Bill Coleman, an assistant football coach at Columbia Falls High School for the past three seasons, has been named the Wildcats' head coach.

Coleman replaces John Thompson, who guided the school to back-to-back playoff appearances the last two seasons. Thompson resigned last fall after six seasons.

"It's an excellent situation for me and the kids," Coleman said.

"We know each other, we share goals, we share objectives. So the transition will be pretty smooth for all of us."

Coleman was the Wildcats offensive and defensive line coach and assisted with special teams. He has 22 years of coaching experience.

Coleman was the head football coach at Hardin for three seasons (2000-02) and at Poplar for two (1998-99).

"We had relative success," he said of his stay at Hardin.

"We were a playoff team my last year there."

Coleman said his brief stop at Poplar "was a building process."

Originally from Denver, Coleman has lived in Montana for 15 years. He moved to Columbia Falls five years ago.

Coleman coached football in Denver for seven years.

"We had the good fortune to retain everybody that was with us last year," Coleman said of the assistant coaches.

"We might have a few positions to fill."

Coleman says his offensive and defensive approach will be based on personnel.

"Some of the stuff we ran last year," he said

"I'm a wing-T guy at heart. I'm founded in that, but we'll do a lot of different things.

"We have some really good kids here, willing to work," he added.

"They're excited about football. That makes the transition for me a whole lot better."

Coleman teaches U.S. History and geography at the high school.