Hal Phillips

Wellesley High School Author: Hal Phillips (1982)

            Hal Phillips is the author of Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories & The Making of Soccer in America  (2022) which chronicles and contextualizes the 20-year evolution of a first-world soccer nation, one that resisted such development for decades.  Launched July 19, 2022, Generation Zero earned bestseller status by July 22 in three Amazon categories: Sports Biography (#2), Soccer (#3) & Soccer Coaching (#1).

            The publisher’s description reads:  “Generation Zero is must-read for anyone who appreciates the fulsome U.S. futbol culture we enjoy today but wonders, ‘How did we get here?’ Featuring rare imagery from the official 1989-90 U.S. National Team photographer, plus candid snaps from (and extensive, candid interviews with) the players them-selves, the same bell-bottomed, Skittle- binging kids of the ‘70s who instigated the Youth Soccer Revolution and survived the cataclysmic 1980s.”  For more information: www.genzero.halphillips.net.

            Hal is a journalist and media executive who lives in Auburn, Maine, with his wife, Sharon Vandermay.  A former newspaper and magazine editor, he has contributed feature content to ESPN FC, Sports Illustrated, soccer365.com, Travel & Leisure, GOLF Magazine, Golf Digest China, and dozens of other titles.  An all-state striker at WHS, Phillips played soccer at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where he double majored in ancient Greek history and modern American literature, before logging three years in the semi-pro, Greater Boston-based Luso-American Soccer Association.

            Since 1997, he has owned and operated Mandarin Media, a media consulting, content- and digital- marketing agency serving golf, travel and property clients across North America, the UK and Asia-Pacific.