Tori Christ and the art of leading with empathy

On a soccer field in Buffalo, N.Y., seven-year-old Tori Christ raised her hand. 

After a year of playing in the field, she finally had the opportunity to put the goalkeeper gloves from her bag — provided by her former hockey goaltender father — to use. With the usual goalkeeper out with a broken finger, Christ’s club coach put the lone volunteer in the net. While most kids don’t desire to be in a position to be shot at by the ball, the now-Michigan women’s soccer assistant coach instantly fell in love.

“I honestly loved the position,” Christ told The Michigan Daily. “I loved the pressure associated with the position, and I think I had such a passion for the game from a young age. I loved flying around in the goal. You get field players who are like, ‘I don’t want to be shot at,’ and I think it’s so fun. I love the feeling of just moving through the air.”

And in her years leading up to college, she continued to fly — soaring past all the obstacles of the sport, including those who doubted her. As a smaller goalkeeper, many coaches responded to Christ’s aspirations of playing at the collegiate level with discouraging remarks, stating she was simply too small to play at the Division I level. But even with the noise of pessimism surrounding her, Christ’s push toward her dreams never stopped. 

“There were certainly moments (where) your confidence and your belief wavers,” Christ said. “… I think if you fall back on the things you can control and you find the right fit for the time, you end up in a good spot.”

Through controlling the controllables and keeping her love for the game on center stage, Christ landed herself in a great spot: just a few hours east of Buffalo, on the Cornell women’s soccer team. 

***

For Christ, there wasn’t a specific moment that made her suddenly want to pursue a professional soccer career. Rather, it was the culmination of events leading up to the end of her time with the Big Red. 

Despite only seeing sporadic playing time in her first two years with Cornell, Christ’s positive attitude shone through from the beginning. Over time, that dedication and spirit eventually paid off. At the beginning of her junior year, Christ became the starting goalkeeper for the Big Red, and it was those last two collegiate years that really “lit a fire” into the idea of a professional playing career. 

During her senior year, Christ attended an open tryout for the Boston Breakers — a team in the National Women’s Soccer League at the time — and got an invite to their preseason training camp. There, she trained with elite players, like current U.S. national team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, inspiring Christ all the more. Through these relationships she built and the experiences she gained, Christ fell deeper in love with the game. 

Amid a second preseason training camp in Boston, Christ found herself with a yearning for a more solid role on a team. And shortly after attending a combine in California, she received a call from a Swedish soccer club, Västerås BK30, hoping to sign her as their starting goalkeeper. 

“It sounds dramatic,” Christ said. “But (it was) the call that kind of changed my life.”

Christ then spent two seasons halfway across the globe: one in Sweden in 2015, and the other with the Finnish club Rovaniemen Palloseura. As the only American on both teams, Christ had to navigate language barriers while continuing to instill confidence in herself as a professional player. 

Despite the many challenges, Christ overcame it all and flourished in ways she never could have envisioned. Not only did Christ see herself become a more well-rounded goalkeeper, she also learned much about herself as a person from the two life-changing experiences.

After two years abroad, Christ felt it was time to transition into a new phase of her career. She thought back to her time at Cornell, where she was involved in youth coaching. And she thought about one of her college coaches who told her that she’d be a great coach one day. 

“I thought, ‘You know what, I did the thing that I really wanted to do. I played professionally and now it’s kind of a cool next chapter to start coaching, where I played, and to give back to that program,’ ” Christ said. “… I came back, and that’s when Cornell called.” 

***

Two years later, in 2019, former Boston University head coach Nancy Feldman was in search of a new assistant coach when a resume with a familiar name reached her desk. The name jogged a memory for Feldman, as she remembered the passionate, determined goalkeeper that attended a soccer camp held by the Terriers as a high schooler. 

By then, Christ had already completed two seasons as an assistant coach at her alma mater. Feldman quickly realized that Christ was the one for Boston University after receiving “rave reviews” from past coaches. And those “rave reviews” undoubtedly held up. 

“She was everything, I would say, everything and more when she did come and start working for us,” Feldman told The Daily. “She makes people around her feel good, feel valued, feel loved. And that’s her. She has a lot of great qualities but that really is the number one quality that comes across.”

