Deck tapped for Glacier track

The Daily Inter Lake

A new experience.

Pending school board approval, longtime assistant coach Arron Deck has been hired as a head coach for the first time ? as head boys track coach at Glacier High School. He replaces Arie Grey, who leaves to become head football coach at Butte High.

"Arron brings a wide variety of coaching experiences to this position," said Glacier athletic director Mark Dennehy.

"His enthusiasm for athletics is unmatched. He loves getting up each and every day and teaching his students to get better," Dennehy said.

Deck teaches physical education at Glacier and also runs the school's strength program.

He has definitely put in his time as a coach ? 13 years experience as linebackers/defensive coordinator for football and 10 years in track.

Deck spent eight years at Billings Senior, two years at Missoula Big Sky and two years at Flathead before making the move last fall to Glacier. He's also coached track at Kalispell Junior High.

Track has been something of a new game to Deck.

"I grew up playing baseball and I didn't participate in track," he smiled.

But once he took it up, he dove wholeheartedly into the sport, coaching everything from pole vault to javelin to the sprints, triple jump and long jump.

"I tried to get as many events as I could," he said.

The program under Deck will closely resemble what happened this past spring at Glacier, he said.

"It's going to look a lot like what we did this year. We did a lot of teaching this year on expectations. We'll continue that and grew from there," he said.

"Coach Grey and I have very similar philosophies. We look at our first season here… there are a lot of successes. We worked well together, we coordinated well with the girls program. Coming out of that, we felt like we had a successful season," he said.

His biggest goal?

"Recruit and get the numbers up. I want to drive forward and keep building on what we've got going," he added.

"I want to get a lot of kids participating."

Deck and wife Rachel have four children ? Brady 9, Drew 6, Hannah 5 and Emily, 8 months.

"My wife, she's a trouper. Obviously, I couldn't do the things I do without her. She kind of runs the house," he said.