More than a year ago, the Montana High School Association had a small problem — no one bid to host the Class B-C state tournament in the spring of 2016.

Flathead High School had already been picked as the host of the Class AA tourney so the school’s principal, Peter Fusaro, raised his hand at an MHSA committee meeting with an idea.

“He said ‘well, we’re hosting one, we might as well host two’,” Braves Activities Director Bryce Wilson joked.

Thus this weekend’s two-tournament, one-site softball extravaganza was born, a three-day, four-field, up to 30-game deluge of high school action that begins at 2 p.m. today at the Conrad Complex with eight scheduled day one contests. Glacier begins defense of its Class AA title against Billings West and Ronan — top-seeded out of Western B-C — starts with Huntley Project. Both games are scheduled for 2 p.m.

Speaking of deluge, today’s action was in jeopardy as recently as 48 hours ago when the region was pounded by rains that caused flooding, shut down roads and wreaked havoc on outdoor sports. Thanks to the work of Flathead County groundskeepers and staff at the high school, however, this weekend’s action is slated to proceed as scheduled despite additional rainfall on Wednesday night.

“Bob Tuman (Flathead County Recreation Supervisor) has put in a lot of effort,” Wilson said.

“He’s really worked on (the fields) for two straight days. We’ve had good sun so that has been nice and he’s been on them 12 hours both (Tuesday and Wednesday).”

School and county officials will be on site again at 8 a.m. today and expect to put in long hours to pull off the event.

“As long as it takes,” Wilson said.

Hosting a pair of state tournaments at the same time is unusual enough, but this is also the first time Flathead and Conrad Complex have hosted a tournament since before the schools split. The tournament was back in Kalispell in 2012, but that year Glacier was the host and the games were played at Kidsports Complex.

While working to prepare for the tournament, Wilson reached out to a pair of fellow activities directors — Mark Dennehy at Glacier and Gary DeGooyer at Great Falls High — with experience hosting the softball tournament and sought the counsel of former Wolfpack assistant softball coach Mark Fischer.

“(Fischer) and I sat down and he had a great list of things that are important to coaches, to make sure these things are right,” Wilson said. “It’s the details as far as the fields. You want to make sure your pitching area is done right … make sure that everything’s 60 feet not 60 feet and a half. The grounds crew down here, they went through and re-measured everything like that.”

The challenges of hosting two state tournaments extend beyond field preparation, too. Wilson expects more than 35 workers to be on site during the games and the hosts have even brought in six additional portable toilets to accommodate the crowds. Flathead must also deal with a scarcity of parking at Conrad Complex and has worked with the city to allow fans to park at nearby Woodland Park and walk to the game fields.

Despite the extra work involved, Wilson and Flathead are happy to showcase the school and the town, and hope a successful tournament will lead to additional opportunities down the road.

“I enjoy watching the kids participate and the spirit of competition,” Wilson said. “If the coaches are happy and if (MHSA Executive Director Mark) Beckman’s happy with it, it’s a success and hopefully we can host another one in the future. We want the state to know we’re serious about hosting state tournaments.”

Glacier (18-5) enters the tournament playing its best softball of the year and riding an 11-game winning streak. The Wolfpack routed Missoula Hellgate 9-1 and 11-1 in a pair of play-in games last week and features the state’s most dominant player in senior pitcher Ali Williams. She enters the tournament with a 17-4 record, 0.40 ERA and 271 strikeouts in 140 innings in the circle. Williams is also Glacier’s leading hitter with a .500 average, .648 on-base percentage, 11 home runs and 27 walks in 23 games.

The Wolfpack hits the diamond at 2 p.m. today and, with a win, would advance to take on either Great Falls C.M. Russell or Helena at 10 a.m. on Friday. The Rustlers (19-2) are the Eastern AA conference champions and beat Glacier, 3-1, on April 9 in both teams’ first game.

Tournament play at Conrad Complex will run through Saturday, with championship games scheduled for noon.

Class AA state softball tournament

Thursday

At Conrad Complex (Kalispell)

First round

2 p.m. — 1E Great Falls C.M. Russell vs. 4W Helena

2 p.m. — 2W Glacier vs. 3E Billings West

4 p.m. — 1W Missoula Big Sky vs. 4E Billings Senior

4 p.m. — 2E Great Falls vs. 3W Helena Capital

Class B-C state softball tournament

Thursday

At Conrad Complex (Kalispell)

First round

2 p.m. — 1W Ronan vs. 4E Huntley Project

2 p.m. — 2E Glasgow vs. 3W Florence

4 p.m. — 1E Conrad vs. 4W Plains

4 p.m. — 2W Anaconda vs. 3E Columbus