Troy Bowman has a sign in his office that sums up the longtime activities director’s job succinctly, “nobody knows what I do until I don’t do it.”

Bowman, after 30 years in the district and 13 as athletic director will retire at the end of the school year. His replacement, Madison Wheeler has been hired to fill his position. Wheeler grew up in Thompson Falls and was a teacher and activities director there before moving to Columbia Falls, where’s she’s been teaching business classes.

She has an undergraduate degree from Montana State University and a master’s degree from Northern Arizona University.

She is the fiancé of teacher and coach Austin Barth.

Wheeler has been spending the past several months shadowing Bowman in his duties, and said when she was activities director in Thompson Falls it exposed her to work that she really enjoys.

The role as activities director is often a thankless one and most often behind the scenes. One does everything from hiring coaches to scheduling and making sure there are enough officials and staff to actually put on a game. There are all sorts of ways things can go wrong. For example, this week a baseball game had to be rescheduled to Monday because there weren’t enough umpires to call the game on Tuesday, Bowman noted.

Sometimes things can get downright sticky, like the year Bowman had to go to Whitefish and take the state A trophy in speech and debate from them, as there had been an error in tallying the scores. Coach Tara Norick called Bowman in the wee hours of the morning and found the error. Bowman, after consulting with the Montana High School Association and coaches, went and got the trophy and presented to the Wildcat team, which was thrilled to win it.

Bowman started his career in Columbia Falls in 1996 as a physical education teacher and athletic trainer. He still teaches sports medicine at the school.

When he started, the high school gym had eight banners hanging on the walls, today it has 53, a testament to the great coaches that have led programs over the years.

That’s what impressed Wheeler, she noted many former athletes have returned to the alma mater to teach and coach. Columbia Falls is a great place to have a career and raise a family.

“I’m so excited,” Wheeler said of the challenge ahead. “It’s up my alley.”

Wheeler takes the helm of the program officially on Aug. 10. She noted there are more sports in Columbia Falls than Thompson Falls. All told, Columbia Falls has 18 head coaches and more than 70 assistants.

One of the challenges in the coming months will be hiring a new head basketball coach, as Chris Finberg resigned at the end of the season.

Wheeler will also work closely with the Booster Club and Wildcat Athletic Endowment as well.

Days can be long with this post, often starting at 6 a.m. and ending well after 9 p.m. on nights where there’s home basketball or football games.

Bowman’s most memorable moment in his career actually came before he was activities director, he said. He and nurse Cathy Dragonfly saved the life of Cole Brown, a student who went into cardiac arrest. They used an automatic defibrillator and CPR to bring him back to life. 

At the time the district had four of the Afib machines. Today it has 21, Bowman noted.