Jonathan Phillips: The extraordinary career of Great Britain captain
- Published
It is likely not many sports fans have heard of Jonathan Phillips, but the Welshman is arguably one of the greatest in modern domestic British sporting history.
The 40-year-old Sheffield Steelers captain will lead Great Britain for the last time in the IIHF [International Ice Hockey Federation] 2023 World Championships in Nottingham, starting against South Korea on Saturday, 29 April.
As he does so, Phillips can look back on a career of extraordinary achievements.
He was the first player to appear in 1,000 games in the Elite Ice Hockey League [EIHL] and last December became the first to have played 1,000 times for one team - Sheffield Steelers.
He is also the highest capped GB international, having overtaken Ashley Tait's haul of 110 caps last year against Austria at the 2023 World Championships in Finland.
Phillips has won nine major titles with Steelers and a bronze medal in the European Continental Cup.
As his last competitive skate looms, Phillips is very aware what the sport has done for him.
"I was never a confident child, I was a kid with a stutter who wouldn't put his hand up in class even if I knew the answer," he said.
"Being around that team environment where everybody's working together, hockey teaches you to be resilient and to have confidence.
"Hockey's given me so many life lessons."
Phillips grew up and learned his early life lessons in the Ely area of Cardiff.
"I was never really into sport that much. I think confidence-wise I was scared I was going to be the worst kid," he recalled.
"And when I was about eight or nine my uncle Kevin took me to a Cardiff Devils game against Murrayfield Racers as a birthday present and I just absolutely loved it
"Then aged 11 my mum (Alison) signed me up with the junior Devils and I just became obsessed.
"I spent hours in the street stick-handling with golf balls, roller-hockey balls and little plastic pucks. I'd set up a few cans on the curb and keep trying to shoot the cans off in between the cars - that kind of thing.
"A couple of headlights got broken, which we had to pay for! But every spare second I was out in the street just doing something to try and get better.
"Then when I was about 14 the Devils created a second team called Cardiff Rage which were in the BNL [British National League], so we played teams like Peterborough, Guildford, Telford and Fife. It was a really good league.
"From about the age of 15 Paul Heavey [then Devils head coach] would invite me to make up the numbers in training with the Devils.
"Everything just kind of fell into place and I made big strides in a short amount of time."
After only two weeks in further education, Phillips edged closer to his sporting future.
"I absolutely hated it (college)! And then by chance Paul Heavey called and said 'we want you to train full-time, but we can't offer you a contract yet', but I jumped at the chance.
"The next morning I phoned college and said I wasn't coming back and then every day I would catch a bus into practice, go grab a quick bite to eat and get a little gym session in before going to work in River Island [clothes shop] from 2.00pm 'til 6:00pm, and that was my first year."
The following season, having represented Great Britain Under-18s and U20s, Phillips was signed by the Devils on a full-time contract aged 17.
With the Super League in the UK having lifted restrictions on the number of imports that could be signed, opportunities for British youngsters to play first-team hockey were limited, so Phillips went on two-way deals with Basingstoke and Peterborough and spent a season at Milton Keynes.
"In my second season I would train with the Devils all week and play in the BNL on the weekends," he said.
"That kind of worked out perfectly because it got me the game time that I needed as a young player, but I was still getting to train with legit players at Cardiff.
"Then moving to Milton Keynes for a year I got to play bigger minutes and have a bigger role in a team.
"Training only takes you so far, but you need that game-time experience and to learn how to win and what it takes to be a professional."
After that Phillips went back to Cardiff for a couple of years and then Steelers came calling.
"I knew Sheffield had a winning tradition and there was a lot of pressure up here, but I wanted to push myself as far as I could go," said Phillips.
"At the time though a newspaper headline said 'Phillips Moves for Love' because apparently I'd met someone up in Sheffield, but that was absolute rubbish - my wife is from Senghenydd!"
In 2007 Phillips was made club captain and over the next decade he led Steelers to four league titles and four play-off trophies.
"The one thing you never get up in Sheffield is comfortable.
"In those early years we were so dominant and it was fun, but it was a team where everyone bought into roles and everybody knew what it took to win.
Phillips went on to win another trophy with Sheffield in March 2020, when they won the Challenge Cup for the first time in 17 years.
Phillips played his first World Championships in 2013 and, over the next six years, GB progressed to the top level of international hockey to compete with the best countries at the 2019 tournament in Slovakia.
GB's 'never-say-die culture'
That championship is famous in British hockey history for their tumultuous win over France in the final group game that saw GB remain at the elite level.
Phillips cherishes playing for his country deeply: "It's always hard to put into words until you get to experience it.
"The culture we've created over the last five or six years is that never-say-die and do-whatever-it-takes attitude.
"I think it's been the tightest group of guys that I've ever been a part of where everyone buys in 100%.
"Whatever role somebody has been given they're willing to do it and I think that's been a huge reason for our success."
In 2022 GB were relegated to Division 1 of the World Championships, where Phillips will play his last hockey as a full-time professional before moving onto the next phase of his life.
Phillips is very grateful to what hockey has given him, but is especially thankful to his mother, Alison.
"My mum sacrificed everything for me to play hockey," said Phillips.
"She'd finish work on a Friday and drive me to Peterborough for an 11.00pm training session with a junior England team and then straight back.
"Then next day she'd take me to a midday game in Cardiff, all those things that you take for granted when you're younger.
"She worked so hard to put me into this position. It really is all down to her hard work and dedication to give me that chance to achieve my dream.
"I've always known there wasn't a load of money in hockey, but I was fine with that and to do it this long has been fantastic.
"I think that hockey has shaped what I am today."
Great Britain fixtures in Division 1 Group A of the IIHF 2023 World Championships (all to be played in the Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham):
All times are BST and subject to late change
Saturday, 29 April - Korea v Great Britain (19:30)
Sunday, 30 April - Great Britain v Poland (16:00)
Tuesday, 2 May - Great Britain v Lithuania (19:30)
Wednesday, 3 May - Great Britain v Romania (19:30)
Friday, 5 May - Italy v Great Britain (19:30)
The top two teams in the group will be promoted to the Elite Division of the IIHF 2024 World Championships to be hosted in the Czech Republic.