HAMILTON — The girls flag football season came to a close in Montana, and 2025 saw a lot of growth with the sport that concluded in Hamilton with this week's state championship tournament.
Flag football continued to grow exponentially this fall, as the sport grew from 17 schools participating, to 27, in its fourth year of existence. Not bad for a sport that had just three schools in its inaugural year.
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Kalispell Glacier has won state titles every single season, having won the previous three all-class tournaments, followed by becoming the first ever Class AA champ this week.
"I think the more important question is why do you think football is important to boys? Because girls have never had a chance, and now they do, and they love it," Glacier coach Mark Kessler said. "This is the only sport that they can emulate what they see on a Sunday. Yeah, they're not getting the big hits, but they're making great catches."
Glacier senior Karley Allen has been part of all of those titles, as the program has made history.
"It's great to be a role model for a lot of girls, especially leaving a huge legacy for a lot of the girls in Montana and getting to just be such a great program," Allen said. "It leaves a lot of faith and a lot of encouragement and stuff for the younger girls, especially some of the freshmen like that even got to play today."
The first championship of the day on Thursday went to the Hamilton Broncs, who hosted this year's state tournament, and with the win, got to be examples in their community for young girls and athletes who might one day be interested.
"We got some girls out there that can rival the skill-set that high school boys that they've been playing their whole lives," Hamilton coach Mitchell Wassam said. "So watching it grow and this win is huge for our community. We got to do this in front of a bunch of little girls that someday look up and go, man, I got to watch Hamilton Broncs win a state championship. I want to do that."
"Just like a different sport that no one's done before. And I wanted to try something new. So it was pretty cool," Hamilton senior Aubrey Korst said. "And then this year I was like, we got to win because we lost last year, but we won this year.
"It's really special to me. I will never forget the team that I played with and I love like the whole entire team. So it's pretty great."
This year was the first time champions were also crowned in different classifications, and Three Forks took home the Class B-C title in a thriller over Jefferson.
What made it special for the Wolves were knowing they only practice part-time, as a lot of the girls juggle two sports to make flag football work.
"It's really special and I'm just really proud and honestly honored because it's a big deal. I mean, that's history. That's history right there," Three Forks junior Maya Noble said. "It's been special because a lot of us do two sports and so we haven't gotten to practice as much as everyone, but just being able to show up, show out and come out here, have fun with each other and just play with each other, it's just been super special."
"I think people don't give girls enough credit for being more physical and especially in a state like Montana where, we're rugged. We go out, cowgirls, ranch workers, all sorts of rodeo queens, stuff like that," Three Forks coach Maree Hansen said.
"We're rugged. We want to get out there. We want to play. This is a physical game. People are running into each other. It's flag, but it's physical and they're not afraid of it."
Year four is in the books, and on it's current trajectory, the growth of flag football looks to continue going up, in what's been a fun addition for girl's sports in Montana.
