Trending
The PIAA answered the call that wrestling fans were hoping for recently as girls wrestling was officially sanctioned for the 2023-24 season. Pennsylvania is now the 38th state to officially sponsor girls wrestling.
PIAA executive director Robert Lombardi said four years ago that the state would need 100 schools in order for girls wrestling to officially be recognized by PIAA. That number was crossed earlier this year, and now the state has 111 schools that sponsor girls wrestling and will likely continue to grow.
Plans are already being made to hold the girls state tournament on the same weekend as the boys at the Giant Center in Hershey in March.
Around central Pennsylvania, Chestnut Ridge was one of the first schools that offered girls wrestling. It was the first school in District 5 to have a girls program, while Northern Bedford and Bedford soon followed.
"I think this is a big stepping stone," said Chestnut Ridge coach Josh Deputy. "We can show parents that girls are going to get to wrestle girls now. I think it's going to really boost the numbers from top to bottom. That's a big concern for parents right now, and this kind of solidifies that something is going to happen."
Central Mountain was the first school in District 6 to offer girls wrestling, and that has now grown to Bald Eagle Area, Bishop McCort, Central Cambria, Claysburg-Kimmel, Philipsburg-Osceola, State College and United.
Northern Bedford is no stranger to having girls interested in wrestling, and now coach Brian Dutchcot is excited to give the girls on his team a bigger stage.
"I think it's a great opportunity to showcase their talent and put them on that stage with the boys, especially with the state championships in Hershey," Dutchcot said. "That's a dream of every high school wrestler to compete there, and now the girls have that opportunity as well. That's great for them."
Claysburg-Kimmel coach Ron Kakabar said he has eight girls in the school that wrestle now, and there was already interest for more to come, but they didn't want to wrestle boys.
"This will grow the sport tremendously," Kakabar said. "I went to the girls state championships last year, and there's a lot of support for them. There's a lot of good, talented girls there."
Many thought that the first season would not be possible until the 2024-25 school year, and were surprised that it would be held starting in November. The question is, what will girls wrestling look like this coming season?
Deputy has already started the beginning stages of planning out girls competition for next year, including a season-opening girls tournament held at Chestnut Ridge on either the first or second week of December.
"Since we were kind of the ones that started it in our area, we're going to start the year off with a tournament," Deputy said.
All three coaches believe that a full dual meet schedule like the boys compete in is still a few years away from being possible, but there will be opportunities for the girls, including a district and regional tournament before states.
Also for postseason competition, if a girl's school does not have a girls wrestling team, girls will be able to compete with the boys during the regular season, and will have the option of competing in the boys or girls postseason. If a school has an established girls program, girls can still choose to wrestle on the boys team, but would also have to compete in the boys postseason.
"I think it will be a little slow at first, but I think it's going to catch on really well, and it will be just like the guys wrestling," Kakabar said. "Eventually I think we'll have dual meet championships.
"I'm assuming most girls will want to wrestle other girls, but there are some pretty elite girls out there that I think are going to say, 'I want to wrestle against the guys.'"
Most believe that it will take a few years to get to where boys wrestling is in Pennsylvania, but the ground work has been laid out.
"I think it's great for the sport," Deputy said. "If there's an older sister wrestling, there's probably going to be a younger brother or sister wrestle. That kind of trickles down, and helps with the overall participation numbers."
"Pennsylvania is one of the best states there is for wrestling for the boys," Dutchcot said. "I think that's just going to continue to grow with the girls with the amount of great coaches we have in this state."