The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) approved sanctioning wrestling for its female participants in an historic vote on May 17 making girls’ wrestling an official sport in the state. The sanctioned status makes it possible for girls high school wrestling teams to compete against one another for a state title.
The PIAA ruling will take effect for the 2023-24 season. The first PIAA girls state championship will take place next year in Hershey, which is where the boys’ tournament is held every year.
Pennsylvania Girls Wrestling announced the news via Twitter: “With a unanimous vote at today’s PIAA Board of Directors meeting, girls wrestling is officially sanctioned in Pennsylvania! PA wrestling family, we did it!”
The sanctioning was long in the making.
One hundred. This is the number of girls wrestling teams that had to be set in place before the PIAA would officially consider girls wrestling for a status of a sanctioned sport in the state.
Recently, that goal was met.
Not only was it met, but it was exceeded, with the latest total number of girls high school wrestling programs across the commonwealth reaching 111.
SanctionPA, a nonprofit organization focused on girls wrestling across the state, announced on Feb. 14 that this criteria for the state was met. SanctionPA thanked the wrestling community and enthusiasts on Facebook for their contributions during the journey to get to this point in the sanctioning process.
Since the state has met the number of 100 girls’ programs, the decision regarding the sanctioning took place during the PIAA board meeting in May.
With the sanctioning decision, Pennsylvania now joins the ranks with other states such as Alaska (2014), California (2011), Hawaii (1998), Tennessee (2015), Texas (1999) and Washington (2007).
Supporters of the sanctioning were anxiously awaiting the PIAA announcement.
“The girls wrestle each other, and they want it just as much as the boys do,” said former Valley Jr-Sr High School athletic director William “Muzzy” Colosimo. “So, you know, I think it’s pretty exciting for the state, I think it’s pretty exciting for the WPIAL and I know that when I was the athletic director over at Valley High School [in New Kensington] I was in favor.”
Athletic director Frank Vulcano of Canon-McMillan High School said girls wrestling is growing and he was hopeful the state moves to approve it as an official sport for next year.
“It’s the best in the country. The best wrestlers come out of this area, and it starts at [youth wrestling] level right here,” Vulcano said.
Canon-McMillan was among the first 100 schools to sponsor a girls’ team to be considered for sanctioning.
They were number 19 out of 100.
Female wrestlers were also invested in the growth and the potential of girls wrestling being sanctioned.
Braylee Ireland, 15, a freshman starter for Knoch varsity wrestling in Saxonburg, Western Pennsylvania, has noticed how much wrestling has grown since she started.
“I remember girls’ brackets being super small when I originally started wrestling back in sixth grade, but now my high school girls bracket at state was pretty big and a lot of girls are stepping up their game,” Braylee Ireland said.
While the sanctioning decision will ultimately impact the sport at the high school level, girls wrestling as a movement has been scaling at all levels.
Dave Ireland, head coach of Knoch youth wrestling and Braylee Ireland’s father, has seen it with his own eyes.
“Interestingly, Knoch has always kind of had quite a few girls. It’s usually five to six on average, this year we had eight,” Dave Ireland said. “We are pushing some more girls up to junior high, and there were four at junior high this year and four at varsity and they were all varsity starters.”
All three of his daughters wrestle.
“What’s nice about it is that once a girl starts to wrestle, and once all three of my girls started to wrestle, they brought in their friends. They continued to talk about it, they came and watched them… and eventually that just grows and grows year-in and year-out,” Dave Ireland said.
Due to the expansion at both the youth and high school levels, there are also collegiate opportunities for women’s wrestling.
In Pennsylvania, for example, Lock Haven University, Gannon University, East Stroudsburg University and some others offer collegiate programs.
Wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports among girls in the United States. According to news service Flowrestling, which focuses on covering wrestling live events, girls’ high school participation for the 2022-2023 season increased by 46% across all states.
~ 5.27.2023