The Craig Hall Chronicles :: Kendel Johnson

The play took less than six seconds, from the time Caylee Kerr passed the ball up the right side to Kendel Johnson, to Johnson's cross that found the foot of Maycen Slater, to the freshman's first collegiate goal.

Bang, bang, bang.

It gave Montana a 5-0 lead in the 88th minute on Sunday in the Grizzlies' one-sided home win over MSU Billings.

With so much scoring that afternoon, it was easy to breeze over that final goal in the final minutes of the game, "garbage time" the term for everyone except those players still on the field competing, mostly reserves now, getting their chance to show their stuff, some for the first time as Grizzlies.

Johnson had possession for a little more than two seconds on the play and took only two touches, one to flip the ball forward, where space and her speed allowed her to get clear of the nearest MSUB defender, another to cross the ball to Slater, who met the ball at the near post and redirected it in.

But look closer and that play was like a Russian nesting doll. Remove the first layer – those two seconds – and there is just more and more to the story, tales within tales like dolls within dolls, all part of that brief segment on Sunday when Johnson saw her first minutes and collected her first collegiate point.

She wouldn't have even been on the field on Sunday had she not met two weeks earlier with coach Chris Citowicki, who showed her highlights of her time in high school and club, this five-foot-one dynamo playing with outsized courage and confidence, beating defenders, scoring at will.

Where was that player now? "That happens to a lot of freshmen," said Citowicki. "They show up and try to be what they think we want them to be, so they either try too hard or get lost in the environment."

They watched clip after clip of Johnson schooling overmatched opponents, her speed and shiftiness making her almost undefendable to the lay-player. Where is that Kendel Johnson, he wanted to know? And why is she not on the practice field at South Campus Stadium?

"Where is that person?" the coach asked the player. "That's the kid I recruited and want every day." She answered, a bit surprised, I can do that? "Yes! You can do that every day." Okay, I'll go do that!

Given the coach's blessing to be herself, to feel fully confident in her skill set, she was racing up the field at a subsequent practice and – uh-oh – Maddie Ditta was closing in on the freshman, ready to put an end to whatever Johnson was planning.

Except Johnson cut the senior, took the ball the other direction, Ditta now chasing the play, wondering what just happened. Citowicki beamed. Citowicki yelled in delight, Yes! That's the kid I want! "When you can take on players like Ditta with confidence, I'll give you some minutes," Citowicki said.

"That was her moment of awakening. It's coming out so quickly now."

Her parents, Josh and Jan, were at home in Canby, Ore., on Sunday, watching the game on TV. You might think they fell over themselves in delight, their daughter doing it, really doing it, at the collegiate level. Except they'd seen this before, pretty much since she first started playing.

She scored 38 career goals at Canby High, added 26 assists as a four-year starter, never missing a game, all-conference four times, the league player of the year as a senior, her ODP team's leading scorer her final season, an ODP regional camp invitee.

While Sunday's assist was a milestone, her first collegiate point, it was hardly out of the ordinary of what they'd been watching year after year.

"We were certainly thrilled but we're really confident in her," said Josh. "We were just waiting for her to get her shot. Every level she's ever played at, she's risen to that level and gone on to shine. But that was a special moment."

More layers now, Alexa Coyle joining the story, the Johnson family using Coyle's company, The Female Edge, and Coyle's own memories of playing for the Grizzlies, to guide them through this Byzantine world of college recruiting, what to do, when to do it, how to connect with the right program.

More layers, the dolls getting smaller now as the story goes further and further back in time, father and daughter at a pizza place in Layton, Utah, Kendel in second grade, ready to dive into competitive soccer for the first time, her new coach putting everything in perspective, lest anyone has any big ideas.

No one here is going to play college soccer, he told everyone. Let's get that settled before we even start, before anyone gets any wild ideas or tries to dream big. Daughter looked up at dad and said, I'm going to.

"That's kind of how she's always been. Tell me I can't do something and I'm going to do it. She was like that in church when the boys got to do something and the girls didn't. She was like that at school when she felt like there was a double-standard. I'm going to prove you wrong," Josh said.

More layers, the tiniest doll now, the origin piece of this story, the 10-member Johnson family moving from Utah to tiny Burlington, Wyoming, when Josh was in seventh grade, the oldest of eight, their dad taking the K-12 principal job, the town needing to change its population sign from 184 to 194.

His escape from the full house were the farms that cocooned Burlington on every side, work as freedom, going sunup to sundown as a 13-year-old, doing farm chores, driving tractors, changing water, weeding beans, his pay for each day: $10.

He went back the next year and was paid twice as much for a day's labor, work ethic rewarded. The year after that, he was paid even more. "It set a baseline for my whole life. It was a rough job but a cool job, too," he said.

He went to college in Utah, met Jan, had three kids there, Grant, Kendel, Olivia, took the family to Oregon following a promotion within Johnson Controls, hopped over to Siemens Smart Infrastructure, where he is the Oregon-area general manager today.

"When I look back at it now, hard days on the farm were so much easier than a hard day sitting in my office in Oregon," he says. "My parents were broke as a joke with eight kids, so I had to make it for myself. It's impacted how I go about my daily life."

You can start to see Kendel now, right? This girl, not even a year old, seeing a lake for the first time and beelining for it on hands and knees, crawling right in, her fearlessness counterbalanced by her parents reacting in horror, rescuing her from herself.

"She was having the time of her life. That's what it's been like with everything," said Josh, who, when coaching Grant in flag football, didn't mind subbing his daughter into the backfield. "She was faster than the boys and a little better than the boys in a lot of aspects."

