After a distinguished career, Columbia Falls High School football coach Jaxon Schweikert announced his retirement from football.

Schweikert led the Wildcats to the playoffs in every season but one during his tenure as head coach, including three championship appearances and the school’s first ever state A championship in 2017.

He went 80-37 over his 12 years at the helm of the football program.

Schweikert considered coaching one more year, but he said the team has a lot of upcoming talent that he would have wanted to see through high school.

“If I did one more year I’d have to do three,” he said. “I thought it would be really hard to do (just) one year.”

The Wildcats are coming off a state A championship game that they lost to Dillon by a single point, and while many will graduate, a core still remains, including a solid offensive line, runningback Reggie Sapa and Banyan Johnson, who played the backup roll behind Cody Schweikert last season and also came in for a few key plays during the playoffs.

“I feel like the team is in a good place,” Schweikert said.

Schweikert has been coaching football since 1991 and came here from Washington State.

He’s a bit tired, he admitted.

“I can honestly say I worked on football every single day,” of his 12 years as head coach.

It’s been a family affair over the years, as his wife, Suzy, helps out and films every game. Schweikert coached his two sons. Ike, who went on to start at Montana Tech, and Cody, who will start in a new chapter in college for the University of Montana Grizzlies as a quarterback this fall. His daughter KJ was a standout pitcher for the Wildkats and pitched for Providence in college and his youngest daughter Hannah, was a standout volleyball player for the Kats and now plays for Carroll College.

He said it’s been an rewarding journey.

“We hope we’ve had a positive impact and established core values to the program,” Schweikert said.

He said his philosophy over the years centered on players, whether they were the most talented or were destined to be backups.

“Every kid deserved our best effort,” he said.

He said his great team of assistants over the years made a huge difference — Kelly Houle, Ron LaTray, Jamie Heinz, Josiah Osborne, Austin Green and the late Bill Sapa to name a few. Green was the quarterback on the 2017 championship team.

He said it was difficult coaching last year without Sapa, who died unexpectedly of heart failure in April of last year.

“It was hard coaching without Billy,” he said.

Now that he’s not coaching he’s looking forward to watching his daughter Hannah play college volleyball and will get down to Missoula to watch the Grizzlies. Cody is expected to red shirt his freshman year, but Jaxon will try to watch some practices.

As far as his successor, Schweikert said he expects several of his assistants to apply for the head coaching job.

He thanked the community, the parents and all the other support he’s had over the years in Columbia Falls. He also thanked vice principal John Thompson and athletic director Troy Bowman.

He said Thompson “was relentless in helping behind the scenes.”

Schweikert added it was a blessing for him and his family when they came here 12 years ago and he will continue to teach at the high school.

“This is our permanent home,” he said.