Montana State Billings Cross Country/Track & Field Camps

Coaching Staff

Zachary Girard  |  Assistant Track/Cross Country Coach

Zachary Girard enters his second season as the assistant men's and women's track and field coach for jumps during the 2022-23 academic year.

Girard comes to MSUB with five years of high school track coaching experience and one yar of middle school cross country coaching experience. He was the assistant track and field coach for five years at Heart River High School, located in South Heart, North Dakota, where he coached jumpers, sprinters and relays.

As an athlete at Dickinson State University, Girard was a five-time All-North Star Athletic Conference selection in the high jump, long jump and the triple jump. He helped the Blue Hawks win eight conference team titles (four outdoor and four indoor), and was the program's Champion of Character recipient as a senior in 2018. Girard graduated from Dickinson State University in 2018 with a degree in University Studies.

Zachary is the older brother of MSUB track alum Isaiah Girard ('21), a two-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion who graduated with school records in the indoor and outdoor high jump, plus the indoor long jump. His father, Jerry Girard, works in the student health services department at MSUB.

Thomas Ebel |  Head Athletic Trainer

Thomas Ebel begins his 13th year as the head athletic trainer at Montana State University Billings in 2023-24 after serving five years (2006-2011) as the head athletic trainer and teacher at Clovis High School in Clovis, New Mexico.

At MSUB, Ebel is in charge of taking care of student-athletes on the men's soccer, men's basketball, and track and field squads, and oversees all 16 varsity athletic teams’ athletic training needs.

Before taking over at Clovis High, Ebel spent four years (2002-06) at Eastern Medical Associates (EMA) in Portales, New Mexico, where he was a physician extender and covered the local high schools. Part of his duties with EMA were designing core strength, rehabilitation and conditioning programs, performing fitness evaluations and orientations, developing athletic injury prevention and treatment programs, along with various other duties.

Prior to his time at EMA, Ebel spent six years (1995-2001) as the head athletic trainer and instructor at Concordia University Nebraska in Seward, Nebraska. At Concordia, Ebel created and developed the student athletic training program for the university. He also designed multiple programs and was responsible for all of the day-to-day operations of the training room.

Ebel received a Bachelor of Arts degree in exercise science from Concordia University Nebraska in 1994 then received a teaching certificate from Concordia in 2002. In 2004 he received his master's degree in athletic administration from Eastern New Mexico University.

Ebel is certified by the National Athletic Trainers Association as well as being CPR and AED certified. He also holds a certification as a Performance Enhancement Specialist.