Helen Knull - Staff Directory - Michigan State University Athletics

Staff Directory

Helen Knull

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
Phone:
432-1212

Entering her 15^th season as the field hockey coach at Michigan State in 2025, Helen Knull is the longest-tenured coach in program history and owns the second-most wins of any mentor since the start of the program in the 1972 season.

Elevated to the head coach of the Spartans in advance of the 2011 season after serving as an assistant coach for four years, Knull can boast a 170-171 mark in the 16 years that she has been on staff for the Spartans, and compiled her 100^th career head coaching victory over Colgate in September of 2024.

Helen Knull

In her time in East Lansing, the Spartans have continually produced not only standouts on the field, but Knull has placed vast importance on developing well-rounded young women. In the spring of 2024, the program took an international training trip to South Africa, immersing the athletes and staff in several community outreach initiatives as well as training and playing highly competitive games.

Team members are among the athletic department’s highest achievers in the classroom and are at the forefront of impactful community outreach initiatives. Knull serves on the Coaches Council for the National Marrow Donor Program, and the Spartan field hockey program spearheads the on-campus “Be the Match” initiative, encouraging the community to sign up to enter the bone marrow or blood stem cells registry, which assists cancer patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening blood diseases in finding a life-saving donor. Two members of the current team serve as the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee executive board members, and assist in organizing department-wide participation in initiatives like an Accessible Trick or Treating, a Student-Athlete Food Drive, and more.

The Spartans truly excel in the classroom with 3.79 and 3.82 semester team GPA's in the fall of 2024 and spring of 2025. Fourteen Spartans were Academic All-Big Ten selections during the fall 2024 competition season, while the team's 3.79 semester GPA was the second highest nationally of any team in the nation, as the Spartans earned a National Academic Team distinction from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA), had 18 individuals on the National Academic Squad, and 11 were NFHCA Scholars of Distinction with a 3.9 grade point average or higher.

In the Spring of 2024, Senior Ashley Harlock became the program’s first-ever First Team Academic All-American, and was also a Rhodes Scholarship nominee and Marshall Scholarship finalist. She earned the Big Ten’s prestigious Wayne Duke Postgraduate Scholarship to pursue her graduate studies in neurobiology.

Knull’s best season on the field came in 2013 when she led MSU to a 14-10-0 record, the Big Ten Tournament Championship, and into the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. She was voted the West Region Coach of the Year by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association that season.

Her head coaching record stands at 104-157-0 in her first 14 seasons, and in those years the Spartans have earned three NFHCA All-Americans, 14 All-Region picks, and 21 All-Big Ten selections, including six first-teamers. In the classroom, the Spartans boast a 186 Academic All-Big Ten picks, 68 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars, and 198 NFHCA Scholars.

Prior to being named head coach, Knull served as an assistant coach on Rolf van de Kerkhof's staff from 2006-10, and was elevated to the title of Associate Head Coach in the spring of 2010. In the team’s four seasons with her as an assistant, she helped the Spartans compile a 74-34 overall record, including a 33-10 mark in the final two seasons combined. In 2009, the Spartans won the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles, becoming only the second school in Big Ten history to finish the regular season and tournament play unbeaten. The Green & White also advanced to the NCAA Tournament four straight seasons (2007-10).

Helen Knull

Knull arrived in East Lansing in 2006 from Kent State, where she served as an assistant coach for two years and as an associate head coach during her last season at her alma mater (2005).

As a coach, Knull helped guide the Golden Flashes to two Mid-American Conference championships (2003, 2005), cultivating the development of two Freshmen of the Year and one MAC Player of the Year.

Knull was a four-year starter, two-year captain and a two-time All-American at Kent State, leading the Golden Flashes to the NCAA Tournament for four straight years (1999-2002). In 2002, Knull was named Mid-American Conference Player of the Year. She was inducted into the Kent State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Knull earned a degree in sport management with a minor in coaching from Kent State in 2003 and completed a master's degree in sport management in 2004. Knull obtained a Level II coaching accreditation through USA Field Hockey in November 2008 and her Level III accreditation in 2011. She has also served on the NCAA Field Hockey committee as well as two terms as the NFHCA Division I representative.

While growing up in Scotland, Knull played on the National U-16 and U-18 teams before coming to the United States for college.

Knull and her husband, Justin, have a daughter, Grace, and a son, Calum. The family resides in Laingsburg.