Tumbling? That was great until the gym up and moved 40 minutes away. Basketball? Meh. Soccer? That would be her holy grail, sport pairing its needs with her strengths, her size leaving youth coach after youth coach wondering if she could make it.

"I'm the type of person who likes to prove people wrong," she says. "When someone tells me I can't do something, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to do that."

Then: the move to Oregon, soccer in Portland this monolith that they had no idea how to figure out, how to break into. What was the right club, something larger than what Canby had to offer, with Kendel maxing out on that opportunity.

It was Jan who figured it out, seeing an interview with Sarah Plymale, Girls Director of Coaching at Soccer Chance Academy, who cold-call, reached out, told Plymale about her daughter, about her potential and desire to see what else was out there, what she could become.

Plymale had just started a futsol club and would Kendel like to join for the season? Yes. First day, please meet Eres. And Maci. "I learned I didn't know how to do anything," she admits. "Everybody else was doing pullbacks, scissor stepovers, fancy touches. I could run fast and dribble the ball a little bit."

How was she supposed to know those players were Eres Freifeld, now a freshman at North Carolina, and Maci Barlow, an '09 who has committed to Santa Clara, who before she's played a college match is competing for Lexington SC in the USL W League?

"There were times going to futsol when there were a lot of tears afterwards because she didn't feel like she was there," said Josh and, well, you know how that type of challenge, once it's finally accepted, is attacked when it comes to Kendel Johnson.

"She put her mind to it and went to work. She always had a ball with her, juggling, practicing, working on skill moves. At that point we knew she had the drive to do it. We told her, you have the drive, so we'll support you to make the dream happen."

She joined Soccer Chance Academy, played up a year, which sped up her development. The next fall, in age-group limbo, she joined a boys' team, the pace of play going up even more. "She really grasped on to those higher levels of play we hadn't been providing her to that point," says Josh.

All those tears when she felt she wasn't measuring up? Later, fuel. "Seeing the gap between me and my peers, I knew I wanted to catch up," she said. "I worked twice as hard as everyone else to catch up, then when I caught up, I didn't stop working twice as hard."

She was now a peer, if not in age group with Barlow, then at least in talent level, the two teaming up to terrorize Soccer Chance Academy's opponents.

"It was like a switch flipped. It also really helped having the most phenomenal player I've played with," said Johnson. "If I would make the right run, she would get it to me. We were a duo. It felt like us two against the world. My confidence was soaring at that time."

Her high school coach? Dallas Hill. Her coach's sister? Toni Malone, co-founder, along with Coyle, of The Female Edge, which was the answer to the Johnson family's most pressing question when it came to the recruiting process: What should we do now?

For starters, she needed to get to the Northwest Elite ID Camp in 2023. Just about every coach she needed to have see her would be there, including the guy who had coached Coyle at Montana, the one she had reached out to expressing her interest in becoming a Grizzly.

"She was on fire and I knew she had written to us," said Citowicki. "She is small in stature but when she was playing, she was a beast out there. She had that competitive fire, was really good 1-v-1, she could take on any athlete at any speed, had great crossing ability, was a good goal-scorer. I really like this kid."

The Female Edge helped her create highlight videos, told her when to reach out to college coaches and how to communicate with them most effectively and efficiently, where to go to be seen.

"They were really good. They built the framework of what we did not know and showed us how to do it the correct way," says Josh.

That's quite the testimonial. "Very special to hear that," said Coyle. "Ultimately that is what our goal is. Toni and I both went through the whole experience. It's not an easy process, so we have knowledge to share with these girls.

"It's hard to know what to do, what decisions to make, what camps to go to, how to spend your time. For us to be able to mentor athletes and their parents and point them in the directions we know will lead to more success in the process and then have that work out is beyond special."

Johnson had cousins who had lived in Missoula, had loved it. She talked to Coyle, who played for the Grizzlies under Citowicki, had loved it. "It was a mix of a lot of things that led me to think Montana was the best place to go," she says. "It felt right."

One small issue. It wasn't even June 15 after her sophomore year. She had not even been able to talk to Citowicki yet. Didn't matter. She was ready. She didn't even let him get through his first phone call to her, usually the icebreaker, the first communication in what can be a long, long process.

"She wanted to commit on the phone that day," recalls Citowicki. "She was the first kid who ever committed over the phone on Day 1. Hey, let's get to know each other. I WANT TO COMMIT! It was that quick. She was so exciting and dynamic."

Josh listened in on Citowicki's call that day, was sold as well. Well, pretty much. "She felt good about what Chris was selling. The culture he has there is pretty cool. She felt good about the feeling she had, and we're all about, you go with your gut. It doesn't lead you wrong too often

"Her mom and I were slightly more hesitant because she did have a lot of interest from other schools. Once we got on campus and saw the facilities and met with the coaches, it seemed like a really, really good place. We were in the same boat. Yeah, this feels really good."

It probably felt like those first days at futsol when Johnson arrived in Missoula in July and joined her new teammates for captains' practices. Okay, this is next level.

"Everyone was so physical. I'm not the biggest person, so that was the biggest whoa. And the game was so fast," says Johnson. "It was such a hard-working environment that it pushed me."

A few weeks into the season, this girl who has always thrived on people telling her what she can't do, then proving them wrong, was pulled into Citowicki's office and given the opposite message. Here is what we know you can do. Go out and be that player. Sunday was just the start.

This nesting doll that is her story will only keep growing, as layer after layer gets added. "I knew it would be a jump. I needed to build up to that jump, then I need to go past that jump," she says. "I definitely feel like I can be an impactful player if I keep working hard, keep doing everything to my best."

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Maddie Ditta

Kendel Johnson

Caylee Kerr

Maycen Slater

Related Videos