Todd Phelps recalls driving all the way to the town square to get to Middlebury Union High School (MUHS) from Middlebury College. “No matter what you did, you had to go through town,” Phelps, Middlebury native and the college’s new athletic director, reflected in an interview with The Middlebury Campus.
Since then, the town has added the Cross Street Bridge (“the bridge over Mister Up’s” as Phelps describes it); a direct route to Mary Hogan Elementary and MUHS, the rotary next to Two Brothers’ Tavern, and about a couple thousand more people. Nevertheless, it has retained its essence and that small-town charm Phelps remembers fondly from his childhood.
“For me growing up, this was the kingdom,” Phelps said.
Middlebury athletics were a constant presence in Phelps’ youth. He attended longtime men’s basketball Coach Russ Reilly’s youth basketball camps as a kid and went on to have a four-year high school hoops career, in addition to playing on the tennis team. He always looked up to Middlebury College athletes: “some of my favorite athletes came through here in the mid-‘80’s.”
After graduating from MUHS in 1991, Phelps moved to upstate New York to attend Ithaca College. He obtained a degree in physical education in 1995, before moving back to Middlebury with the goal of becoming a basketball coach. That’s when his old coach Reilly stepped in to help.
“I was doing some part-time work over at the high school just to make ends meet,” Phelps recalls, “and Russ allowed me to jump on his staff…And then I was fortunate: when Russ stopped coaching basketball and became the [athletic director], he allowed me to stay on in more of a full-time capacity.”
Phelps remained at Middlebury until 2001, coaching under former men’s basketball coach Jeff Brown. During those six years, some of Middlebury’s most decorated coaches started to mark the college as the home of champions, including: field hockey coach Katherine DeLorenzo, women’s hockey coach Bill Mandigo, track & field coach Martin Beatty ’84 and Phelps’ predecessor as athletic director, the indefatigable Erin Quinn ’86 (3x NCAA champion as men’s lacrosse coach).
Phelps always kept an eye on his former colleagues’ success, as he moved from Brown to Yale to Stony Brook to Oregon State, and then finally to North Dakota State, where he worked as deputy athletic director for 11 years.
Why return to Middlebury after spending 25 years in high-rolling Division I programs with tens of thousands of students and alumni?
“Part of it, again, is because it's Middlebury, and this is a special place,” Phelps said. But part of it has to do with exhaustion working in a quasi-general manager role with the advent of paying college students through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). “I got into college athletics because of the development and the mentoring of young student-athletes, and Division I right now has become very much a whole business.”
After NCAA v. Alston in 2021 introduced the possibility of paying players through NIL, and with the elimination of transfer limits in 2024, Division I athletics has become a zero-sum-landscape: pay up or an SEC school will give your guy a million bucks to play there instead. Division III, on the other hand, is still pure: a school’s athletic success is not determined by the size of its coffers.
At Middlebury, Phelps hopes to return to his roots of developing and mentoring student-athletes. “I looked at this as an unbelievable opportunity to come back to an unbelievable educational institution and an unbelievable athletic department,” he exclaimed.
After applying and interviewing for the role, Phelps heard from President Ian Baucom in May: “I got the call from the president, and he asked me if I wanted to come home,” Phelps said.
“I thought that was pretty cool,” he added, grinning ear-to-ear.
Now two-and-a-half months into his tenure as Athletic Director, Phelps is all moved into his Virtue Field House office. The Panther portrait hangs proudly behind his desk as Phelps takes meetings, attends athletic events and keeps 31 varsity programs running smoothly.
Two goals for his tenure have risen to the top. First, to prepare Middlebury student-athletes academically, athletically and socially for life after college. And second, “win.” Simple as that.
“We’re here to compete for championships.” Phelps emphasized. “How do we continue to support our coaches, to provide for our student-athletes, so that we can continue to win?”
Phelps is also looking to the future of Middlebury’s facilities and student engagement. “I would say the top priority in the next two to five years is going to be Memorial Field House and where that's headed,” Phelps specified. “Nelson Arena, Pepin Gymnasium — I see those as probably priority number one.”
In addition to revitalized facilities, Phelps wants to see more students at games. In conjunction with President Baucom’s MiddSaturdays program, “we have to make Saturdays on this campus a big deal,” Phelps argued. “It’s the [idea] of wanting people waking up on Saturdays and saying, ‘athletics is the place I have to be.’”
Targeting jamboree weekends (where most sports have home games), Phelps wants to bring in music and food trucks and create a culture of attendance. Saturday, Sept. 12th was a great example.
“I was blown away on Saturday. Picture-perfect day,” Phelps said. “I walked up to the golf course briefly. I came down to cross country while they were running. I was at field hockey for a little bit. I stood on the berm between women's soccer and men's soccer. I walked over — because I was a tennis player — and watched our men compete in tennis.”
Phelps’ enthusiasm for athletics is palpable, but what struck me even more was his excitement at being back at Middlebury. Maybe it’s because he met his wife at Mister Up’s while coaching here, or maybe because of his childhood memories, but Phelps talks about this school and this town as if they were magical.
To finish our conversation, I asked the toughest question of the day: give me a local’s recommendation of a spot to swim or eat nearby. Phelps smiled slightly. “The Gorge,” he said.
“Did you spend some time there in high school?” I asked.
“Yeah. It was the cool place,” he replied.
It’s always special to come home, all the more so after years away. Phelps has work ahead of him, but he seems ready to take on the challenge. His locally-focused values and ambition for continued excellence will bring even more success to Middlebury’s storied athletics program.
Kanan Clifford '28.5 (he/him) is a Sports Editor.
Kanan is a probable Molecular Biology/Biochemistry major, with additional interests in history and politics. At Middlebury, he sails, is on the board of the South Asian Students Association, and is an avid baker!
