Byrd tapped as Wildcats soccer coach

The longtime boys soccer coach for the Whitefish Bulldogs is coming home. Monday night, the Columbia Falls School District 6 Board of Trustees approved the hiring of O’Brien Byrd as the Wildcats’ new coach.

Byrd grew up playing for the Cats in high school but made his coaching mark in Whitefish. Last year, he was named National Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

“It just makes sense,” he said. “I grew up here. I was a member of the first sponsored Columbia Falls soccer team my sophomore year.”

Byrd and his wife Melanie have three children who attend Ruder Elementary School, Zoey, Cash and Riley. He has owned O’Brien’s Liquor and Wine in Columbia Falls for the past 10 years.

Byrd started coaching the Bulldogs in 2003 and led them to state titles in 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2012. The Bulldogs had back-to-back undefeated seasons in 2006 and 2007 and at one point had a 42-game winning streak. Twenty-one of his players went on to play soccer in college, he said.

Byrd graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1995 and earned a soccer scholarship at McPherson College in Kansas, where he earned bachelor’s in elementary education. He captained his college team in his junior and senior years and started in every game but one during his college career.

Byrd returned home in 1999 and became the assistant soccer coach and junior varsity coach at Columbia Falls for one season.

In 2002, he was the head assistant coach at Middletown High School in Pennsylvania, where his team finished as state semifinalists. He also signed a professional soccer contract with the Reading Rage and played for them that spring, but after sustaining an injury, Byrd returned to the Flathead in 2003 to coach at Whitefish.

Byrd is also the president of the Flathead Rapids, a club soccer program for youths through adults that plays throughout the year. The Rapids took over the Columbia Falls youth recreational soccer league two years ago.

Byrd will replace Peter Browne, who resigned last month after a long and successful tenure at Columbia Falls.

The boys soccer program has seen some rough seasons in the past few years. Last year, the Cats went 2-10, and the number of boys going out for soccer in Columbia has faltered in the past few years. Byrd knows there’s a long road ahead.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of work.”