Lights will go up on soccer fields next month

Columbia Falls High School soccer will soon be played under the lights. For the past five months, boys soccer coach O’Brien Byrd has been working diligently to have lights installed at the Flip Darling Fields.

Byrd said the impetus behind the lights was twofold. For one, students won’t miss much, if any, classroom time for night games, and secondly, more fans and parents can attend games.

Because of the short days in the fall, weekday soccer games had to start about 3 p.m. to get the final game done by dark. Even then, it was a close call for games in October. In addition, most fans and parents can’t get out of work at watch a game at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. is even too early for most people.

So Byrd went to work drumming up support for the lights. He was able to secure a Flathead Electric Co-op Roundup for Safety grant for four poles and the Co-op has also agreed to install them. In addition, electrician KJ Jones will donate his time to install the electric wiring. Byrd also approached developer Mick Ruis, owner of the Cedar Creek Lodge and Resort for support of the project.

Ruis agreed to fund the lights and a scoreboard at a cost of $45,000. The scoreboard, in turn, will advertise the lodge.

The Columbia Falls Board of Adjustment recently approved a zoning variance for the lights. All told, there will be 24 lights on four poles. The lights will be placed on the west side of the fields and will shine down on the surface, not toward homes.

They’re expected to arrive Sept. 13 and be installed by Sept. 15, Byrd said.

The schedule for night games after that is still in the works.

In the longer term, Byrd wants Columbia Falls to make its mark in the world of prep soccer.

“Soccer town Montana,” he’d like Columbia Falls to be known.

Byrd grew up here playing soccer. As a freshman, the sport was still in club status. In 1992 it was school sanctioned and he was a sophomore. He graduated in 1994. Back then, the Wildcats played AA schools as well as A schools.

Byrd said getting the lights and scoreboard was an enjoyable experience.

“It was a real pleasure,” he said. “I learned a lot about the process.”