The Great Falls Public Schools board voted May 11 to establish student activity accounts for girls’ flag football at both Great Falls and C.M. Russell high schools.
All new extracurricular fund accounts much be approved by the board, per board policy.
The accounts will hold grant funds from the Arthur Blank Family Foundation and other donations, according to GFPS officials, which will be used to finance the flag football program.
Lance Boyd, assistant superintendent, told The Electric that the district was approved for $15,000 per school for the first year from the Blank Family Foundation.
He said they’ll have to apply for those funds each year, but that other districts in Montana that received first-year funding were approved for the second year.
The district has also applied for a grant of up to $30,000 through Under Armour and is awaiting word whether that’s been approved.
Boyd said the district has enough funding through the Blank Family Foundation to fund the program for the first year and has opened the coaching positions for applications.
The school board voted in March to establish girls’ flag football as a club activity under the athletic director for the next two school years.
Boyd told the board in March that the proposed flag football budget for its short six to seven-week season is just shy of $15,000 per school per year.
“GFPS is very confident that Arthur Blank Grant will cover the costs of each of the first two years of this club activity,” according to the GFPS staff report.
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Blank is the owner of the Atlanta Falcons football team and co-founder of The Home Depot.
Mike Henneberg, GFPS athletic director, told the board during their March 9 meeting that Blank is a part-time resident of the Paradise Valley and first offered funding for girls flag football to Montana school districts five years ago.
Boyd told the school board in March that their intention was to use the Under Armour funding as seed money to start flag football if it becomes a Montana High School Association-sanctioned sport in a few years.
The district has been discussing the emerging sport for the last five years and for the last six months, studying the level of interest among middle and high school students.
Henneberg told the board during their March 9 meeting that the opportunity for flag football came to Montana through the Arthur Blank Family Foundation.
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He said that three schools participated the first year and the sport has grown exponentially since in Montana and nationally.
Blank has been funding and promoting girls’ flag football through the Atlanta Falcons, an effort that has spread to other NFL franchises, Henneberg said earlier this month.
Girls’ flag football is now sanctioned as a high school sport in 15 states and piloted in 22 states, including Montana.
It was featured during the Super Bowl and will be a sport during the 2028 Olympics, Henneberg said, also emerging at the NCAA collegiate level.
Girls flag football is currently a club sport in Kalispell, Butte, Missoula, Billings and some Class A-C schools, he said, with Bozeman, Belgrade, Helena and Great Falls considering it, pending board approval.
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Henneberg said he doesn’t anticipate it being a sanctioned high school sport for a few more years, but adding it as a club sport would give the district time to grow the program and prepare for that change.
The district surveyed students and families for grades 7-12 in the fall, with 417 students and 86 parents responding.
Henneberg said 160 students indicated they were interested or very interested in girls’ flag football, and 108 indicated they would participate if the club sport was offered.
“We feel there’s adequate interest in continuing the conversation,” Henneberg said.
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He said the district could build a program within the Arthur Blank grant funding amounts, and the Under Armour grant award.
Henneberg told the board during the March 9 meeting that the district has existing facilities and student interest for club girls’ flag football, and he’s worked out a 10-game schedule to start, with two road trips so travel would be limited.
The season would be similar to golf, from August to early October and coach salaries would mirror golf, he said.
At this point, adding the club sport won’t affect Title 9 for GFPS, but if it’s added as a sanctioned sport, the district would have to review those numbers to ensure compliance.
Henneberg said he didn’t want to add something that would affect existing girls sports, but over the last five years, there hasn’t been a big change in girls sports numbers.
He said he’s seen some girls who want to play volleyball, but have limited opportunity to make the team, and those who don’t are playing other girls’ sports.
Citywide, Henneberg said there’s a large number of kids who want to do something active and competitive in the fall if they don’t make the volleyball team, but aren’t playing sports, so girls flag football might provide that opportunity.
The powder puff game at C.M. Russell High School is popular, he said, which shows interest in girls’ flag football.
District officials have had some internal conversations about how the sport would be sustained once the three-year foundation grant ends, and Henneberg said during the March 9 meeting that they have some ideas and are exploring other funding opportunities.
