The Kalispell flag football teams are getting new neighbors. 

The Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees on Tuesday unanimously approved the addition of girls flag football at all three of Missoula’s Class AA high schools. 

The sport has been around for three seasons in Montana, and Glacier High School has won the state championship each year. Crosstown rival Flathead was runner-up the first two years, and that success helped get the ball rolling in Missoula, Hellgate High activities director Nick Laasch told the Daily Inter Lake. 

“I think a big part of our talk here in Missoula was how popular it’s been up in Kalispell, and in the Flathead Valley,” Laasch said Wednesday. “We were excited to get involved and excited for another opportunity for our kids to be involved.” 

The sport will be funded for the first three years by a grant from the Atlanta Falcons Arthur M. Blank Foundation. The same foundation provided grants to get the Glacier and Flathead programs going. 

Glacier coach Mark Kessler had wondered out loud why more schools were not taking advantage of the funding. 

Laasch said he could only speak for Hellgate but said that the support took a while to build. “This was the first year that I was starting to feel like there was some community support for it,” he said. “That’s what I was waiting on. Once I heard that I thought, ‘OK, it’s time for us to go.’ 

The 2024 season saw 17 teams; Missoula Sentinel activities director Josh Jannusch told 406mtsports.com that number could grow to at least 30 this fall. That includes the Sentinel Spartans, Big Sky Eagles and Hellgate Knights. 

“I just submitted the grant application to the Falcons today,” Laasch said.