Coach Phil Landers is the New Head Varsity Softball Coach. Coach Landers has been coaching at Dana Hall since 2020. He was previously the Assistant Varsity Softball Coach and the Middle School Softball Coach. He also coaches the Middle School Soccer Team.
One of his favorite aspects of coaching is “seeing players improve as individuals and as a team unit.” Coach Landers loves the Varsity Softball team and especially enjoys seeing the “camaraderie and sportsmanship on the team as each teammate supports and respects each other.” He sees a big difference from the Middle and Upper School players as the Upper School players “have more strategy and knowledge of the game and are more competitively inclined.” He says that the Middle School players tend to focus more on having fun and learning the game rather than striving to win every single game.
Julia Tjaden ‘26, a member of the Dana Hall Varsity Softball Team, says, “I really like his ability to immerse the coaching with the playing. He is able to teach us while we are having fun, for example he did this one drill where we hit a soccer ball instead of a softball in order to work on our follow through with our swing.” Chloe Santilli ‘23, another member of the Varsity team, states, “I like Coach because he is always very even-keeled and he pushes us to be better every single day during practice without ever yelling at us.”
Coach Landers has been coaching for 12 years. In addition to coaching at Dana Hall, he coaches the Wellesley Youth Softball 18U and 14U age teams. He is retired and you can always find a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee in his hands.