Devin Phifer's story begins in Southern California, where weekends meant soccer fields, sun, and family. Devin grew up in Camarillo, California, where life was active and full, filled with playing youth sports. Before age ten, club soccer coaches were approaching, and with two parents who valued sports and a younger sister who played competitively, soccer quickly became the center of her sports world.
Then, in 2012, a move across the country would help shape her future path. "My mom accepted a job in Cary, North Carolina. So we packed up, we moved across the country. That was really tough." She finished eighth grade in a new state—an age when most kids just want things to stay the same. Despite this major life shift, soccer would become key to helping Phifer transition to her new home. While at Panther Creek High School, she also found a coach who help guide her soccer future. "David Grant, he is my all-time favorite soccer coach," she said. Under his leadership, the team reached two state championships, winning one her junior year.
That success put her on Greensboro College's radar. "High school soccer is how I got connected with Greensboro College," she said. It wasn't the traditional recruiting path through club soccer showcases. It was community, family, and high school soccer that opened the door.
Finding Greensboro College
When Phifer first heard from Greensboro College, her parents didn't know what recruiting looked like either. "My parents had absolutely no idea that playing college soccer was even an option for me. I didn't either."
What she did know was that she wanted to stay close to home—close enough to visit family. The city of Greensboro fit that perfectly. "I knew I didn't want to go far away. I was sort of within a couple of hours' radius. I wanted it to be easy to get home to visit my family. Greensboro just immediately sort of popped up on my search initially, and I'd applied to UNCG. Pretty early, I was very open to that. I would say it was partway through the beginning of my senior soccer season, a lot of my friends already knew where they were going, and I was still like, I don't know if I'm all in on UNCG. At the time our (Greensboro College) head coach was Gus Mota, and he had come to some of our high school games just because we had won the state championship recently. He was a new coach here, so I was his first full class that he'd recruited. He left his card with my coach and was just like, talk to her, if she's interested, I'd love to chat with her. And when my high school coach came to talk to me, I was like, is this real?" From there, the door to Greensboro College was opened.
"So I told my parents, and my dad said, 'well, let's give them a call, let's see.' And we came to camp, my dad brought me to campus. We met Gus and we toured, and I absolutely loved it. I realized that a smaller school is actually probably a better fit for me. "And Gus Mota made a strong impression. He's a great recruiter. He's a good coach too." She came to campus, met Gus, toured, and fell in love. "I came. I loved the campus, and that was it," she said.
Arriving in Greensboro
Phifer arrived to a nearly 40-player roster and a huge freshman class. "It was intense. It's intense coming in with 16 girls alone," she said. With a new coach and so many new players, nothing was guaranteed. "It was very clear nobody's position was guaranteed. Everything's up for grabs."
Despite the competition, she found her place. "I remember my dad going out to my first college soccer game, and I started. He didn't even think he'd see me play because he didn't have a lot of background in Division III sports. So it kind of just went on from there, and I have my core group of girlfriends is Greensboro College soccer girls, so, I'm forever grateful for the experience that I had here playing soccer because I just don't think I'd be who I am today without it." That first year set the tone for everything that followed. Phifer would go on to score 6 goals in her freshman campaign and was determined to produce even more the next season. "I vividly remember my first season ending saying I'm going to score more goals next year. That was a very internal motivation."
Phifer's sophomore year saw her step into a captain role while also producing even more on the field. She scored 8 goals while helping the team to a 16-3 record. That season, the team started 9-0 while finishing the regular season on a six-game winning streak. Despite a loss in the first round of the conference tournament, Phifer and the team still had big plans ahead for the future.
The Setback
Going into her junior year, Phifer was in the best shape of her life. "I had told my dad I can improve my fitness level. I worked my tail off that summer," she said. But in a preseason scrimmage, everything changed. "First half of the game, I'm right outside the 18 and I just plant wrong. I knew something was very wrong. The biggest thing was just that I felt that was the season I felt so prepared for, and then that happened."
