BILLINGS — John Simpson has been named the new head football coach at Billings Skyview High School.
School District 2 activities director Mark Sulser announced the hiring via email on Tuesday evening. Simpson spent the past two seasons as the Falcons' defensive coordinator.
He replaces previous coach Nathan Wahl, who stepped down after six years to pursue a job in administration.
Simpson, 49, has spent the past 20 years teaching U.S. history and sociology at Skyview. He has a long coaching track record as an assistant at both the high school and college levels.
After playing defensive back at Rocky Mountain College, Simpson spent nine seasons on the Skyview staff under then-coach Ron Lebsock. Simpson then won an NAIA national title in 2010 coaching defensive backs at Carroll College for Mike Van Diest in 2010.
He came back to Skyview for the 2011 and 2012 seasons, then spent the 2013 season coaching at Joliet. Simpson transitioned back to Class AA at Billings West for the next six seasons. He returned to Skyview in 2020, went back to West in 2021, then returned to Skyview again in 2022.
In the past six seasons the Falcons posted a 6-49 overall record. It's Simpson's turn now to try to breathe new life into the program.
"We're going to use the 'TEAM' acronym — T is for toughness, E is for energy, A is for accountability and M is for mental focus," Simpson said. "We're going to try to attack each day as best we can as an individual and as a team, and try to drag this thing out and make the boys as competitive as we can."
