Former Iowa women’s gymnastics assistant coach Caleb Phillips will return to the Iowa coaching staff this season. Phillips previously served as an assistant coach from 2008-2013 before pursuing a different career.

Phillips is happy to return to coaching.

“Coaching is what I do; it’s what I am, and it’s what I love,” he said in a release. “I feel blessed with the opportunity to come back to the Hawkeye family and do what I absolutely love and have a passion for.”

Phillips has guided the Hawkeyes to postseason berths every season he’s been part of the staff. During his previous tenure, he coached former Hawkeyes Houry Gebeshian and Rebecca Simbhudas to NCAA championship appearances.

Phillips’s coaching career began at his alma mater, Southern Utah, in 2004. He led the Thunderbirds to two NCAA regional appearances and coached two Thunderbird athletes to the national championships.

With Iowa, Phillips led Iowa to a third-place finish at the Big Ten championships in 2010, its best finish in six years. In 2011, he earned the North Central Region Assistant Co-Coach of the Year with fellow assistant Linas Gaveika in 2011.

Specializing in uneven bars, Phillips led Iowa to two-consecutive national top-20 finishes in regional qualifying in that area, in 2012 and again in 2013.

The Hawkeyes season will start on Dec. 6t with the Black and Gold intrasquad competition in the Field House.