Mark Plakorus - Soccer Coach - University of Montana Athletics

Mark Plakorus

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
mark.plakorus@mso.umt.edu
Phone:
243-6624

The 2015 season is Mark Plakorus’s fifth year as head coach at the University of Montana and his 17th year as a coach at the NCAA Division I level. He was hired in January 2011 after previously serving as associate head coach at TCU.

Plakorus, the 2014 Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year, is just the third coach in the history of the Montana soccer program, following Betsy Duerksen (1994-2003) and Neil Sedgwick (2004-10).

Plakorus was hired to return a program that had slipped from the Big Sky Conference’s elite teams back to a championship level. Consider the transformation complete. And it took less time than anyone could have expected.

In his first four seasons, Plakorus has led the Grizzlies to three Big Sky Conference championships, and in 2014 his team brought the Big Sky tournament back to Missoula for the first time since 2000.

Montana won the Big Sky tournament title in 2011 in Plakorus’s first season to make its first NCAA tournament since 2000. It fell in a competitive match to eventual national champion Stanford.

The Grizzlies claimed a share of the regular-season championship in 2012 and lost in the tournament championship match in a shootout. They won the outright regular-season title in 2014 by going unbeaten (8-0-2) in 10 league matches.

Plakorus enters the 2015 season with a record at Montana of 37-32-13 and Big Sky mark of 20-10-5.

In Plakorus’s first year, 2011, Montana doubled its wins total from 2010 from three to six and more than tripled its goal output from 8 to 27. In 2012, the Grizzlies upped their win total to 12, the most victories in a season in more than a decade.

Montana finished one game below .500 in 2013 and missed the conference tournament, but the Grizzlies were the Big Sky’s hottest team late in the season, winning three of their last four and four of their last six matches.

Montana went 12-6-2 in 2014 and unbeaten through its league schedule for the first time since 1999. Along the way, the Grizzlies outscored their Big Sky opponents 19-4 and swept the Sacramento State-Portland State road trip for the first time since 1998.

In four seasons under Plakorus, Montana has had 16 first- or second-team All-Big Sky Conference selections. The four first-team selections in 2014 were the most for the program since 2004.

In 2012 Lauren Costa was named the Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP, Erin Craig the co-Offensive MVP. In 2014 Brooke Moody was voted the co-Defensive MVP, Hallie Widner the Newcomer of the Year.

Plakorus also has coached five players to NSCAA All-Pacific Region honors.

Montana has also excelled academically under Plakorus. The Grizzlies have earned the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Team Academic Award each year under Plakorus and have had 63 Academic All-Big Sky Conference selections the last four years.

Montana’s 2011-14 successes at a glance:

2011 NSCAA Team Academic Award (3.23 GPA)
2012 NSCAA Team Academic Award (3.26 GPA)
2013 NSCAA Team Academic Award (3.43 GPA)
2014 NSCAA Team Academic Award (3.45 GPA)

2011: 13 Academic All-Big Sky Conference selections
2012: 17 Academic All-Big Sky Conference selections
2013: 17 Academic All-Big Sky Conference selections
2014: 16 Academic All-Big Sky Conference selections

2012 NSCAA All-Pacific Region: Erin Craig (third team)
2013 NSCAA All-Pacific Region: Maddey Frey (third team)
2014 NSCAA All-Pacific Region: Tyler Adair, Brooke Moody, Hallie Widner (third team)

2012 NSCAA Scholar All-West Region: Lauren Costa (first team)
2013 NSCAA Scholar All-West Region: Maddey Frey (second team)
2014 NSCAA Scholar All-West Region: Brooke Moody (first team), Tyler Adair (second team), Mackenzie Akins (third team)

2012 Senior CLASS Award finalist: Lauren Costa
2014 Senior CLASS Award second-team All-American: Brooke Moody

2011 All- Big Sky Conference: 3 first team, 2 honorable mention
2012 All- Big Sky Conference: 2 first team, 1 second team, 6 honorable mention
2013 All-Big Sky Conference: 3 second team, 2 honorable mention
2014 All-Big Sky Conference: 4 first team, 3 second team, 3 honorable mention

