George Sherwood, a former standout athlete at Flathead High School who has been an assistant coach for three sports at Ronan, is the new head basketball coach for the Chiefs.

Ronan activities director Mitchell Wassam announced the move Thursday. Sherwood, a 2012 Flathead graduate, succeeds DJ Fish after spending two seasons as his assistant.

Fish is leaving for the boys basketball program at Browning, replacing the retiring Daniel Connelly.

“We are very fortunate to have George to fill our head boys basketball position, after Coach Fish took the head coaching job in Browning,” Wassam said via email. “He’s built a special bond with the kids in Ronan. He has the tools to be a successful head coach and lead our talented basketball players back to the state tournament.”

Fish coached the Chiefs for three seasons, going 28-31. Ronan went 6-13 this past season, and the top four scorers from that team — junior Marlo Tonasket, Jr., and Ted Coffman III, sophomore Josiah Misa and freshman Kolby Finley — are due to return.

“They’re all coming back,” Sherwood said on Saturday. “We have a lot of familiar faces. It’s not going to be like reinventing the wheel. We’re just looking to get everyone playing together.”

At Flathead he excelled in football and basketball. In 2010 he was first-team All-State in football at receiver; he was first team at punter and second team at receiver in 2011.

He was a two-time first-team selection for basketball from 2010-12, and in 2012 averaged a team-high 15.3 points while the Braves surged to the State AA championship, which they lost to Billings West.

Sherwood’s initial goal was to play basketball at Montana State out of high school. He ended up at Cochise (Junior) College for a semester, back at MSU and eventually at Montana Western of the Frontier Conference.

“Non-traditional to say the least,” he said. “I was 18 years old with a ton of opportunities.”

He played football for the Bulldogs, earning second-team all-Frontier honors at receiver and punter in 2017.

But basketball was always on his mind, and while he earned his degree in health and human performance he was coaching youth basketball in Dillon. “I’ve always been coaching,” he said.

This will be the first head coaching job for Sherwood, who before Ronan spent three seasons coaching three sports and teaching social studies and physical education in Plains.

He noted the impact that Fish has made on him in Ronan, along with that of his fellow coaches in Plains, Tyrel Allen and Mike Cole, and also his high school coach, Fred Febach.

“I’ll take a little bit of what I learned from them, and add what I believe in,” Sherwood, who notes his junior varsity team went 16-2 this past season. “I think we’ll be very competitive. But we have a long summer ahead of us.”