The Craig Hall Chronicles :: Brooke Johnston

Brooke Johnston is not one to hide it. She is fired up about her religious beliefs -- baptized in her home church at the age of 13 and living a changed (and charged) live ever since -- and she wants everyone to know it.

The pinned tweet taking the permanent spot atop her Twitter feed more than a year after it was composed is simple and unequivocal: GOD IS GOOD.

And it's as if the Eternal One Himself paid for the space that doubles as her cover photo, a delightful old-school image of typewriter-on-paper, with corrected mistakes and less-than-perfect imprints, a message in and of itself within the greater and more overt announcement: God loves you. He is crazy about you.

Her dad was born to parents who served as missionaries in Africa, and William and Melanie Johnston met at Evangel University in Springfield, Mo., a school that "equips students to become Spirit-empowered servants of God." Those genes were passed down to their second child and only daughter.

"They raised my brother and me in those beliefs and values. It's just been a part of who I am," says Johnston, but that doesn't mean she's at all passive when it comes to her mortal pursuits during what she believes is her relatively fleeting time on Earth.

"I'm pretty aggressive when it comes to balls in the air around a bunch of people," the freshman goalkeeper says. "I'll punch someone in the face if the ball is near them."

It's the attitude she brought with her from Puyallup, Wash., and one she'll need as she faces the sporting challenge of her lifetime.

Because Claire Howard is also a goalkeeper for the Grizzlies, and she was just a redshirt freshman last fall when she posted a 0.70 goals-against average for a 10-win team, the second-best average in Montana soccer history.

Both goalkeepers are now in a position they have very little experience with, Howard as returning starter facing a motivated challenger, Johnston as the preseason's unspoken No. 2.

"It's a new role I'm adapting to, just like Brooke's adapting to her role as an incoming freshman. It's new for both of us," says Howard.

Montana enters season No. 25 without a third keeper, which puts all the focus on just a pair of players. One has something, or at least did last season, and the other wants it as well.

If you think that could lead to an icy relationship, you're right, but then you're also admitting you don't know Howard very well.

She joined the program two falls ago, when Kailey Norman was a senior and on her way to being voted the Big Sky Conference Goalkeeper of the Year. Maddie Vincent was a fourth-year junior.

"I'm going to try and do a lot of what they did for me. They took me in and got me up to speed on how we do things," says Howard.

"That's my biggest thing with Brooke, is building that friendship. We're each other's biggest competitor but also supporter. At the end of the day, regardless of who's in goal, it's all about helping the other one to make the team successful."

Project it out over the next few years, and it's easy to write the script. Howard gets all the starts and a lion's share of the minutes the next three seasons, with Johnston watching. And waiting. And ... all sorts of negative things that could possibly come with watching and waiting for that long.

But that's not what's best for the team. While injuries at the position are infrequent, backup goalkeepers need to have the same be-ready-for-your-chance engagement preached to No. 2 quarterbacks on the football field. You're one play away. Prepare like it. Go into games like it.

The scenario played out just last season, when Howard was injured early in the second half of Montana's home win over San Jose State. Maddie Vincent had only a short amount of time to get warmed up and mentally ready to play the final 30 minutes of the game.

She made two saves and didn't allow a goal as the Grizzlies rolled to a 4-1 win. By the next game she was back to being No. 2, but she had been ready when called upon.

For as good as she is, Howard is extremely magnanimous and carries with her a healthy bit of insecurity, which will only benefit her. If she retains her starting job, she will only get better as she sees Johnston pushing every day, not settling to operate in Howard's shadow.

No matter the pecking order that results from the preseason, the two goalkeepers will go as they go together.

"The position of goalkeeper is very unique," says first-year coach Chris Citowicki. "You've got to pay attention to their psychology. If I tell Claire it's her job to keep, there is a chance her work ethic drops. And that might shut down Brooke, because she believes she's never going to play.

"I called Brooke right after I got the job and said, 'I don't want you coming in believing you're playing backup to Claire and just waiting until it's your turn. When you show up you're trying to take her spot,' " because everyone will benefit, he didn't need to add.

With her dad serving in the Army, Johnston was born in Texas and raised briefly in Tennessee before her family landed on a permanent basis in western Washington when she was three.

Her dad, who served a tour in Kuwait when his daughter was in the fifth and sixth grades, was based at Fort Lewis and flew Black Hawk helicopters, perhaps giving birth to another hand-me-down trait that explains why Johnston plays her position with composure and aplomb, and a lack of fear.

How she became a goalkeeper, why she has the footwork she possesses and why she chose soccer as the sport that would take her to college can all be answered like this:

When she first started playing the sport, she split her time, half in the field, half at goalie, but she despised running. She quickly learned that goalkeepers didn't need to run as much as everyone else, and she didn't mind throwing herself on the ground, so ... check.