2012 Big Sky Conference individual awards: Lauren Costa (Defensive MVP), Erin Craig (co-Offensive MVP)
2014 Big Sky Conference individual awards: Brooke Moody (co-Defensive MVP), Hallie Widner (Newcomer of the Year)

2011 Big Sky Conference Offensive Players of the Week: 3
2012 Big Sky Conference Offensive Players of the Week: 2
2012 Big Sky Conference Defensive Players of the Week: 3
2013 Big Sky Conference Offensive Players of the Week: 2
2013 Big Sky Conference Defensive Players of the Week: 2
2014 Big Sky Conference Offensive Players of the Week: 2
2014 Big Sky Conference Defensive Players of the Week: 3

2011 Big Sky Conference All-Tournament team: 5 (including MVP India Watne)
2012 Big Sky Conference All-Tournament team: 4
2014 Big Sky Conference All-Tournament team: 2

2011-14 Team Highlights:

2011: Made first Big Sky Conference tournament since 2008 ... Won first Big Sky Conference tournament championship since 2000 ... Advanced to first NCAA tournament since 2000 ... Doubled wins total from three (in 2010) to six ... More than tripled goal output from eight (in 2010) to 27.

2012: Made first back-to-back Big Sky Conference tournament appearances since 2003-04 ... Won first Big Sky Conference regular-season championship since 2000 ... Finished season on eight-match unbeaten streak.

2014: Won first outright Big Sky Conference regular-season championship since 2000 ... Went unbeaten through the 10-match league schedule, finishing 8-0-2 ... Hosted the Big Sky Conference tournament for the first time since 2000 ... Most goals scored (32) since 2000 ... Went unbeaten from Sept. 21 through Nov. 7.

Plakorus spent three seasons (1999-2001) at Air Force, two at Iowa (2002-03) and one at Tulsa (2004) before joining the TCU staff. He finished his sixth season with the Horned Frogs in 2010 before joining the Grizzlies.

TCU had had four straight losing seasons prior to the arrival of head coach Dan Abdalla and Plakorus in 2005. By 2008 the Horned Frogs were 14-4-2, had become a nationally ranked program and had set a program record with 47 goals in 20 matches, making TCU the 18th most prolific offense in the nation.

Plakorus, who spent 11 years in the Air Force, has ties to Montana that date back nearly two decades.

He was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls from 1994 to 1999 and has been one of the directors of the Flathead Soccer Camp in Kalispell since 1998.

In addition to his Air Force duties at Malmstrom, Plakorus became the director of coaching and player development for the Electric City Soccer Club, started the boys’ soccer program at Great Falls High School and rose to the role of director of the Montana girls’ Olympic Development Program.

In those roles, Plakorus saw a number of his former players go on to play for the Grizzlies, who at the time were being coached by Duerksen.

Plakorus graduated from Kansas in 1990 with a degree in computer science. He played club soccer at KU and was a member of the ROTC. He added a master’s degree in sport administration from Western Kentucky in 2012.

Montana year-by-year under Plakorus
2011 ... 6-12-4, 3-3-1 BSC (4th) ... Big Sky Conference tournament champions, NCAA tournament
2012 ... 12-6-3, 6-2-1 BSC (t-1st) ... Big Sky Conference regular-season co-champions
2013 ... 7-8-4, 3-5-1 BSC (t-6th)
2014 ... 12-6-2, 8-0-2 BSC (1st) ... Big Sky Conference regular-season champions

Plakorus’s coaching resume
1999-2001: Assistant coach, Air Force
2002-03: Assistant coach, Iowa
2004: Assistant coach, Tulsa
2005-10: Assistant/associate head coach, TCU
2011-present: Head coach, Montana