Montana to face Air Force on Sunday in Columbia Falls

It didn't really hit O'Brien Byrd, this event he'd taken from dream to reality, until just before the start of last year's exhibition soccer match between Montana and Gonzaga.

He was so focused on tending to the details behind pulling off the game on Flip Darling Memorial Field in Columbia Falls that he'd lost focus of the big picture, forest for the trees in the Rockies.

Just before the game was set to begin, he needed to get something to a ball girl posted up directly in front of the bleachers, the ones that had no empty seats, that were filled with a rapt audience, everyone energized for what was to come, 1,500 strong.

It was only then that he realized what he'd pulled off. It was a dream no longer.

"I looked up at the stands and saw something that was very special and knew this was bigger than I could have ever dreamed," he said this week, days before this year's Glacier Park College Soccer Showcase between Montana and Air Force.

"Half the stands were kids and every single one of them was watching the field, watching these players warm up, eyes wide. They couldn't believe what they were watching, top female athletes in the country on the pitch in our backyard in Columbia Falls, population 6,000. That's why we're doing it again."

Montana and Air Force will play at 7 p.m. on Sunday evening in the second edition of the event. Because after last year's game between the Grizzlies and the Bulldogs, there was no chance this was going to be a one-and-done event.

"After the game, (Montana coach Chris Citowicki) grabs me and says, let's do this next year! He wants to make this an annual event and make Flip Darling Memorial Field a second home for the University of Montana Grizzly soccer team," said Byrd.

Not content with simply repeating the events of last year, Byrd has added day-before youth clinics, with Air Force's players and coaches holding one at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. Montana's will be at 1:30 p.m. Cost of one clinic is $50. It's $90 for both.

"Google $50 college soccer clinic. It doesn't exist. We're getting close to sold out," said Byrd, who coaches soccer at Columbia Falls High. "It's the teams' way of giving back to the community instead of just playing soccer in front of them.

"We've got kids in the Flathead Valley who will never know what it's like to be inspired unless we inspire them. Our kids are starved for something like this."

The University of Montana Alumni Association is getting in on the action as well, hosting a pregame party at The Rendezvous starting at 4 p.m. on Sunday, located just a few corner kicks from the field.

Last year's exhibition match kick-started another successful fall for Citowicki's program. The Grizzlies went 12-2-5 and won their second straight Big Sky regular-season title, all of it getting its start in little Columbia Falls, small-town USA.

"The way I describe it is Field of Dreams. (O'Brien) built it and people are coming," said Citowicki. "It's the most romantic, magical thing I've stepped into. It felt like a movie.

"What I'm calling it now is our home away from home, where we begin our preseason, the spot we go to start creating our culture, connect with the community, then come back home and say, let's get rolling."

Gates open at 5 p.m. on Sunday for fans holding VIP tickets, giving them first choice of seats. Everyone else can enter starting at 5:30 p.m., with food trucks again on site, ready for the pregame crowds.

Montana and Air Force played to a 0-0 draw last year in a regular-season match-up in Colorado Springs.

"Air Force is flying in. How? On a military plane, with shoulder straps, flying into Missoula and chartering a bus to get up here," said Byrd. "We've got something going on. Something really special is happening. This year is going to be even bigger and better."

Which Byrd hopes draws the attention of the rest of the country. His ultimate goal: Four Division I teams with a pair of matches on Friday evening, two more on Sunday, more than 100 college soccer players and coaches setting up in Columbia Falls for close to a week.

"Imagine Kansas State, Florida, Texas, it's the doldrums of the preseason and they are dealing with 100 degrees and 100 percent humidity," said Byrd.

"Now they have an opportunity to come up where there is no humidity, God's country, next to Glacier National Park, do their routine but add exhibition games in front of fans, fly fishing, whitewater rafting, going through the park, ziplining through the trees in the Rocky Mountains. What a weekend."

University of Montana Athletics

Montana to face Air Force on Sunday in Columbia Falls

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