Gore named Grizzlies’ 5th soccer coach

MISSOULA — Stuart Gore, who grew up playing on English national teams and won an NAIA national championship in his first college coaching job, was introduced as Montana’s next soccer coach on Tuesday.

“I’m thrilled he accepted the job and am completely confident in what he can do at the University of Montana,” Montana Director of Athletics Kent Haslam said. “He was enthusiastic about the job and really wanted it.” 

Starting the program at Northwestern Ohio from the ground up, Gore led the Racers to a five-year record of 100-15-6 from 2013-17, with an NAIA national championship in 2016 and a runner-up finish in 2015. 

He then spent two seasons as associate head coach at James Madison in 2018-19 and had the same position under Chris Logan at North Dakota in 2020. Then he took over at Northwestern (La.) State, leading the 2021 Lady Demons to the NCAA tournament in his first season. He had a two-year record at the school of 25-10-4. 

He was the head coach at Troy the last three seasons and resigned in October with a record of 16-28-8 at the Sun Belt Conference program. 

Gore interviewed on campus last week; he’ll begin his duties later this week. 

“Montana is a place where people care deeply about development, about winning, about doing things the right way, the Montana way,” Gore said. “It’s exactly the environment I’m used to and wanted to be a part of it.” 

Gore grew up in Dunstable, an hour north of London. He left school at the age of 16 to begin his professional career, and later on a trip to London for a college job fair saw a booth that advertised: “Play Soccer in America.” 

He played at NCAA Division II University of Montevallo in Alabama before getting back into the pro game in Spain. He then began his coaching career, eventually starting the program at Northwestern Ohio, located in Lima.  

In 2021 he headed to Louisiana to take over a program that had won 33 matches the previous three seasons but hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2005. In his first season the Northwestern Lady Demons won a pair of 1-0 matches in the Southland Conference tournament and made the NCAAs. 

“I didn’t know where Natchitoches was. I didn’t even know how to say it,” Gore said. “They knew how to win, they just had never gotten across the line.” 

Less successful was his time in Troy, in the powerful Sun Belt, and Gore resigned because he felt his sport wasn’t a departmental priority. Now he’s landed at UM. 

“There were a lot of jobs open. I only applied for jobs that fit me in terms of the winning culture,” he said. “I wasn’t going to chase conference logos. I don’t think that will fulfill you.” 

Gore is the fifth coach in program history, with three of the first four winning multiple Big Sky championships and going to the NCAA tournament. 

Under former coach Chris Citowicki, Montana won regular-season championships in 2019 and the spring of ’21, then the last three, going 18-1-5 in league in 2023, ’24 and ’25. Citowicki capped his tenure with a trip to the NCAA tournament in November before stepping down in December to take over at Washington State. 

“I’m not scared. We wear the crown. We have to own it,” said Gore, whose spring roster numbers just 13 players, including junior forward Reagan Brisendine out of Glacier High.  

“I’m jumping out of my skin to work with this team and feed off their hunger. I’m not about taking part. I want to take over and Montana is a place where you can take over. It’s a special place with a lot of history. My job is to carry on the history and carry on the dynasty.”