Griz, Gonzaga soccer set to pack Flip Darling Field Sunday

When the Montana soccer team hosted Ohio State last August at South Campus Stadium in Missoula, the match-up attracted a program-record 1,973 fans to the Grizzlies’ home field, breaking the previous record by more than 900.

Sunday night at Flip Darling Memorial Field in Columbia Falls, Montana’s preseason exhibition with Gonzaga could have the same vibe.  

An overflow crowd of 1,400 is expected for the 8 p.m. battle of 2023 Big Sky and West Coast Conference champions, with 1,200 the official capacity. Because of demand, organizers are bringing in four 20-foot flatbed trailers to provide another 200 seats. 

“Montana style,” said O’Brien Byrd, the boys’ soccer coach at Columbia Falls High who built on an idea he and Griz soccer coach Chris Citowicki hatched years ago. “It’s going to be so cool. It’s going to be nuts.” 

Gates will open at 6 p.m. for those holding pre-ordered tickets. Everyone else will be allowed in beginning at 7 p.m., until the facility will hold no more. 

 “It will be packed for an exhibition match, which is insane,” said Montana senior forward Skyleigh Thompson, who hails from nearby Kalispell. “I love seeing how much love we get from the entire Montana community.” 

Forty girls from the Flathead Rapids will be escorting the Grizzlies and Bulldogs onto the field. Byrd’s daughter will sing the national anthem. Another daughter will be a ball girl. 

“It’s going to be a really cool event,” he said. “(Columbia Falls) is blue-collar Montana through and through. It’s a working-class community and we take a lot of pride in our sports. 

“I’m just so proud that it’s going to happen in my community, the community I grew up in, the community my kids are growing up in.” 

It’s instructive to note that one of the very first Grizzlies to join the Montana program, which first began playing in 1994, came from Whitefish: Michelle Badilla.  

The Flathead Valley has been good to the Grizzlies ever since, with Thompson and freshman forward Reagan Brisendine, also from Kalispell — Brisendine is from Glacier High School and Thompson is out of Flathead High — on this year’s team.  Columbia Falls product Josie Windauer played two seasons (2020-21) for the Griz as well. 

Norah Schmidt, of Whitefish, is a freshman goalkeeper at Gonzaga. 

“Every year between the five high schools, we graduate a dozen (boys and girls) college soccer players, and that might be low,” said Byrd. “All the high school programs are very successful. 

“It’s a very soccer-rich culture in the Flathead Valley and it’s still on the rise. It might be the most popular sport in the Valley. To be able to bring this into our backyard is monumental. Call it what you want, a preseason friendly, but it’s going to be way more than that.” 

Thompson was a starter as a freshman on Montana’s NCAA tournament team in 2021. Last year, as a junior, she was voted first-team All-West Region by the United Soccer Coaches and the Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP after leading the Grizzlies to a 13-3-3 record. 

“I’m super excited that we get to bring the only Division I women’s soccer team in the state closer to my hometown and hopefully inspire the next generation of athletes in that area to see that I and some other Montana girls did it, so they can do it too,” Thompson said. “It’s pretty emotional.” 

Beyond the uniqueness of the event, the match itself should be a great one. The teams combined to go 27-7-5 last fall, Gonzaga ending the season in the second round of the NCAA tournament and with an RPI of 33. Montana came in at 96. 

The Grizzlies return all five of their first-team All-Big Sky selections from a year ago and should be favored to repeat as Big Sky regular-season champions. 

The Bulldogs, under first-year head coach Katie Benz — formerly a UM assistant under Citowicki — lost four of their top five goal-scorers from last season, when they ranked sixth nationally in goals per match (2.80). 

“It’s always exciting to see your team play in an exhibition match, but this will be next level,” said Citowicki. “I hope people come out and remember it for a very long time. 

“You see it in the professional game, with Manchester United playing a game in a small, rural community. To see the response to having that team in their community is amazing. That’s why I’ve wanted to do it. To bring the Griz somewhere else to play, that’s so cool.” 

There will be additional layers of meaning to the people of Columbia Falls, who will be gathering at the field for a soccer match for the first time since the death of former Wildcat Josiah Kilman last February while in his first year at college in Kentucky. 

In 2022, Winslow Nichols died while climbing in Glacier National Park. In 2017, Paxton Fisher passed away after fighting cancer. Both were less than a year removed from playing their final soccer match as a Wildcat. 

“Sunday will be a tribute to our fallen young men,” said Byrd, who coached all three players. “It will be a day of healing for us to bring joy and celebration back to that field. It’s going to be such an enriching moment for our community to celebrate and remember and turn the page.”