FEATURED: Byrd's the Word

COLUMBIA FALLS — When the revival rolled into the canyon, the strapping, dark-haired man spoke his message with passion.

He spoke of love and togetherness, and he spoke with confidence, humility and gratitude. He wore his heart proudly on his sleeve, by his own admission, and it made him a magnet.

The people, they flocked to him.

“I was star-struck,” a youngster gushed.

“He was just a visionary,” a longtime disciple recalled. “I started to see how he did things. He had such a great balance of being cool with the guys but being such an authoritative figure at the right time. It’s something to aspire to be like.”

O’Brien Byrd, the half-Irish, half-Chippewa business owner/community activist/father/husband/coach, sermonizes via the sport of soccer in Columbia Falls these days, and his latest team is two wins away from the school’s first state championship in more than a decade.

BYRD IS NO PREACHER but the man’s magnetism could turn tides.

The 39-year-old is physically intimidating, his tree-trunk legs and torso seemingly better suited for the gridiron than the pitch, and he talks rhythmically and emphatically, punctuating his points with a wry smile.

Ryan Billiet, the Glacier boys soccer coach, Byrd’s former assistant at Whitefish and the disciple quoted above, remembered first seeing Byrd as an opponent at a recreational league soccer match.

“He was a very intimidating defender,” Billiet said. “He was just this scary-looking guy. He did a flip-throw unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. He could flip-throw the ball 30 yards and he just asserted himself as the leader of his men’s team.”

Billiet has been at the helm of the Wolfpack program for three years now but still speaks with reverence about his former boss.

“There is no better mentor, no better coach in the Valley than O’Brien,” he said. “He transcends communities. He starts things from the ground up and he makes a legacy. He is such a positive influencer. He takes coaching to the next level.”

Billiet went on to describe a call he received from Byrd last Thursday, before the Wolfpack’s 3-1 win over crosstown rival Flathead.

“When I heard from him last Thursday, it was one of the most calming, intense conversations I’ve ever had on the way to the office,” he said. “When a guy has that type of influence on you as a coach and as a person it really turns your day into something more. It sets the tone for the day.”

IF BYRD CAN HAVE that influence on a peer, imagine the impact he has had on his charges, boys soccer players at Whitefish and Columbia Falls he has mentored for the last 14 years, or the countless others who have worked and played with his club team, the Flathead Rapids.

But Byrd doesn’t see the relationship as so one-sided.

“I’m the fortunate one,” Byrd said. “I really believe that. I feel so blessed and so humbled by the opportunity and the privilege to be around high school kids. That’s why I coach.

“All of a sudden, one day, I’m at the altar standing up for one of my former players as he gets married, or going to a baptism for one of his kids, or writing a letter of recommendation because he’s going to apply for a job. It’s life-long relationships and it’s amazing.”

Byrd talks endlessly about his passion for youth, about creating “good people and hard workers” and explaining what motivates his work.

“If I ever get to a point where, you know, I’m depressed after a bad season in terms of results or all I want to do is win all the time, or just for the trophies, I promise you I’ll step away from the game and it will be someone else’s turn.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that Byrd’s trophy case is empty.

WHITEFISH SOCCER WAS one of the true Montana powerhouses under Byrd’s watch. The Bulldogs won four state championships (2006, 2007, 2011 and 2012) and went 126-40-15 in 12 seasons. Byrd was feted plenty, too, taking home the National Soccer Coaches Association’s Division II national Coach of the Year award in 2013.

“I was star-struck,” Columbia Falls sophomore Auguste Emond said of meeting Byrd that same year. “Just the way he asserted himself and projected himself to others and what he had going for him.

“Julian (Emond’s older brother) told me about the national coaching award and I was like ‘no way, I met him like two weeks ago!’ That’s when I started to understand, like, this guy’s the real deal.”

Byrd came back to his alma mater before the start of the 2015 season and inherited a program in need of a boost. The Wildcats had not even made a state tournament in any of the seven prior seasons and his players were, to put it kindly, works in progress.

“I remember that first summer practice I was absolutely terrible,” senior Logan Stephens said. “(Byrd) would be demonstrating and he would ask me to pass him the ball and I couldn’t pass the ball 10 yards away.”

Stephens played soccer for the first time last season, as a junior in high school, and under Byrd’s watch has gone from total neophyte to the Wildcats leading scorer with 17 regular season goals this year.

“I was so bad and I knew I was bad so I could get down on myself sometimes,” Stephens said. “But (Byrd) was always there to pick me up when I was having a rough practice or just couldn’t seem to hit the ball right. He’s always encouraging, always talking to me about what I can do better.”

“When I first saw Logan at the soccer fields last year, I just looked past that he couldn’t pass the ball 10 yards,” Byrd said. “I knew that he was a good kid and he was not only going to be one of the best players on the soccer team, even last year, but he was going to be a leader as well.”

BYRD’S PENCHANT FOR developing stars like Stephens is born out of his own philosophies, both in life and sport.

“Focus on the kids, develop characters and those championships, those wins, they’ll come,” Byrd said. “You can’t focus on winning. That’s going to come when you put out kids that have all those characteristics. They’re going to win games because, man, they know what it’s like to succeed and you need all those things to succeed in life.

“These times for these high school kids will go quickly,” he added. “And for them to look back on seasons and go ‘gosh, we had so much fun and maybe we didn’t win a state championship but man we had a great season, I learned a lot about myself, I learned to work as part of a team and made life-long friendships on that team, too.’”

COLUMBIA FALLS ENTERS Saturday’s Class A state semifinal match at home against Belgrade with a 12-1-1 record and with a chance to avenge their only loss, a 6-3 defeat in Belgrade on Sept. 9. A win would put the Wildcats in the state championship match for the first time since their last title, in 2005.

“I feel like we can go all the way and win a state championship,” Stephens said. “I think everyone on the team wants it really, really bad.”

Whether or not the Wildcats reach that goal this year won’t define their season, especially in Byrd’s eyes, but it doesn’t appear that this year’s run will be the last time he finds himself and his team in the hunt.

“Anybody here in the Valley watching O’Brien Byrd, through the Flathead Rapids and now to Columbia Falls, it’s just fantastic,” Billiet said. “It’s pretty special. I don’t know if non-soccer people realize what’s going on.”

Saturday’s match at Flip Darling Field is scheduled to begin at noon.