BILLINGS — This past spring, Steve Nieto made the trip to Lacey, Wash., to watch his daughter Marleigh and her Montana State Billings softball teammates play against Saint Martin’s University.

Rain showers, though, seemed to have put a damper on this trip. While officials made on-and-off decisions of whether to get the game in, Nieto, sitting in the stands, heard a voice from behind him pose a question during one of the delays.

“Why are those girls not playing,” a woman asked, pointing to the softball dugouts, “but those girls behind us are?”

Nieto turned around to look at the adjacent field and saw a women’s flag football team was going through a practice. When Billings Public Schools made the decision to add girls flag football to its Senior, Skyview and West athletic portfolios this

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