University of St. Thomas Athletics
Staff Directory
- Title:
- Vice President, Director of Athletics
- Email:
- Phone:
- 651-962-7923
Few college athletics leaders nationally are navigating the myriad of challenges and opportunities like the ones that Dr. Phil Esten has encountered during his first four years at the University of St. Thomas. The LaCrosse, Wis., native brings experience, a steady hand and a positive demeanor as he oversees his university’s unprecedented direct move of all varsity sports from non-scholarship Division III into Division I athletics.
Esten brought more than 20 years of experience at the Division I level when he returned to his alma mater, St. Thomas, in January 2019 as the Vice President, Director of Athletics. He immediately rolled up his sleeves to impact his department and build on the culture and tradition that St. Thomas Athletics had enjoyed for more than a century.
Then just five months into his tenure, he was faced with the task of finding a new conference home for his 21 St. Thomas varsity sports teams. Esten secured for his university an invitation into the Summit League for 18 Tommie sports. Division I conference invitations followed for three other St. Thomas programs: women's hockey in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA); men's hockey in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA); and football in the Pioneer Football League. Along the way Esten led a process that eventually received approval from the NCAA to reclassify directly from Division III to Division I -- a move never done before in modern intercollegiate athletics history.
Esten has also restructured St. Thomas athletic department leadership into five key strategic business verticals: Administration; Development; Internal Operations; External Affairs; and Student-Athlete Welfare and Development. As a part of this reorganization, Esten instituted a sport administration model, which further supports a student-athlete centric administrative emphasis. He has also overseen the hiring of a diverse team of administrators, coaches and staff to meet Division I era guidelines, including the university’s first Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and Director of Academic Support Services for Athletics.
Esten is collaborating with university leaders on several key projects, including fundraising and revenue opportunities. St. Thomas made national news in January 2023 when it announced plans to build a 5,000-seat, on-campus multi-purpose arena, thanks to a lead gift of $75 million from Lee and Penny Anderson. It’s believed to be both the largest single gift to a Minnesota university and the 10th largest gift nationally to any collegiate athletics program. The university is looking to break ground on the project in summer 2024.
In competition, the Tommies continue to succeed on Esten’s watch in the classroom as well as on the fields and courts. In season two of Division I play, St. Thomas teams and student-athletes are performing at a level above expectations while receiving widespread praise and respect from peers and media observers. St. Thomas football team captured a conference championship and a national top-25 FCS ranking in season two; the men’s basketball team received national attention in year two with a jump to 19 wins; and the women’s and men’s hockey teams have shown dramatic gains thanks to their recruiting, coaching expertise and style of play.
Esten helped oversee the school’s final two-plus years in Division III, including a challenging 15 months affected by Covid 19 protocols. In the university’s final D-III era competitions, the Tommies finished as national runner-up in baseball and made the eight-team national tournament in softball. St. Thomas finished 11th in Division III in the 2018-19 Learfield Director's Cup, a competition designed to measure an institution's success in postseason competition across the entire athletic department. The Toms were headed for another top-20 Director's Cup finish in 2019-20 when Covid cancelled winter postseason play and the entire spring seasons.
Strong Leader
Esten has built a reputation for leadership and collaboration, notably his expertise in strategic plan development and execution, facility development and programming, revenue generation and the external area of intercollegiate athletics (ICA). His experience includes the development of three strategic plans for various departments; planning and fund raising for several comprehensive capital projects; development and oversight of restructuring and strategic alignment of external and advancement functions; strategic communications and public relations; identification of new and creative revenue streams; and brand development and management.
Esten came to St. Thomas in late 2018 after serving as Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Penn State University from 2014-2018. In that role he oversaw day-to-day operations for the Nittany Lions’ 31 athletic programs. Esten was responsible for the athletic department’s development, marketing, sales, creative, strategic communications, capital projects, facilities and event management efforts. He also was a sport administrator for the football, baseball and men’s and women’s gymnastics programs, while serving as the architect of the department’s strategic plan, comprehensive facilities master plan and several key revenue generation initiatives.
Before arriving at Penn State, Esten served two years as the Deputy Director of Athletics for External Relations and Chief Development Officer at the University of California-Berkeley. While at Berkeley Esten restructured the development office to support a more comprehensive advancement function, a complete visual identify refresh of the Cal brand and served as sport administrator for several Bears sports.
He also brings experience from the University of Minnesota, where he served as an Associate Athletic Director and the point person for the planning, construction, fundraising and corporate sponsorship for TCF Bank Stadium, while also leading the management and evaluation of the department’s strategic plan and serving as a sport administrator for several Gopher Sports. Esten slid over to the Alumni Association as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization for two-and-a-half years. Organizational and financial realignment, as well as revenue generation and brand extension, were among key accomplishments of Esten’s time with the Alumni Association, while maintaining a key focus on legislative advocacy for the University.
Esten started his career in college athletics at The Ohio State University as the Assistant Director of Athletic Ticketing and Event Management. Dr. Esten received his master’s from Ohio State before moving on to earn a PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota.
A native of La Crosse, Wis., Esten is a former student-athlete himself, having played baseball at St. Thomas while earning his undergraduate degree in the spring of 1995. Esten and his wife, Dani, have three children (Lucas, Cooper, and Hannah).
