 
 
“The ‘99 Women's World Cup changed the course of my life,” Phillips said. “Watching those women sell out the Rose Bowl and win the gold medal for the United States, with Brandi Chastain scoring the game-winning PK and ripping her shirt off, that whole scene just blew my mind at that age. I remember taping the entire match on a VHS tape and just re-watching it over and over and over again because we just didn't have that much exposure to it. That was the first time I was seeing women play at that level on TV. It changed how I felt about the game. I just wanted to get better; I wanted to keep playing.” 
 
At the age of 14, she started playing soccer. Her high school soccer experience was untraditional to say the least. She attended high school at St. Vincent’s Academy where the coaches were nuns. As for her club team, she had to drive an hour each way to practice because there was only one team for her age group in the area. 
 
After high school, she enrolled at Kennesaw State, which she chose to be close to her then boyfriend – now husband – who was at Southern Polytechnic State University. As soon as she got to campus though, she felt like something was missing. She found herself going to the intramural field every day to kick a soccer ball to at least stay involved in some way. Eventually, she made her way to King’s office in the library and asked about joining the soccer team. 
 
King – who was leading the Owls in their second year of existence – went out onto the field and watched Phillips. Right away, he knew that Phillips had a special ability and offered her a spot on the roster. 
 
“She was quite a unique find really because we just found her on campus, she was already there,” King recalled. “I saw her out there every day kicking a ball around with her boyfriend. You could see she was very athletic, quick, and balanced, all of those things that you like to see in an athlete of any sport. You could tell she was a very good athlete, but the big thing that jumped out when you met Annie was her personality, the zest for life, and her love of playing. We were building at that time, and I knew right away she would be able to handle everything that we were doing, and she would get better as the program developed.”

Learning from the Best

Phillips joined the roster as a redshirt right as the 2003 season was beginning. She couldn’t play in any games, but she was always practicing with the team, insulating herself in that environment. She also served as the team’s DJ during that time, tapping into her love of music, bumping a huge CD case everywhere to get the team hype, most notably “Superstar” by Lupe Fiasco. 
 
The 2003 roster would go 25-1-0, capturing the DII national championship over Franklin Pierce. Phillips appreciated the experience of the national championship run without the inherent pressure. 
 
“It was unbelievable,” Phillips described. “We were so good and we just kept winning every game. It was incredible to be a part of something like that in a way that I didn't feel as much of the pressure as everyone else did, but still being a part of the energy of it all and being able to contribute in my own way. I will never forget those times as long as I live. It was just an incredible time to be a part of something that was so much bigger than myself.” 
 
For King, it was important for her to experience everything so when her number did get called in the future, she would be prepared for the situation. 
 
“She wasn't able to play in games, but she was able to be around everything that we did, coming out to the national tournament,” King said. “Having her there and being a part of things was important, and we knew that the following year, she would be all the better integrated into what we were doing.”

A Trip to Remember

Coming off the heels of a national championship, KSU women’s soccer would be transitioning up to Division I, meaning it wouldn’t be able to defend its crown or even compete for a national championship at the DI level for two seasons.  
 
To ease that reality, former athletic director Dr. Dave Waples help fund an international trip for the women’s soccer program to go to Europe and play the Welsh National Team, Manchester United and Everton. Phillips described that trip as a life-altering experience, creating the bonds with teammates that are still very near and dear to her. 
 
“It was my first time traveling overseas to Europe, so it was just an eye-opening experience in and of itself,” Phillips described. “It was a treat playing there and I think it was a treat for the other teams to have us there. We had a really big turnout for the Welsh National Team. I didn't play a whole bunch but just being there was enough for me. My roommates at the time were Tuck [Laura Tucker], Smitty [Lindsey Smith], and Alissa Saylor, and the following year we moved in together. They are some of my very, very dear friends, and I'm still very close to them. That trip really formed the bond that I have with them now.”

Off the Ground Running

In the 2004 season, the Owls made the transition to DI, playing as an independent team. The move up didn’t seem to affect the Owls, who went 12-4-1. As for Phillips, she broke through in her first season of action, bagging nine goals and three assists (21 points), as she won DI Independent Co-Newcomer of the Year. 
 
“One of our top forwards got injured and that was when I got the starting position,” Phillips recalled. “It happened quickly for me, then I just kept the role and we just kept winning. I was glad to be playing again in games, competing and scoring goals. To step into that role alongside Laura Tucker, who is hands down the greatest player that I've ever played with, and score some goals was a pretty incredible feeling.” 
 
One of her favorite memories from her playing days came in a game that season against Carson-Newman. She recorded a hat trick, including the overtime game winner, to secure a 4-3 win for the Owls. 
 
