Glacier High School Flag Football to Represent Montana on National Stage

Ever since flag football’s first season in Montana in fall 2022, Glacier High School has led the pack, capturing a state title in each year of competition.

This weekend, however, the state’s back-to-back-to-back-to-back champions will make the leap to the national scene and test their mettle against the rapidly growing sport’s top teams and players at the inaugural MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown.

The tournament, which will take place in San Diego, Calif., will include eight programs featured in this week’s MaxPreps Top 25. More than a dozen players expected to participate in the showcase were MaxPreps All-Americans in 2025, with several national record-breakers and standouts who have represented their country in international competition in the mix.

For Wolfpack Head Coach Mark Kessler, the goal for the weekend is simple: “go and compete.”

“To win would be, I think, a little too lofty,” Kessler said. “But I will say, our first opponent, we can beat them if we play our game. If you get the first win, you never know. And getting a win would be huge for these girls.

“Hey, we’re just going to try and go see what we can do.”

The win-loss columns is only a small piece of the historic weekend, which Kessler said is a prime opportunity to get more eyes on the Montana flag football landscape as a whole.

“This isn’t about us per se in the sense of Glacier. I think this is an opportunity for here in Montana; for a growing sport,” Kessler said. “I think flag football is played well here. There’s been some great teams, and I’m not talking about, ‘oh we won.’ I’m talking about every team that we’ve faced has improved, been good, been great competitions.”

“What a great opportunity for the state of Montana to just put a little bit of a stamp in the national scene for maybe colleges to say, ‘hey, there’s some girls that can play up there. We need to go get them,’” he added. “We’ve had a couple [girls] go this last year for scholarships, and I think that number is just going to continue to grow, which is super exciting. It’s about opportunity, and if we can give our girls an opportunity, that’s awesome.”

In June, MaxPreps announced a partnership with the International Flag League (formerly USA Flag) to launch a two-part national invitational tournament designed to establish the first rankings-backed, media-scaled championship stage for high school flag football. This first tournament will take place Sept. 11-12 at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, with a second East Coast event planned for Spring 2027. 

The September showcase will feature an 18-team field that will compete in pool play on Friday before bracket play commences the next day, culminating in championship matchup at 4:10 p.m. on Saturday. 

The 18 tournament debutants include the top four ranked teams in the country, as well as the No. 14, 20, 22 and 25-ranked teams, according to MaxPreps. If the Wolfpack win their first game Friday, their next game will likely be a meeting against the nation’s No. 1 team, JSerra Catholic High School of San Juan Capistrano, California.

Conversations about putting together such a showcase began about a year ago, with the tournament starting to actually come to fruition this spring, Kessler, who used to coach flag football in California, said. When MaxPreps reached out to Kessler’s former school, San Ramon Valley, about its potential participation, the Wolves suggested they also take a look at the Wolfpack about 1,100 miles north. 

“They called San Ramon. San Ramon then said, ‘hey, you should call my friend up in Montana,’” Kessler said. “So he called us, and that’s how it came about. It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind since.”

“It’s based on past performance, which is never good because every year is a new year,” Kessler added about how the Wolfpack got the showcase invite. “I mean, are we the best Montana has to offer? Not by any means right now. There’s some great new schools that are playing. It’s super exciting. But that’s what they went off of in offering us to come.”

The Wolfpack will be one of two schools from outside California traveling to compete in the tournament, with Central High School in Phenix City, Alabama, who comes in at No. 2 in this week’s MaxPreps Top 25 ranking, also making the cross-country journey.

The Alabama and Montana squads have both been backed by the Atlanta Falcons, who has been one of the driving forces behind girls high school flag football’s nationwide growth. The Falcons, in partnership with the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, launched a pilot high school flag football program in Georgia in 2018, and has since expanded its reach to neighboring Alabama and Montana. Blank, a business man who was one of the founders of Home Depot, is the owner of the Falcons and owns multiple ranches in Montana.

“You’ve got the opportunity for the Falcons to kind of shine in what they’ve done,” Kessler said. “Because they’ve really been at the forefront of this movement, even ahead of the NFL. So it’s kind of exciting for them.”

Through the Falcons and fundraising within the community, the Wolfpack will enjoy a fully funded trip, which includes a stay at the state-of-the-art Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, which has played host to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic trials.

“The opportunity to do that, the experience these girls will get … you know, you can’t promise even a high school football team or a player a college-type experience like that,” Kessler said. “To be able to give that to the girls in year five of playing a new sport is pretty amazing.”

For Kessler, the tournament represents yet another stride forward in a five-year journey of growth and countless breakthroughs for the sport in the Treasure State.

“I think the biggest milestone is that in the AA division, it’s grown to all 16 teams,” Kessler said, reflecting on flag football’s fifth season in Montana. “We played the first weekend against two brand new teams that did fantastic. Those are two really good games. You know, we won one, lost one.”

“It’s awesome to see its growth,” he added. “Those two teams, Capital, first year 46 girls. Helena was right there around 35, 40. Any school that decides to give it a try will be shocked at the girls that’ll come out. They think it steals girls from other sports. It doesn’t. It gives girls that don’t have a sport an opportunity.”

The Glacier Wolfpack flag football team opens play in the MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown at 5:10 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11 against West Park High School of Roseville, Calif. To stream the game, click here. For more information on the showcase and to watch all the weekend’s action, click here. 

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