MISSOULA — Chris Citowicki remembers taking the head coaching gig for the Montana Grizzlies soccer program back in 2018.
It was a fast turnaround after one season at North Dakota and many more at smaller colleges, but at the time, Citowicki attacked it head on.
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"I remember somebody I talked to in the athletic department who is like a really close friend of mine now, and he had asked me the question of, 'Do you think what you did at St. Catherine's, a D-III school, can transfer into what you're going to do here?'" Citowicki recalled. "I'm like, 'Of course it can.' He's like, 'I don't think it can. This is Division I now.' And it was like, oh crap, should I be second-guessing everything I'm doing?"
Eight years later, it turns out Citowicki was spot on.
"It was terrifying and trying to figure it out and just one thing at a time," Citowicki said. "Win games. If we can win games, we'll get recruits. If we get recruits, we'll get the crowd. Everything builds from there.
"It's because the community is involved, the athletic department's involved, the university's backing it. Everything that I could have possibly dreamed of came together in one moment and just exploded in that setting. So I'll miss it.
"Vision is the same it is everywhere that I work. I want to run the best D-III or D-I women's soccer program in the country. We want it to be the best from day one."
Citowicki recently accepted the head coaching position at Washington State after a torrid eight-year run as UM's head coach.
He became the second-winningest coach in program history with 79 wins, won five Big Sky Conference regular-season championships and four tournament titles to advance to the NCAA tournament, not to mention the number of all-region and all-conference players that developed under his watch.
"I couldn't be more proud, right? I love that, but the one that I love the most is that our average attendance went from like 417 to like 817 in the final year," Citowicki said. "The amount of people coming here, the amount of little kids coming here. The fact that there are children in this town that for the past eight years, all they know is that Griz soccer wins titles. They come, they watch the games, and they're invested in it. And it builds."
The success on the field, and the community support as the wins piled up, continue to grow. Citowicki credited Travis DeCuire from the men's basketball program, as well as football coach Bobby Hauck and former Lady Griz head coach Robin Selvig as mentors and role models for him during his time with the Grizzlies.
That success and growth came while coaching through trying times like the COVID-19 pandemic, injuries and more — withstanding it all.
"We're going to turn this into something that everybody wants to be on board, right? A train that's going somewhere," Citowicki said. "Everyone's going to want to be on it. And that's exactly what it turned into. My final memory is that packed house that we had here, right? And to win playoffs in that setting in front of everybody and say, that is peak Missoula, UM soccer right here.
"The first couple years, we won a couple trophies back to back and I would go to Travis (DeCuire's) office and be like, 'How do you deal with this? Like this pressure of having to win and have to win again, I don't like it.' I was so used to just building underdogs into good teams. And so the initial phase was really complicated. So it caught on fire, and I became used to this is how the process has to be at this level if you want to stay at the top. And so change of mindset for me, change of mindset for the program, recruit players who want to protect it instead of chasing something, and look at where we are now."
But there's also the off-field impacts and growth Citowicki enjoyed along the way, from the scenery to community involvement.
"I would have told you yes, we'll be successful, but if you told me it would have played out like this, no chance," he said. "I've had to really evolve as a person. And it's this whole community, this program has changed me for the better. It's made me a better dad. It's made me a better husband and just better at everything that I do. So couldn't be more grateful for it."
Though he's moving on, it's a place and community that Citowicki said will stick with him, and it meant the world from the beginning to end.
"The people, honestly. What people gave my children, that's it," Citowicki said. "To raise my kids in this community with the support and the love that people give, never going to forget it."
