Whitefish football coach Ross stepping down

Chad Ross figured he might be done coaching a couple years ago, with his daughter Cailyn due to finish her collegiate volleyball career at Kean University.

Instead the veteran coach made it an even dozen years leading the Whitefish Bulldogs’ football program, before announcing this week he was retiring from coaching.

“Bittersweet,” the 50-year-old said Friday. “I’m fortunate enough that it can be bittersweet. It’s not like anyone asked me to leave, administration or parents. It was just time.”

Ross’s teams compiled a 62-53 record in his 12 seasons as coach, and his tenure witnessed the cyclical nature of high school sports. His first team, in 2010, went 1-8; his 2015 squad went 11-1 and won a State A championship, the school’s first since 1979; the Bulldogs went 1-7 in 2017 and were 7-3 last year.

“I’ve seen the whole ebb and flow,” Ross said. “We’ve been really good and pretty bad.”

Ross and his wife Nadine moved to Whitefish in 1998, buying the local Dairy Queen (they bought the one in Columbia Falls, which he still runs, two years later). Having played football at the University of Arizona, Ross almost immediately got on Scott Ferda’s staff at Whitefish.

“I opened the Dairy Queen in July and started coaching in August,” he said.

In 2001 Ross was on Ferda’s staff when Whitefish narrowly lost to Lewistown for the State A title. That team included receiver Aric Harris, who now serves as Whitefish’s activities director, and running back Alex Metzel. Those two in turn were assistants in 2015, a very memorable year.

“My son (Chaffin) was a senior, and Aric’s son was a senior,” Ross said. “You grew up with that group in a way.

“You look back at when you win one of those, but some of the best memories are the players who played maybe beyond their capabilities, because they believed in the game and loved the game. As you get older you realize winning isn’t everything; it’s the kids that call you back 15 years later and say, ‘Thanks.’”

Son Chaffin played football at Colorado School of Mines, Cailyn followed Chaffin through the halls of Whitefish High, matching his chemical engineering degree with her own from Kean in graphic design/media arts.

Camren graduated from Whitefish last spring and is now at the Naval Academy.

“You’re always a part of your kids’ lives,” said Ross, who resigned as science teacher after 10 years last year. “But whatever my youngest does, I want to be able to be there, and I can’t be half-in (on coaching).”

You could say he’s put down roots in the last 24 years, but they were already there: His dad Jerry played football at MSU with Whitefish’s Buck May; his mom is from Bozeman.

He’s happy to note that his entire staff is sticking around, and it’s logically the pool from which Whitefish will draw its next head coach. He’s thankful to have had former players like Brett Bollweg, Ryan Boyle, Luke May, Mac Roche, Gage Smith and Logan Wynn help out along the way.

He’s been around for generations, and the rosters prove it.

“Joe Akey was a player when I came here,” he said. “And I coached his son (Ashton) this year.

“I’m really fortunate. In 12 years as a head coach, I think I had one parent meeting. The support of the Whitefish community, taking our family and just supporting us, has been special.”