The 2025 season marks Cris Trillo’s 25th year as Head Coach of the men’s soccer team at Joliet Junior College.

Coach Trillo's teams have compiled a 176-144-22 overall record, and he has been named Region IV Coach of the Year four times, and Midwest District Coach of the Year in 2024 while placing 5th at the NJCAA Division 3 National Championship. He has coached 12 All-Americans, 67 All-Region players, and 55 All-Conference players at JJC.

In 1993, Trillo came to JJC to teach Spanish and French for the English & World Languages department. A year later, he founded a soccer club and coached it for six years until the college made men’s soccer a varsity sport. In 2000, he was appointed for the Head coaching position.

Starting in 2010, Coach Trillo developed and taught a soccer coaching class in addition to his World Languages classes. In 2023, he retired as Professor Emeritus.

In the last two years, he has brought into the program 14 international students, and has been invited to be part of the coaching staff to the Elite Summer Camp at the International School of Brussels in Belgium for the last two years.

Coach Trillo spent his childhood between Morocco and Spain. He attended a French school in Tangier, Morocco and was a two-sport athlete playing soccer and basketball in high school and college. He attended the Universidad de Granada in Spain, where he played soccer and received his bachelor’s degree in Translation. Before coming to the United States, he lived in Madrid, Spain where he played soccer for a club.

In the United States, Trillo received bachelor's and master’s degrees from the University of Northern Iowa. While attending UNI, he played club soccer. He continues to play soccer for his over 60 HCC club at the Wheatland Athletic Association in Aurora.

In the summer, he enjoys spending one month in Spain visiting family and friends.