She was educated to be a teacher at Evangel and today works for Hologic, a women's health company, but years ago Melanie Johnston owned a dance studio. Her best customer? Her own daughter. "I did every class possible," she says, which reveals itself in her play in front of the net, so ... check.

Up until the eighth grade, she played competitive volleyball as well as soccer, which she credits with helping her hand-eye coordination. But it came down to basic math when it was time to go all in on the fall sport that would give her the best chance of competing in something at the college level.

Only six people are on the court at a time in volleyball and most of them have shared skills. Soccer has nearly double that amount playing at any one time and has some positions that are more specialized. "So I told myself, being a goalie is rare. Being a good goalie is really rare," she says. So ... check.

She started playing club soccer in the fifth grade but decided a few years later she wasn't getting the level of experience and competition she wanted, nor the exposure.

But Alex Cunliffe, the director of soccer operations and a coach for ISC Gunners FC, knew who she was. So when he found himself standing beside Johnston's mom at Surf Cup early in Brooke's high school years and heard her reveal that her daughter might be looking for a new team, Cunliffe stepped in.

"In that split second, I said, 'I can honestly say I've been tracking Brooke for a couple of years, and I would love to see her come and play with us,' " he says.

But it wouldn't come without its challenges. It's 30 miles from Puyallup to Issaquah if Cunliffe could have picked up and dropped off Johnston by drone on a direct aerial path. Add in the roads that would need to be traveled and the time of day they'd be driven, and it would be a heavy sacrifice for many.

"I told them, 'I know it's a 60-, 75-, 90-minute drive, but if you'd be willing to make it, I'll help you however I can with our practice schedule. I was that impressed with her confidence and composure and her ability as a goalkeeper," says Cunliffe.

"They would put in a 90-minute drive to put in back-to-back sessions, first with the team, then with the goalkeepers. They overcame the distance and logistics so Brooke could train with us three, four, five nights a week. That sums up her work ethic."

The payoff would come for everyone the summer after Johnston's junior year, when ISC Gunners G99A found itself going to overtime against Diablo FC in their age-group championship match at Surf Cup, one of the club circuit's biggest and most recruited tournaments.

It didn't take Johnston long to put her stamp on the match's outcome. "She made three saves, back-to-back-to-back, on the first three shots, three very good saves that basically won Surf Cup for us," says Cunliffe, who believes Johnston has only begun to discover how good she can one day be.

"She's on an upward trend. Sometimes you see kids who maximize their potential early on. They might be very good, but they tend to stay where they are. Brooke has gone from strength to strength over the last few years, and I still think she has several levels to go before she hits her peak."

Former Griz coach Mark Plakorus was the first from a Division I school to contact Johnston, but that wasn't what got the momentum going in Montana's favor when it came time for the goalkeeper to make a decision on choice of college.

Not long before, she'd attended a Young Life camp in Malibu, B.C. (really, it's there, sitting on the picturesque Jervis Inlet north of Vancouver) and discovered something that would become an unexpected obsession: Chaco sandals. But they were not a thing back in her hometown.

"When I went on my first tour of campus with the guide from the Lommasson Center, she was wearing Chacos," says Johnston. "I thought, Oh my gosh, they're here." (Tweet from July 27: the amount of people wearing chacos in missoula makes my heart happy.)

"And then I just kept finding more things I liked. The campus isn't too big but it's not too small either. And there are all these different sports, and they are all really good teams. That was a plus."

And so her life as a college student has begun. In the bigger picture (okay, not the big, big picture, on the matter of eternal life, but in the broader view of the here and now) she's mostly undecided on what she'll pursue in her coursework or what might come next in life, five or 10 years down the road.

She'll try some health and human performance courses, some business classes, start in on some biology and chemistry to keep pre-med as an option. But it's still pretty foggy when she tries to look that far ahead. At least it is for her.

"My dad told me to get a business major and I'll be able to figure it out along the way," she says. "My mom thinks, You're going to go to Montana and marry some farm boy and you're going to live on a ranch and you're going to be a veterinarian. She sees it. I don't see it, but I'm open to anything."

As for the more immediate, she's now three days into her college soccer career, and viewed through that prism, the season opener in two weeks feels like it is still eons away, not to mention Year No. 2 or 3 or 4 or possibly 5.

She'll take it one day at a time, one practice at a time, one drill at a time, with Howard by her side, teammates, competitors, two players vying for a single spot but neither being as good as she can be without the other.

"I know she's really good. I also know I've never been a backup to anyone. I've always been the one on my team, so I knew it would be a change," says Johnston.

"I'm excited for the competition that Claire and I will have. I just want to push Claire to her limits and be open to her helping me and leading me along the way."

University of Montana Athletics

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Claire Howard

Brooke Johnston

Kailey Norman

Maddie Vincent

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