The 2025 season could have been a quiet rebuild for Illinois following Janet Rayfield’s retirement. Instead, Katie Hultin arrived, fresh off three straight postseason appearances as head coach of Grand Valley State University. She aims to bring that same success to Champaign and is in a good position to do it.
At every stop in her career, Hultin came in and produced immediate results. She’s no stranger to overhauling a program, especially on the defensive end. Across both her playing and coaching careers, Hultin has made a positive impact wherever she goes.
From her first day leading Illinois, Hultin focused on building up a relationship with the returning players and setting a new standard for Illinois soccer.
“Katie has come here and been authentically herself,” said sixth-year midfielder Sydney Stephens. “Something that has kept us very successful has been her building that bridge of consistent feedback both ways. The team feels they can tell Katie anything, and she has kept her door open.”
This connection has translated to the field, where the Illini have been anything but quiet this season. They secured a huge win over Penn State and are on track to have one of the program’s best records yet.
Authenticity, trust allow Hultin to push her players
The Illini entered the offseason facing a significant roster turnover along with the new coaching staff. Yet, Hultin quickly won over both the staff and players through her honesty, authenticity and unwavering belief in their potential.
The staff shares a similar appreciation of Hultin’s genuine personality. Assistant coach Aulani Whisler transferred from Grand Valley State University to Illinois because she wanted to continue under Hultin’s mentorship.
“For someone who values authentic leadership, it was such an easy moment when she asked, ‘Will you come with me to Illinois?’” Whisler said. “And I didn’t even hesitate to say ‘Absolutely, I will be there.’”
Serving as Grand Valley’s defensive coach and now here at Illinois, Whisler has worked hard with Hultin to build systems driven by elite defenses and goalkeepers.
During her first stint at Illinois as a goalkeeping coach under Rayfield, Hultin helped double the team’s shutouts and cut its goals allowed in half. Then at Grand Valley, she led the Lakers to a GLIAC regular-season and tournament championship win in her debut season. Now back at Illinois, Hultin’s squad holds the program’s best undefeated streak — nine games.
This success begins at practice. Hultin’s intensity sets the tone for the player-led culture she wants to create.
“We hold our practices to a very high standard,” said senior goalkeeper Caiylnn Junk. “How you go out on the practice field is going to translate into a game. Practices are a bit uncomfortable at times, but it makes the games easier to perform in.”
Hultin’s passion is felt and embraced by the team, and they respond in kind.
“We are a representation of Katie times two,” Stephens said. “We take that with pride and want to do the best for her.”
Past experiences deepen her connection to players
Hultin’s coaching success at both Grand Valley and Illinois stems in large part from her time as a collegiate and professional goalkeeper.
At the heart of Hultin’s coaching is her ability to draw from her background. She credits goalkeeping for giving her the field vision and leadership qualities she bases her coaching style on.
“A lot of goalkeepers become coaches because we spend most of our career watching the game from an interesting angle,” Hultin said. “As a goalkeeper, you have a protective mentality, and being a head coach also takes a protective mentality: protecting a culture, protecting a program and representing something bigger than yourself.”
What Hultin aims to protect is a high-quality, championship-caliber program. But while results are important, she likes to start on the human level.
Stephens suffered a season-ending injury last fall and returned to an almost brand-new roster. Despite the sweeping change, Hultin has helped the sixth-year rebuild her confidence and skills to where they were before her injury.
“Katie came in the middle of my injury,” Stephens said. “She related to me in terms of the injury that I sustained last fall. There were a lot of ‘what-ifs’ in my mind, but we had a lot of conversations to build my confidence. Katie came at a time where (when) I really needed some support, and she absolutely filled that in an amazing way.”
Both Stephens and Junk noted that Hultin emphasizes the mental side of the game as much as the physical part.
“Anytime you have a coach that has played the game and sustained injuries and understands the mental toll it can take in moments, they can use their experience to help you out,” Stephens said. “Katie has a load of experience that she is able to guide us in a way that feels supportive and shows she is in our corner and wants the best for us.”
“Something she has been putting on our minds is ‘thoughts become things,’” Junk said. “If you think positive thoughts, then they are going to happen. You do the work, and it becomes the thing.”
Future of the program, combining joy with intense detail
When asked to describe Hultin, every interviewee echoed the same words: intense and detail-oriented.
“I like how aggressive she is,” Junk said. “She knows our potential, and she has trust in us that we can do it. She always reminds us, ‘thoughts become things’ — if we think positive thoughts, then it’s going to happen.”
But when asked to describe what she prioritizes as a coach, two different words came up: trust and joy.
Junk believes that all of Hultin’s success stems from the deep trust and belief she has in her players. Whisler repeated that sentiment about Hultin’s relationship with her staff.
“At Grand Valley, it was about trusting in me and our connection, trusting in our players and how we are going to do it together,” Whisler said. “It’s the same at Illinois. She is very intentional in who she brings around the program. She wants people who are going to balance her out.”
Joy was one of the biggest shared values with Hultin that Whisler remembers from her initial recruiting process at Grand Valley. At Illinois, Hultin continues to spotlight the importance of bringing joy and love into the program.
“We show that love, but we are also ultracompetitive,” Hultin said. “We celebrate everyone’s success. It’s hard to come out to a training and not see us do something really fun. Even in our warmups on game days, we try to do something fun and competitive. That’s what makes us special, we got it all.”
Concluding statements
Even with the season still ongoing, Hultin’s impact is already undeniable. She has quickly won over the players, coaching staff and fans not simply because of the results that she delivers, but also because of what she invests into the program. Her passion for the game and the process of bringing the best out of every player she coaches makes everyone buy into her vision.
As Stephens put it on the way out of her interview: “She’s just the best.”
