The Executive Board of the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) -- the organization which governs high school sports in Arizona -- has approved girls' wrestling as an emerging sport for the 2018-19 school year.
"This is a positive move for the AIA and for all the female wrestlers throughout the state. It's another opportunity for student-athletes to compete, which will also help the sport grow," said AIA Executive Director David Hines. "Girls wrestling is also becoming an emerging sport at the NCAA level, which means there will be scholarship opportunities."
According to the National Federation of High Schools, 343 girls participated in high school wrestling in Arizona in 2016-17, with 93 schools claiming at least one female wrestler.
Nationwide, opportunities for young women to wrestle are expanding at both the high school and collegiate levels. In fact, Arizona joins a growing list of states that will offer separate wrestling competition for high school girls. In recent weeks, Missouri, Colorado, Georgia and Oregon had all announced the sanctioning of girls wrestling within their states as of the 2018-19 school year. Twenty years ago, Hawaii was the first to add separate girls' competitions to their roster of official high school sports. In subsequent years, the Aloha State was joined by Alaska, California, Texas and Washington as offering girls wrestling at the high school level.
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