Donuts for Donuts

By: D. Scott Fritchen

"Anyone want a shutout donut?"

Colleen Corbin peeks out of the double-doors of the Kansas State soccer offices and shouts the question to a few visitors standing outside. It's 10:02 a.m., on Wednesday — a perfect time for a donut. Heck, anytime is a good time for a donut. And the K-State players, donned in black t-shirts and shorts, are biting into donuts while walking through the black iron gates and into the Buser Family Park parking lot following a lengthy film session inside the team meeting room. K-State is less than 48 hours removed from a 0-0 tie at Harvard as the Wildcats improved their season record to 4-0-1, which is the best start in K-State history. The players are jovial, and one player gleefully smiles and holds her donut to the sky.

"We get shutout donuts every time we don't get scored on," Corbin explains.

They have had shutout donuts after all five games this year. Only K-State and Tennessee in Division I soccer have registered a shutout in at least five matches in 2025. K-State hasn't been scored on since the end of last season, which concluded with a 3-12-3 record.

Now — and it's worth repeating — K-State under first-year head coach Colleen Corbin, and with 11 newcomers, is off to a start unlike any other since the soccer program began in 2016. K-State is tied for 15^th in the nation with a .900 winning percentage. K-State needs three more wins to set the school record for wins in a season. The Wildcats won six games in 2017, 2021 and 2022. But the Wildcats also have never had a winning percentage greater than .395, which was set in 2022.

Currently, K-State is tied for the fourth-best record in the Big 12 Conference behind UCF (5-0-0), TCU (4-0-0) and Colorado (5-0-1) while Arizona State is (4-0-1) — same as K-State.

"I knew it was possible," Corbin says. "I don't think I would've taken the job if I didn't think that this place was set up to be successful or that this program had the capacity to win. You never know as a coach. You never know what you're walking into. You don't know how well things will be received or how the culture is going to mesh or if the energy will be matched. Sometimes, that takes time, and other times you get flashes pretty quickly.

"We had some growing pains in the spring, and it was a really hard adjustment. Our staff has asked a lot of our players physically, mentally and emotionally. But it's exciting that the things we felt were in place from an infrastructure standpoint are helping us be successful now along with the belief and commitment and determination from the kids."

Corbin has moved outside of the soccer offices and leans against the railing along the vast concourse, her back to the soccer field and the monstrous videoboard — her domain, and her coaches' domain, and her players' domain, where practices on that very field are leading to record-setting results.

"I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't think there was the opportunity to be successful at K-State," Corbin continues, "but it is pretty fun to see it happening this quickly."

Corbin was hired at K-State on December 2, 2024, after serving as associate head coach at Saint Louis University. Prior to that, she was named 2022 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year at Wyoming. She began coaching an under-10 team as a junior at Oregon State.

Each stop along the way of her career, Corbin's passion has grown deeper for the sport of soccer. It's a labor of love. And she loves these Wildcats. So much time had seemingly passed since she arrived in Manhattan, and assembled her first coaching staff, and assembled her first team. Players came in. Players left. Some suggest the program has never been stronger.

"Colleen came in and it started this spring with everyone working super hard off the get-go," says junior defender Lily Hendrickson, a native of Olathe, Kansas, who is in her third season with the Wildcats. "We became a closer team and worked together a lot more than we had in the past. We're all best friends and work hard for each other."

That camaraderie and hard work, which began in the spring and progressed through the summer — including running the field at 8:30 a.m. on Monday through Friday for 20 miles per week — paid instant dividends.

K-State started its winning ways with home wins over Oral Roberts (2-0) and Portland State (2-0). Then the Wildcats went on the road and beat South Dakota (2-0) and UMass Lowell (4-0) before a draw (0-0) at Harvard on Monday.

"We're undefeated and are just going to continue to set that standard as the season goes on," says junior defender Reece Walrod, a native of Overland Park, Kansas, who is in her third year with the Wildcats. "But we were a little bit disappointed after Harvard. We were ready for the win, and we got the tie, which shows the mentality of this team — when we don't win, we're very disappointed.

"That'll motivate us going forward for every game."

Corbin pushed the draw aside on the flight back from Harvard. Instead, she thought about the many positive virtues of her team at this juncture. Harvard was a good test. The Wildcats next visit Nebraska at 1 p.m. on Sunday, which will represent the biggest test yet this season. But Corbin wasn't thinking about that yet. At the moment, on the flight to Manhattan, she was simply proud.

