As a player Phil Cotta grew up in St. Louis and attended Webster Groves High School where he played three years on the varsity squad, while captaining the team his senior year that finished with a 17-4-1 record and captured the Suburban South Conference Championship. Phil went to play at Culver-Stockton College in Missouri as a 4-year starter at central midfield where he was named 1st team Heart of America Conference for both his junior and senior seasons.
Upon graduation in 1996, Coach Cotta immediately was named the first ever Head Coach for both the boy’s and girl’s soccer program at Hannibal High School and was charged with the task of developing their soccer program from scratch. After 5 dedicated years in Hannibal, Coach Cotta decided to return to St. Louis and continue his coaching career where he grew up. He has spent the last 18 years at Kirkwood High School coaching at various levels on both the girls and boys side of soccer. He will be entering his 10th season as the Head Coach of the Girls Varsity Soccer program compiling a 117-55-1 record during that tenure.
Coach Cotta, as the founder and director of Kirkwood Soccer Camps in 2008, has developed Kirkwood soccer’s youth program for the future development of young soccer players. In his role as director, his camps have flourished into 5 summer sessions that garner over 350 participants each year. The camps range from focusing on technical skill, goal scoring and goalkeeping, as well as youth and high school camps. Coach Cotta also partnered with the Kirkwood United Soccer Club in the fall of 2016 to initiate their Academy Program that technically trains their elite players, while also evaluating the coaches and leading training sessions for individual teams within the Kirkwood United system.
