BILLINGS — Jetton Ailes spent 17 years fostering excellence on the girls basketball court at Billings Central, including the past 11 as head coach.
But Ailes has decided to step down from her role leading the program after more than 200 victories and three state championships, telling MTN Sports that she wants to wholly dedicate herself to her family.
"Is there ever a right time?" Ailes said during an interview with MTN Sports at Central's Nelles Activities Center on Monday. "This wasn't a decision that was taken lightly. I spent a lot of time praying about it, a lot of time reflecting.
"I need to focus on myself and my two little boys, because I don't get that time back. This place has been home for 17 years in some capacity. I miss it already, but it'll be good."
Ailes (née Meadors) leaves Central with a 209-46 record, a winning percentage of .820. She posted seven 20-win seasons, won seven Eastern division championships and claimed Class A state titles in 2020, 2024 and 2025.
Under her guidance, the Rams advanced to the state championship game in six of the past seven seasons. Ailes departs as the winningest coach in the history of a program that has been among Montana's best since the days of star player Shannon Cate in the 1980s.
Aside from the on-court achievements, Ailes sustained the program on a specific set of values.
"Success in between the sidelines speaks for itself, but it's what we built outside of that. It's the camaraderie, it's the relationships," she said. "I never set out to worry about wins and losses. I set out to challenge kids that they can do hard things, to put a standard in place and watch them reach it. My favorite thing, and I tell them all the time, was to watch them come in as freshmen and they're just babies, and to leave as mature young women who have left a program better than they found it.
"We talked a lot about foundation, and you don't create a foundation without great leadership. And for 11 years, we had kids that invested in a program with their whole heart, and winning was a byproduct of that. This was a family."
Ailes spent six years as an assistant coach at Central under both Jeff Malby and Levi Osborne, helping the team win state titles in 2010 and 2012, before taking over as head coach prior to the 2015-16 season.
She guided the Rams to a co-state championship in 2020 — sharing the trophy with Hardin when state tournaments were abruptly canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rams' first "true" title under Ailes came in 2024, a 41-38 victory over Bigfork. Central repeated the following year with a two-point win against Dillon.
The Rams were locked in fierce rivalries with the likes of Laurel, Hardin and Havre during Ailes tenure. Central lost state title games to Havre in 2021 (in double overtime) and 2022 before knocking off the Blue Ponies in the state semifinals in 2024 en route to the championship.
Havre denied the Rams a chance at a three-peat when the teams met again in the state championship game this past season.
Ailes noted the respect she has for former Havre coach Dustin Kraske and Hardin coach Cindy Farmer, who she says helped make her a better coach.
Ailes said of Kraske, who led Havre to six Class A championships before stepping down after the 2023-24 season: "I credit him with a lot of the heartbreak, but also a lot of the growth."
"Getting to the top is never easy. Staying there is even harder," Ailes said. "And there's always a target on your back when you wear green.
"But for me it was always (about) the climb. It was always the 'what we can do better.' A lot of people would tell me I'm never satisfied, and I don't think good coaches ever are. So you can be perfect and still not be perfect in someone's eyes. And that's what challenged us to be better. As good as we were, we were never good enough and we constantly challenge kids, and we held them to a high standard, and that's truly the foundation of what this program was."
Ailes is a 2005 graduate of Billings Senior High School, where she played for then-coach Amy Pfeifle and parlayed her basketball talent into a college career at Montana State Billings under Kevin Woodin.
Now, more than a decade after taking on the head coaching job at Central, Ailes leaves with her name firmly etched into one of Montana’s best girls basketball traditions. And though she said she is leaving the door open for a return to the sideline in the future, Ailes departs with a full heart, a decorated résumé and a legacy her players, her colleagues and her family can be proud of.
"That legacy started a long time ago. This goes way back to the '80s, not just what we did," Ailes siad. "We really tried to hone in on the tradition of what it means to wear green, and just to be able to contribute to that in the ways that we did, that's what matters most to me, leaving something better than you found it."
