Jan. 13—As Saint Anselm College searches for a new athletic director, a familiar face both up the hill and around the Granite State will assume the role on an interim basis.
Phil Rowe, a former Saint Anselm coach who worked at six New Hampshire colleges, was announced Monday as the Hawks’ interim athletic director.
Daron Montgomery, who has served as Saint Anselm’s athletics director for the past nine years, was announced as vice president of athletics at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, last Wednesday.
Rowe was the head women’s soccer coach at Saint Anselm for the 1984 season and was previously an assistant men’s basketball coach for the Hawks.
The Exeter resident also worked in athletic administration at Saint Anselm, previously serving as interim associate athletic director twice.
Rowe, a graduate of Plymouth State University (undergraduate) and Boston University (diploma), has worked in athletics as a coach or administrator for more than 35 years.
In New Hampshire alone, Rowe was men’s basketball and baseball coach at New England College from 1978 to 1984, athletic director at now-defunct Daniel Webster College from 1993 to 1996, head coach of women’s soccer and men’s basketball at Plymouth State. from 1985 to 1990, the Keene State College men’s basketball team from 1996 to 1999, and the University of New Hampshire men’s basketball coach from 1999-2005.
Rowe also served as a coach and athletic administrator outside of Granite State.
In terms of coaching, Rowe has had stints at Endicott College, BU and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rowe coached Endicott College men’s basketball from 2009-2014, winning the Commonwealth Coast Conference championship and reaching the NCAA tournament during the 2011-12 season. The Gulls went 20-9 overall that year.
Rowe was an assistant men’s basketball coach at BU from 1990 to 1992 and an assistant women’s lacrosse coach at MIT in 1992.
Rowe served as commissioner of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference from 1995-96, athletic director at Wheelock College and Newbury College during the 1992-93 school year.
Before his final return to Saint Anselm, Rowe worked in athletic administration at William Peace University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