"I told the team after the Harvard game that I could not be more proud of them," Corbin says. "I'd never been more proud to be their coach, and I'd never been more proud to be at K-State. That game for us was our first full 90-minute performance where we collectively made adjustments in real time, competed at a high level, were coachable and resilient. It's unfortunate we didn't score a goal, but also the mindset never shifted. We weren't going to settle for a tie. We were pushing to win the game.

"To me, Harvard was that first really big test for us, a championship-caliber program with some really talented players, so for us to assess ourselves and play the way we wanted to play and see our identity shine through for the whole game and show grit and resilience was my most proud moment at K-State so far."

The method to the madness, of course, is stellar defense. K-State has been lights-out for 450:00. It's a team thing, for sure, but a special shoutout must be reserved for sophomore goalkeeper Maddie Sibbing, who leads the country with five shutouts and is tied for No. 1 with a 1.000 save percentage.

"It's a mindset of the entire team to have a defensive presence," Corbin says. "They really trust her. Maddie is an incredible goalkeeper and very, very talented and gives the group a lot of confidence, but it is for sure a collective effort."

Sibbing, a native of Lee's Summit, Missouri, started 10 matches for Kansas City as a redshirt freshman last season. She arrived at K-State on July 6.

"Maddie is my favorite player on the field," Walrod says. "She makes me feel so safe as the last defender. Having a goalie you trust changes the momentum of a team because you know she has your back every moment of every game. Maddie is a secret leader on the field."

Sibbing shies away from statistics and praise, quickly sharing all achievements with her teammates, including a backline that has been a brick wall for the Wildcats.

"Really, I haven't had to face that many shots because our backline has been incredible," Sibbing says. "It's definitely a whole team achievement. I'm just doing everything in my power to keep the ball out of the net.

"Our defense is always locked in and they're putting everything on the line to make sure nobody gets any shots off."

The key to K-State playing its best defense in history?

"Defending is tough because you have to be locked in at all times," Walrod says. "Whether the ball is on the other side of the field or right at your feet, you have to be prepared for what the other team is doing at all times. You have to communicate with everyone around you making sure we're all on the same page. Our backline, and honestly, everyone on the field, does a good job doing that and staying locked in."

Hard to fathom upstart K-State being more dialed in than it is right now. Yet the big tests are ahead. It's the grind of the Big 12.

"We haven't played the strongest non-conference schedule, so it was important to get results, and so I'm really happy with the group that that's been the case, because that hasn't been true in years past," Corbin says. "Having some confidence and building an identity and being able to compete at a high level, those are things we need to have going into Big 12 play, the hardest part of the season.

"By no means are we expecting it to be easy, but we're looking forward to competing and really testing ourselves to see where we need to grow and what's working and making teams uncomfortable."

K-State opens the Big 12 season at Colorado on September 18 while the Wildcats' league home opener is against No. 4 TCU on September 25.

The Wildcats were picked dead last in the Big 12 Preseason Poll — "and I understand why we were where we were in the preseason poll," Corbin says.

Of course. New coach. New team.

Now big opportunities await.

"It's nice being the underdog," Hendrickson says. "I'd prefer to be the underdog. We're trying to shock the Big 12, and we've done that so far. People weren't expecting us to do as well as we have, and it's nice to slowly earn respect from the other teams. With each game teams are going to respect us more and more."

Could there be more donuts? That could be one of the questions as the Wildcats slide into league play. But make no mistake, shutout donuts are a thing.

"Shutout donuts started a long time ago," Corbin says. "When I was goalkeeper coach at JMU, we were trying to build an identity and excitement around earning shutouts, and my old boss, Josh Walters, settled on donuts because they look like zeroes, and we like zeroes. We've had a lot of zeroes here in the last couple weeks, so we've had a lot of donuts. We're keeping the donut stands in business."

Behind the best defensive start in history, K-State soccer is entrenched in its best start in history and is making a national statement. At a time when intrigue has surrounded a newly assembled team from the top down, K-State is making an early splash with room still to grow. And that could be dangerous. Corbin is proud but not content. And the players believe they can play even better. But one thing about all this is certain.

So far, K-State is making winning and donuts its business.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Lily Hendrickson

Maddie Sibbing

Reece Walrod

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