Athletics

Scarlet Hawks Siblings Star on the Pitch

There is at least one big advantage to having a sibling who, like you, is also a member of an Illinois Tech soccer team.

“It’s really convenient since I’m a forward and he’s a goalkeeper,” says Kayla Thomas (ME, M.S. BME 4th Year) who, like her brother, arrived from Sweden to play at Illinois Tech. “We were actually practicing a lot this past summer. He got a lot of goalie reps, and I got a lot of shooting reps, so it’s perfect.”

Kayla and her brother, Colin Thomas (ME, M.S. 3rd Year) share another similarity: they are both studying to be engineers and participating in the university’s Accelerated Master’s Program.

The siblings spent their middle- and high-school years in Helsingborg, Sweden, playing soccer for regional professional clubs. Colin played for the Eskilsminne IF club before he came to Illinois Tech in 2023 as a member of the ROTC program. He is a goalkeeper for the men’s soccer team.

Kayla played for a club formerly known as Division 1, now called Ettan Fotboll. She transferred to Illinois Tech in 2024 from the Colorado School of Mines, and she is a winger/outside forward on the women’s soccer team.

The siblings, who are one and a half years apart in age, were both born in Sweden. They moved to the United States for nine years at a young age before returning to Sweden.

“We were always competitive with each other,” says Colin. “Competitive about stupid stuff, such as walking around the neighborhood and racing to see who was fastest. Since she was older, she’d win and I would end up getting angry.”

“To be fair, when I said I was going to transfer [to Illinois Tech] my brother was like, ‘Don’t sit next to me,’ but he ended up sitting next to me,” Kayla adds with a laugh. “We’ve struck a good balance between seeing each other enough and keeping our distance.”

The two grew up in an athletic family, with their father, a U.S. native, playing football, basketball, and baseball and their mother running track and field.

“The culture within soccer, when you’re playing [in the U.S.], is different. Here, on the sidelines, people are standing. Back [in Sweden], people are usually sitting on a bench watching,” Colin says.

Both Kayla and Colin have helped their respective Scarlet Hawks teams to success during their time at Illinois Tech.

Kayla helped the women’s soccer team to Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular season and tournament titles in 2024 and 2025. The 2025 NACC tournament title earned the team its second straight berth into the NCAA Division III national tournament. Heading into the start of the 2025 NCAA tournament, Kayla—who earned Second Team All-NACC in 2025—has amassed seven goals, three assists, and 17 points in 31 career games.

Colin, meanwhile, has started 22 of his 27 career games played across three seasons for the men’s soccer team. He has a 13-6-4 overall record as the starting goalkeeper, with three shutouts, a 1.73 goals against average, and a .685 save percentage. —Tad Vezner 

Photo: Kayla Thomas (ME, M.S. BME 4th Year) [left] and Colin Thomas (ME, M.S. 3rd Year)