Columbia Falls Hosts College Conference Champion Soccer Teams for Exhibition Match

Residents of the Flathead Valley are used to seeing top-tier soccer programs vie for victory on the fields of Columbia Falls, Whitefish and Kalispell. Local teams have played in state championships for the last seven consecutive years, nabbing eight trophies, including a sweep by Whitefish’s teams last fall. Athletes from Flathead and Glacier always top the all-state Class AA honor lists, while the Class A lists are almost entirely swamped by Bulldogs and Wildcats players.

Each time championship matches are hosted at Smith Fields in Whitefish or Flip Darling Memorial Field in Columbia Falls, the community turns out in droves, showing support for the hometown athletes and a love of the game.

But local soccer fans have never seen a game played in the Flathead Valley like the spectacle scheduled for Sunday evening.

The University of Montana and Gonzaga University women’s soccer teams will open their seasons with an exhibition match at Flip Darling Memorial Field in Columbia Falls. The teams combined for a 27-7-5 record last fall and both were conference champions — the Griz earned the regular season Big Sky title while the Zags won the West Coast Conference championship and a first-round game at the NCAA tournament — making the game a top-tier matchup.

“We’ve got a pretty rich soccer culture here that’s still growing and blossoming, but we don’t have a higher level program nearby. Our kids can’t go watch a pro game, or a college game, anywhere around here,” Columbia Falls soccer coach O’Brian Byrd said. “You’ve got a soccer-crazed population in the Flathead Valley and we’re going to serve them up a piping hot game.”

Byrd has dreamed of bringing this level of soccer to the valley for years, and was especially eager for the Griz to come to town, given the pipeline of top-tier players taking their soccer talents from Flathead Valley pitches to UM in recent years.

Former Columbia Falls star Josie Windauer caught the eye of former Griz coach Mark Plakorus and his replacement Chris Citowicki with her record-setting stat sheets that included scoring 33 goals her senior season and earning three all-state selections. She joined the Griz in 2020 and helped draw collegiate attention to the Flathead Valley.

In 2021 Flathead High School graduate Skyleigh Thompson joined the Griz following a high school career that also saw three straight all-state recognitions and a Western AA Conference Player of the Year distinction.

As a Griz, Thompson has become “the face of the program,” according to Byrd, and was voted Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP last fall after the team’s unbeaten regular season.

Now Thompson gets to kick off her senior season with a homecoming of sorts.

“Bringing the state’s only Division I soccer team to basically my hometown is just a really amazing thing,” she told the Beacon this week. “I think we’ll spark some inspiration in the younger players who show up. I want to show that even someone from a small town in a small soccer state can set big dreams and achieve them like I did.”

Thompson said that as a young player herself, her passion for the sport grew every time she was exposed to higher levels of play — first playing with her older sister and then at soccer camps attended by college coaches. Those experiences, and seeing other Montana players make it to college “made me believe that I could play at the next level.”

If a Division I game had been played here when she was younger, “I would have thought it was the coolest thing ever,” Thompson said. “I just know I’d have been fangirling hard, bringing all my teammates and getting pictures and autographs. It’s cool to be on the other side of that and know what kind of ripple effect we might be able to start in my own community.”

There will be no lack of impressionable young players in attendance on Sunday night. Forty players from the Flathead Rapids club team will escort the Grizzlies and the Bulldogs onto the field, many who have played with, or against, some of the newest college players.

Whitefish graduate Norah Schmidt is a freshman goalkeeper at Gonzaga and Glacier High School grad Reagan Brisendine will be wearing maroon and silver.

“Honestly it’s a little nerve wracking to play my first college game in front of a bunch of people I know, but I’m excited to have so much support,” said Brisendine, who began training with the Griz this summer. “It’s a totally new feeling for me. I’ve never felt quite like this at the start of a season. Playing for the Griz has always been my dream, so now they’re coming true and really in the wildest way.”

The Grizzlies home field in Missoula had 1,973 fans in attendance for a game against Ohio State last August, breaking the attendance record by more than 900. The crowd at Flip Darling Field will come close to that size, and might exceed it in energy. In the first 48 hours after the exhibition game was announced, more than 1,000 tickets were claimed.

Byrd said the stadium has an official capacity of 1,200 but several strategically placed flatbed trailers equipped with football risers will provide over-the-fence overflow seating for another 200-400 spectators.

“I hope the atmosphere is just raucous,” Byrd said. “Get behind these players. All but three of them are a long way from home, so as a community we need to get raucous, get rowdy and celebrate the athletic feat we get to witness. It gives me chills thinking about it, and that’s the whole point.”

Beyond the spectacle of the match itself, there is additional inspiration to turn out for the soccer community. This will be the first game played in Columbia Falls since the death of former Wildcat Josiah Kilman in February. Two other Columbia Falls graduates, Winslow Nichols in 2022 and Paxton Fisher in 2017, also passed away less than a year removed from their final soccer games as Wildcats.

“We’re still reeling from losing so many great young men, so this will be a bit of a tribute to them,” Byrd said. “We’re excited to breathe life back into Flip Darling Memorial and celebrate life and soccer.”

Traditionally, the Griz begin their fall campaign with two preseason exhibition matches, usually against smaller programs. This year, the one game will be plenty.

“It’s one thing to play a weekday exhibition at noon in front of a small crowd against a (non-Division I opponent),” Griz head coach Chris Citowicki said in a press release. “But 8 p.m. under the lights in front of 1,400? What a setting.”

“When was the last time anyone has played in front of a crowd like that in an exhibition? It doesn’t happen. It happens here.”

Gates will open at 6 p.m. for those holding pre-ordered tickets. General admission will be allowed in beginning at 7 p.m., until the facility reaches capacity. Admission is free for everyone.

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