Despite losing her entire junior season, Phifer stayed with the team, delayed surgery to travel with them, and threw herself into rehab. "Once I had surgery, I hit the ground running," she said. By April, she was back on the field for a spring scrimmage. "That was sort of the goal was to get back for that." Phifer credits her teammates for helping her through the rehab process. "I mean the way that they showed up for me… I'm forever grateful for that. I really had teammates show up for me."
The Comeback
Phifer's senior year brought new challenges. "Gus accepted a new position, so he moves to Texas, we don't have a coach, we don't know who our coach is going to be." But she embraced the uncertainty. "It felt uncertain, it felt a little rocky. I was sort of the mindset at that point, it'll be what it'll be."
She also shifted positions to midfielder, playing alongside one of her best friends, Madi Karch. "Senior year playing midfield with Madi was probably one of my all-time favorite memories. She is a rock star; she's an awesome soccer player. I would say we really took it with grace. We navigated the uncertainty together. We were super invested in some of the young girls on the team. We knew we wanted to leave a legacy. We had worked so hard to kind of get to where we were that we wanted to leave a program that they could continue on with and just have fun."
One of the highlights of that senior season for Phifer was her senior day. "It was a happy senior day. My grandmother was able to fly out from California to be there. My parents were there. I scored on my senior day. Mike (Johnston), at that point, Mike was the volunteer assistant coach. And so I remember senior day is super emotional. All the seniors were in the athletic training room together and we go down and the girls have the whole room decorated and everything, and the coaching staff comes in and they have their own message for hyping us up. But you know, Mike, he's kind of nonchalant. He's very cool, calm and collected, and at that point too, I didn't know Mike super well, but he was super invested in our captains as a leadership team. I just remember him saying to us, 'it's your senior day. You don't know how many games you're going to have after this, go out there and somebody better make something happen.' And then I scored, and I got subbed off a little while later, and I walked right by Mike and said, 'I made something happen.' Senior day was a high, was an all-time high."
After graduation, Phifer thought she wanted to go down the path to being a physical therapist. "I thought I was going to be a physical therapist," she said. But two internships changed her mind. "By the end of it, I was like, no, I think I hate this." Instead, she discovered a passion for working with first-year students as a peer mentor at Greensboro College. "I signed up to be a peer mentor, which is, you get paired with a first-year seminar class, and you sort of help those first-year students through their semester, and then there's a focus on leadership development. I absolutely loved it. I loved working with first year students. I really enjoyed working with Jenna (Avent). Jenna asked if I knew I could work in higher education. I told her no, and it's funny because when you go into higher ed and you start your grad program, the common theme is nobody knew that you could go into higher education and actually work at a college."
That experience led her to a master's program at UNCG and a career in higher education. She worked in campus activities, then at Elon in a unique student life role, before returning to Greensboro College. Devin would also marry Greensboro College men's lacrosse alum, Matt Phifer, whom she met in her first semester on campus, and the two have been together ever since. The two are expecting their first child this coming September.
Now as the Director of First Year Experience, she helps lead orientation and works closely with students every day. "I really wanted a position that was going to challenge me," Phifer said. "I knew I was excited to come back here, but I think what made me more excited was opportunity for professional growth. I really wanted a position that was going to challenge me and throw some new things at me. I wanted to work with students every day. I wanted to learn from people that were doing really good work. And then I feel like the cherry on top is that I get to do it where I went to school."
For Phifer, what makes Greensboro College special is simple. "It really is investment from all areas. I think the investment all around that I know I felt as a student, and I really do feel it as a professional here. I do think that makes us special. I think our students feel it, I think our staff and our faculty feel it, the connection point, and I genuinely feel like the people I work with care about me. They want to hear about my husband Matt; they're invested in my family. We're expecting a baby, and they're all invested in that, and they check up with me, and then being able to watch other people go through milestones. It's just a culture of care, a good community to be a part of, and I do think that might be what other small colleges have to offer, but that's what I know Greensboro College can offer. There isn't a question about it."
