Chad Wiest and Caleb Phillips Join Washington Coaching Staff

Chad Wiest and Caleb Phillips Join Washington Coaching Staff

The NCAA coaching shuffle continues at the University of Washington, where head coach Elise Ray announced the addition of Chad Wiest and Caleb Phillips to t

Jul 6, 2016 by Amanda Wijangco
Chad Wiest and Caleb Phillips Join Washington Coaching Staff
The NCAA coaching shuffle continues at the University of Washington, where head coach Elise Ray announced the addition of Chad Wiest and Caleb Phillips to the GymDawgs' coaching staff as assistant coaches. Wiest and Phillips will join the staff in Seattle immediately.

"I'm incredibly happy and proud that Caleb and Chad are joining Washington Gymnastics," Ray said in a press release. "After a thorough search and interview process, it was clear these talented coaches would better our program as they both embody such passion for coaching and developing our young women.

"Caleb brings years of experience in recruiting, contagious optimism, and a reputation for having one of the best bar teams in the country while Chad brings an elite athlete's perspective, knowledge and expectation,"

Wiest joins Washington after three years at Illinois as assistant coach, where he coached vault and floor, while Phillips spent seven seasons at Iowa as assistant coach.

Most recently, Wiest helped coach freshman ​Lizzy LeDuc​ to a NCAA Championships appearance on floor after scoring a career-high 9.95 at the Salt Lake City Regional. He was also coach when the Illini posted the program's second-best vault score of 49.400 at the 2015 Big Ten Championships.​

"I am beyond grateful and ecstatic to be entering this program at such an exciting time," Wiest said. "As a new era of the program begins, I have full confidence in Elise as a leader and the coaching staff's abilities to take this team to the next level."

Prior to coaching at Illinois, Wiest was the floor and vault coach at Bowling Green for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. He was a Big Ten floor exercise champion while competing at Illinois in addition to being named First-Team and Academic All-Big Ten in 2011.

Phillips is coming off a spectacular 2016 season where he was named the North Central Region Assistant Co-Coach of the Year. He helped the Hawkeyes finish with a top-20 ranking for the first time since 2011. 

Before coaching at Iowa, he was an assistant at Southern Utah for four years. He helped coach a gymnast to NCAA Championship appearances in every NCAA coaching stint he's had. Washington is the first Pac-12 school he will coach at.

"The Pac-12 is a great conference and to be able to be a part of it is so invigorating," Phillips said. "I am very much looking forward to working with Elise and the rest of the Husky staff. My family and I are beyond excited to make our move to Seattle and get to work."