MISSOULA — After a dynastic run leading the Montana Grizzlies soccer program, Chris Citowicki is moving on and heading west.
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The UM head soccer coach was hired by Washington State to lead their program, sources confirmed to MTN Sports on Friday. MTN first reported on Wednesday that Citowicki had emerged as the leading candidate in Washington State's coaching search, and Citowicki accepted the position on Friday.
Source: Montana soccer coach Chris Citowicki has emerged as the leading candidate for the vacant Washington State coaching job. A deal is likely to be finalized sometime this week, possibly as soon as tomorrow. It's been a dynastic run at Montana for Citowicki in 8 seasons, who…
— Kyle Hansen (@khansen406) December 10, 2025
Citowicki replaces Todd Shulenberger who was hired by Ole Miss earlier in December after 11 seasons leading the Cougars. Washington State later made the official announcement Friday afternoon.
It brings to an end what's been an eight-year tenure of wildly successful soccer in the Garden City under Citowicki's watch. The Griz went 79-39-32 under Citowicki and 44-9-14 in Big Sky Conference games. He is the second-winningest coach in UM history behind Betsy Duerksen, the program's founder.
The Grizzlies have won five Big Sky regular season championships under Citowicki, including three in a row from 2023-25, and have won the conference tournament four times to advance to the college women's soccer NCAA tournament. The program also won regular season-titles in 2019 and 2020, and won tournament championships in 2018, 2020, 2021 and this past fall in 2025.
Introducing WSU Soccer Head Coach Chris Citowicki!Coach Chris arrives to Pullman after eight seasons at Montana with nine Big Sky championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances. #GoCougs #MadeOfCrimson pic.twitter.com/GhxsKDuwsK
— Washington State Soccer (@WSUCougarSoccer) December 12, 2025
It's been a laundry list of accolades for the program as well under Citowicki, who was named the conference's coach of the year in 2023.
In eight seasons, Citowicki and UM earned 48 All-Big Sky selections, including 26 on the first team. The program has also seen 11 players named all-region by the United Soccer Coaches in that stretch. Six players were recognized by the Big Sky in the most recent 2025 season while forward Chloe Seelhoff was named all-region.
The individual awards for players were also many under Citowicki. Four players have won Big Sky goalkeeper of the year in Claire Howard (2020), Camellia Xu (2021), Bayliss Flynn (2024) and Ashlyn Dvorak in 2025.
There have been two offensive MVP's in Skyleigh Thompson in 2023 and Jen Estes in 2024, and two defensive MVP's in Caitlin Rogers in 2019 and Ally Henrikson in 2025. Estes was also named the newcomer of the year in 2024 and Abby Gearhart won that honor in 2023.
Dvorak was also named the conference's freshman of the year in 2023 while Delaney Lou Schorr took home the Golden Boot in 2023.
The Grizzlies have been especially dominant the past three seasons as they became the three-time regular-season champions and broke through with the conference tournament title as well to advance to the NCAA tournament. In the past three seasons, UM went 36-9-13. Ironically in 2025, UM beat Washington State back in September as the Grizzlies got their first win over the Cougars since 2004.
Born in Poland and having lived in South Africa and Australia before coming to the United States, Citowicki's prior coaching stops included Bemidji State, Augsburg, St. Catherine and North Dakota before he took over UM's program in 2018.
