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ABOUT US

SanctionPA is a nonprofit organization working to support and advance growth and participation opportunities for girls in the sport of wrestling. The SanctionPA campaign includes advocacy efforts, education resources, promotional materials, and collaboration with schools. SanctionPA worked tirelessly towards getting the sport sanctioned by the PIAA and continues to advocate for girls and grow the sport.

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What Does SanctionPA Do?

  • Educate coaches, administrators, and community members on girls wrestling

  • Collaborate with individual schools to form official girls’ teams

  • Develop and provide resources to schools and coaches to develop girls’ teams

  • Help coordinate competition opportunities for girls and girls' teams

  • Act as a liaison with the PIAA to support the growth of the sport

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Why SanctionPA?

Girls wrestling is the fastest growing high school sport in the country. Mirroring the national statistics, Pennsylvania high school wrestling has experienced over a 200% increase of girls participating in wrestling on the high school level in the past several years and all 12 PIAA district areas have girls participating in wrestling within their area schools. On May 17, 2023, the PIAA voted to begin sponsoring girls wrestling as an official sport and girls wrestling was officially placed under PIAA jurisdiction on July 1, 2023. Girls wrestling is now a PIAA sport at the high school and junior high level. 

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Adding girls wrestling teams at the high school and junior high level can have enormous benefits for schools and athletes. First, adding girls wrestling increases the number of winter sport options for girls - currently, there are 6,000 fewer opportunities for girls in the winter. By adding girls wrestling, schools can increase their winter sport offerings by 25%. Looking at the number of girls coming up through the elementary and middle school system is another reason to support girls wrestling at the scholastic level - so that these girls will have teams to wrestle on and an official sport to be a part of. Girls wrestling also helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion and provides more opportunities for girls of all backgrounds, sizes, and abilities to participate in a school program. Adding girls wrestling also increases post-secondary opportunities for girls. There are currently over 115 colleges that have women’s wrestling with 9 being in the state of Pennsylvania. Impressively, wrestling ranks 2nd among all sports for producing 1st generation college students.

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Adding girls wrestling will also help support the long-term sustainability of boys and men’s wrestling and can be a protective factor for the sport as a whole. 

 

Background and Stats on Girls Wrestling​

  • There were over 50,000 high school girls competing in the US in 2022-2023

  • The majority of states have sanctioned girls wrestling at the championship level. Some states have had girls wrestling sanctioned for over two decades. More states are adding every year

  • Pennsylvania high school wrestling has experienced over a 200% growth of girls participating in wrestling on the high school level over the past several years

  • All 12 PIAA district areas have girls participating in wrestling within their area schools

  • In the 2022-2023 season, there were over 500 girls participating on PIAA JH teams

  • In the 2022-2023 season, there were over 1,000 girls participating at PIAA high schools

  • A non-PIAA affiliated state tournament for girls was held from 1999-2023 and hosted by PA USA Wrestling since 2012

  • The 2024 post-season will be the first year that a PIAA State Championship is held for girls 

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