While Christ led with these qualities through all the drills in practices and pivotal points throughout games, they extended well beyond the walls of the stadiums. Feldman recalls the times when she’d have a “low moment” and “needed a lift,” and she’d often find a card sitting on her desk with Christ’s name signed on it. 

And that empathy undoubtedly took center stage in Christ’s coaching philosophy — it’s a quality that held the utmost importance to her as a goalkeeper coach. With only one goalkeeper on the field at all times, most college goalkeepers don’t get regular playing time until their final years. Thus, for the many who spend years on the bench, it’s a position that requires a lot of patience, one where it’s sometimes difficult to feel valued and attended to. But with Christ, it’s a different story. 

“Being attentive to the individual needs of the goalkeepers is a huge part of what I believe in,” Christ said. “I love relationship building … I think it’s really important to fundamentally get to know your goalkeepers, how they respond and what they need.”

Christ saw qualities of herself in all of her players. Whether it was the starters who finally got their moment to shine in their last years or the players patiently waiting for their turn, grasping onto those occasional moments on the big stage, she was once in their shoes. 

“She was a starter and she was also a backup,” Feldman said. “She had disappointments in her career and she had achieved great achievements … She knows what those girls are going through. She coaches everybody equally. Tori is not going to be uber-focused on the starter because they were the starter and they should have more attention. It’s just not how she rolls.” 

Through every stage of her own playing career, Christ made sure to instill that much-needed confidence and belief in herself, and now she does the same for her players.

In her last season with the Terriers, Christ coached a top-ranked goalkeeper lineup that aided Boston in capturing the Patriot League regular season championship. And while Christ looked to start a new chapter at the close of the season, the success she helped create caught the eye of Michigan coach Jen Klein, who was looking to fill an assistant coaching vacancy. 

After one conversation with Christ, Klein knew her decision would be easy. Because, while the records and coaching accolades were what initially piqued Klein’s interest, Christ’s “dedication to people,” as Klein puts it, along with her strong work ethic were what sealed the deal. 

From Cornell to Boston, and now to Michigan, Christ has seen many changes in her coaching career, but the empathy and dedication she provided to all her relationships has remained constant. 

***

On Aug. 18, 2022, then-graduate goalkeeper Izzy Nino stepped between the goal posts on the U-M Soccer Stadium field, overlooking a field dotted with a mixture of her teammates and opponents. After years of waiting, this was Nino’s moment to shine, and a new face was on the sidelines cheering her on in her first full season as a starter. Christ, who had just begun her tenure as an assistant coach at Michigan, had only worked with the team for a short time before that season opener. Yet, she was already making waves in her routine ways. 

“I just remember going into that game just nervous,” Nino told The Daily. “… We hadn’t had a lot of time together to work on technical things, but the biggest role she played for me in that game was just reinforcing, ‘Hey, you deserve to be here,’ (and) reinforcing my confidence.”

Nino’s stellar performance in the 2-1 victory, which Christ regards as one of her proudest moments as a coach, was also a testament to Christ’s ability to uplift her players, no matter how long they are under her tutelage. That ability did and continues to radiate onto the team, both on and off the field. 

“​​First and foremost, Tori sees people as people first,” Klein said. “She really tries to get to know them as a person, and what their ‘Why’ is. What motivates them? What are their stressors? Or what are things that create some anxiety? … And so because she knows that about people, she really knows how to help, support, but also stretch them.”

That evening two years ago marked just the start of Christ’s impactful time with the Wolverines. It marked the start of years to come where she continued to touch many with her love for the sport and her relationship-building mindset. And, perhaps, show an extra bit of affection for the position that she fell in love with back in Buffalo. 

“My staff here gives me a hard time because I’m such an ally of goalkeepers,” Christ said, cracking a smile. “It’s the first thing I think about. Then they’re always like, ‘Here it goes, Tori with the goalkeepers.’ ”

While her “ally of goalkeepers” title may lead to the exchange of some humorous remarks, it’s also emblematic of her coaching philosophy. Because, though they may appear disconnected, that relationship-building piece that Christ puts front and center in her philosophy heavily intertwines with the position she feels so passionately about. The individual and diverse needs that come with each goalkeeper are always met with Christ’s will to make sure each and every one of them is seen and valued. 

Because Christ sees herself in them. 

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