AIA approved girls wrestling for schools

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - It's something high school coaches have been asking for, for a long time.

Now, girls wrestling has been approved for the upcoming winter season. That means the girls will no longer have to wrestle boys. It was three years in the making, and the season will officially start this November, and run through February, the same time boys wrestling is happening.

David Hines, Executive Director of the Arizona Interscholastic Association, says the board voted in May to allow girls wrestling as an emerging sport.

Since this is considered an emerging sport, once enough schools have girls signing up, they can take it to the championship level.

As it stood before at the high school level, girls wrestled guys, which led to some problems. So, creating a program for girls only, according to Hines, has been positive all the way around.

"The issue in some cases that some guys refused to wrestle the girls, and that wasn't helpful for the girls," said Hines. "They wont necessarily have a team, but girls can wrestle as individuals."

A big thing this will help with is scholarship opportunities for girls entering college. Arizona is the 11th state in the country to do this.