“We were in extra time and Jenae [Gzehoviak] played Tuck a ball out wide to the left wing. Tuck was so gassed, we all were, and she set the ball into me. I ran near post and volleyed it in right off my foot into the goal. I ran to Tuck in the corner. She had fallen after she sent that ball into me, and as I was running, because I was so tired, my legs gave out. The way that I fell, my knees hit the ground, and then my body just kind of whiplashed forwards, but the ground was a little bit dewy so from like the audience’s perspective, it kind of looked like I did like this cool belly slide in. I'll never forget Smitty and Jessie Fream were running off the bench to come celebrate. When they saw that happen, because they know me and know how I fall all the time, they just bent over dying laughing before they could even come over to come celebrate. That is a core memory of my life, not just my career.” 

Another Transformative Conversation with Coach King

After a 2005 season where her production slipped, she bounced back in her redshirt junior year, scoring six goals and tallying an assist as she earned Second Team All-Atlantic Sun honors. As a senior academically, Phillips finished out the 2006 season thinking she was done playing collegiate soccer despite having another year of eligibility. 
 
But like three years earlier, a conversation with Coach King changed everything. Since Phillips was never recruited to play soccer at Kennesaw State, she had been on the roster as a walk-on. In her 2006 exit meeting with King, he offered her a chance to run it back one more time, this time as a full-ride scholarship player. In her own words, “Mama didn’t raise no fool,” and she took King’s offer. 
 
“It worked out perfectly on both sides,” King said. “She was obviously playing at the best level she'd played at. You could clearly see if she was to play another year, what a successful year it would be. As a team, we'd had some ASUN stuff under our belt now. We knew the lay of the land and thought it was going to be a really successful year. I threw it out there and hoped that she would be receptive to it, and she was.” 

The Last Dance

The 2007 season, one that nearly didn't happen for Phillips, turned out to be the best of her career and one of the finest in program history. She earned ASUN Player of the Year honors after recording 38 points on 16 goals and six assists, helping Kennesaw State finish with the conference's best regular-season record for the second consecutive year. 
 
“It was the greatest year,” Phillips said. “When I called Bridget Gaughan about my induction, she was like, ‘I would just like to remind you that you almost didn't play your senior year.’ I almost did not play and that ended up being on paper the very best year that I had and one of the best in the program's history so I'm glad I came back.” 
 
The year was full of many great moments on both an individual and team level. On the fourth game of the season, the Owls went down to Tuscaloosa and defeated Alabama, 3-2, for the program’s first win over a Power Conference opponent. Another personal highlight came on that year’s Senior Night when Phillips scored her second career hat trick in a 6-2 thumping over Gardner-Webb. 
 
The mission wasn’t done when the regular season ended. Following a heartbreaking overtime loss in the previous ASUN Tournament, the Owls were out for vengeance. Hosting the tournament as the conference’s best team, they defeated ETSU and Mercer to win the program’s first ASUN Championship and qualify for their first NCAA Tournament since transitioning from Division II. 

One More Game to Play

After the victory, Phillips was glad the story had one more chapter. 
 
“I just remember being very grateful that it wasn't over yet,” Phillips recalled. “I distinctly remember that because the season before we lost on our home turf and that was it. Remembering that feeling of being just devastated that that was my last game ever, because at the time it was, and then fast forward to the next year, and we won the conference tournament. I was just so grateful that it wasn't over yet and that I had at least one more game to play.” 
 
KSU fell to the eventual runner-up Florida State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was a tough blow for Phillips as her last five years had been shaped by the KSU soccer program. 
 
King, who is overjoyed that Phillips is joining him in the Hall of Fame after he was inducted in 2023,  wants people to not only recognize the player she was, but the person as well. 
 
“It's hard to sort of separate the person and the athlete,” King said. “Annie is a wonderful human, and that comes across as soon as you meet her or spend any time with her. The personality she has, that real zest to go after things, combined with just a real love for playing the game and her athletic abilities, those things allowed her to do what she did. I'm thrilled for her. She’s fantastic, fantastic player, a great athlete, and as I said, her biggest attribute is she's just a wonderful human.”

The Champions Fund
The Champions Fund is a newly created, 100% tax deductible, philanthropic opportunity to contribute strategic revenue to Kennesaw State Athletics, with the goal of strengthening our ability to recruit and retain top-tier talent in this new era of collegiate athletics. Contributions to the Champions Fund will help aid in funding student-athlete recruitment and retention, as well as helping the Owls provide competitive excellence through investments in coaching, travel and facilities. The fund will also give an elevated student-athlete experience, including enhanced academic, nutrition, wellness and leadership programs. Donate to the Champions Fund here and help us support our Kennesaw State Owls.