Kim Kester’s arrival as head women’s golf coach at Northern Illinois University in August 2012 heralded a new era for NIU women’s golf. Now, after a decade leading the program, Kester has firmly established the Huskies among the Mid-American Conference’s top teams while focused on reaching even greater levels of success.
Kester enters her 14th season at the helm of the Huskies women’s golf program in 2025-26.
During Kester’s tenure as head women’s golf coach, the NIU record book has been completely rewritten, from the team scoring average to lowest 18, 36 and 54-hole team scores to individual scoring averages and All-MAC selections. The 2021-22 season ended with Huskie sophomore Jasmine Ly becoming the first NIU player to compete in a NCAA Regional Tournament after completing a wire-to-wire run to the MAC medalist trophy, the first in school history.
During the 2024-25 season, the Huskies had three top-5 finishes with a fourth-place finish at the 2025 MAC Championships. Freshmen Alexa Ouellet and Dakota Tallent led the Huskies in a combined nine tournaments. Ouellet earned MAC Golfer of the Week honors following her third place finish at the BGSU Intercollegiate. Four Huskies earned WGCA All-American honors while Caroline Kent (MAC and CSC Academic All-District) and Emma Thorman (CSC Academic All-District) earned honors. Freshman Mia Raines was selected to compete at the PGA Works Collegiate Championship in May 2025.
In 2023-24, the Huskies recorded six consecutive top-5 finishes in the spring season, highlighted by a second-place finish at the Pinetree Collegiate Invitational. The Huskies placed third at the MAC Championships, their fourth consecutive top-4 finish. Senior Emily Romancew took first at the NAU Red Rocks Invitational under Kester’s guidance before leading the Huskies at MAC Championships with a top-10 finish. For the second straight year, three Huskies were named to the All-MAC team (Ly, Naro, Romancew).
The 2022-23 season saw a second-place finish at the MAC Championships after the Huskies won the Falcon Florida Classic in February 2023. The top-2 rounds for individual low 36 and 54 holes were set this season as well as team low scores for 18-, 36-, and 54-hole rounds. Emily Romancew, Sydney Naro, and Jasmine Ly were named to the All-MAC team.
Following the Huskies’ fifth consecutive top three finish at the MAC Championships in 2022, Kester was named the MAC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season after sharing the honor in 2021. NIU’s top 10 career and single season scoring averages are all owned by Kester-coached players. Last year, Ly earned the eighth All-MAC honor collected by a Huskie under her leadership.
In 2020-21, NIU re-set the mark for team scoring average for the seventh time, to an all-time low of 300.9 strokes per round, a mark nearly 30 strokes lower than the team’s average in 2011-12 prior to Kester’s arrival. All of the Huskies’ top 10 18-hole and 54-hole team scores have been shot over the last 10 years, including a school-record 280 at the Mid-American Challenge in February 2021.
NIU has finished as the MAC runner-up three times under Kester – in 2017, 2021 and 2022 – the best finishes in school history and has narrowed the gap with perennial champion Kent State with each second-place showing. Overall, the Huskies have won seven regular season tournament titles and recorded 13 runner-up finishes in the last 10 years.
The Huskies with the top 10 career scoring averages all played their entire careers for Kester, including Ly, who is on pace to break the all-time record currently held by 2017-21 letterwinner Lauren Ingle.
The Huskies’ success has also extended to the classroom under Kester with 33 Academic All-MAC selections – topped by a school-record six in 2022 – and eight MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete awards. Huskies have been named All-American Scholars by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association 31 times.
Kester has expanded the Huskies’ recruiting base both nationally and internationally, while continuing to find talent from across the Midwest and in the Huskies’ Chicagoland backyard. NIU’s roster has included U.S. talent from Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, as well as international players from Canada, France, Colombia, Paraguay and most recently, Iceland.
Kester came to NIU in August of 2012 after spending the three seasons as a graduate assistant for the women's golf team at her alma mater, Toledo. She helped lead the Rockets to a third-place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championship in 2010 and 2012. During her tenure at Toledo, Kester served as academic coordinator and assisted in the recruiting duties for the Rockets.
Prior to returning to Toledo, Kester was the head girls golf coach at Forest Hills Northern High School in Grand Rapids, Mich. from February 2008-May 2009.
A standout golfer for the Rockets, Kester is a two-time second-team All-MAC honoree and posted the second-lowest single-season stroke average in school history with her 76.5 mark in her junior campaign. In that season, she led UT with six top-five finishes and tied for the team lead with eight top-10 showings. She also helped the Rockets post a school-best runner-up finish at the 2006 MAC Championship. A three-time team captain for the Rockets, Kester was Toledo's MVP in 2006-07.
Kester, a native of Ada, Mich., had a solid amateur career as well. She captured the Golf Association of Michigan Women's Mid-Amateur Championship in August 2011 with a four-under 140. Kester captured the Grand Rapids Women's City Championship in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, she finished with a three-day total of eight-under 214 (76-66-72) posting a course-record 66 in the second round. Kester also placed fourth at the 2005 GAM Women's Championship and reached the Sweet 16 of the 2005 Michigan Women's Amatuer.
A 2007 graduate of Toledo, Kester earned her bachelor's degree in recreation and leisure studies and received her master's degree in special education in 2011.
