New Columbia Falls’ head football coach Jax Schweikert will be looking to pick up the pace for the Wildcats this season.

“We’re a spread team — no huddle, wristband,” Schweikert said.

The Mount Vernon, Wash., transplant averaged 449 yards a game last season at Mount Vernon High School, losing in the second round of the playoffs. He coached there for four seasons.

Schweikert, whose wife Suzy grew up in Kalispell, said he and his family were looking to get back to small town life.

“We wanted a little bit smaller school to get out of the big town all of the big traffic,” Schweikert said. “So we saw this job and we were pretty excited about the quality of life the Flathead provides.”

The former Idaho State football player said his goal is to make the Wildcats more explosive.

“We’re big into the weight room and developing our type of athlete,” Schweikert said. “We don’t try to get the kid that can bench 400 pounds yet he can’t move. We really work hard on explosion and quickness and core strength. We try to make them just all-around athletes.”

He said the offense’s goal is to move fast and spread the ball around.

“It’s a fun offense,” Schweikert said. “It’s fun to coach and it’s really fun to play ... The very first game (at Mount Vernon) I think we had 14 different guys catch a ball and eight different guys run a ball.”

Schweikert, who has a son that will be a sophomore this season along with daughters in the eighth and fourth grades and a second grade son, will teach physical education at the high school.

“We have some veteran coaches back,” Schweikert said. “It sounds like they’ve always been really good defensively here. If we can kinda get the offense going a little bit I think we can have a pretty decent season.”