After a distinguished 20 years, Trenerry retires as soccer coach

Longtime Columbia Falls girls soccer coach Greg Trenerry has retired and his daughter, Nicolette Bales, has also left the program.

Trenerry coached the girls team for 20 years and was a volunteer and youth coach for a dozen years before that.

His career record was 174-78-26.

Over the course of his career his teams made the playoffs 16 years, had two second-place finishes in 2012 and 2014, a third place finish in 2003 and one championship in 2004. The Wildkats won six of the last eight Northern A conference titles as well.

In 2014, in the state semifinal game against Billings Central, they broke the Lady Rams 50-plus game winning streak.

But Trenerry said it’s never been about him.

“It’s not about me,” he said. “I’d like to thank the school district. It’s a great place to coach. The athletic directors were always good to me.”

He said it’s been a very rewarding career and he said he was thankful he got to coach both of his daughters during his career and a host of great players over the years.

Trenerry coached Nicolette and his younger daughter Hauna when they played for Columbia Falls and later, he coached against Hauna when she was the coach of the Bigfork team. He coached the Wildkats with Nicolette as assistant for the past 15 years.

“I feel like the luckiest dad in the world,” he said.

He said coaching was very rewarding over the years.

“I enjoyed coaching,” he said. “I really did. I loved every minute of it.”

Trenerry is also an accomplished water color artist and owns Phyggs Deli in Columbia Heights with his wife, Lorrie.

Athletic Director Troy Bowman said a search for a replacement will begin this week.