NEW YORK GIRLS WRESTLING SANCTIONING INITIATIVE

#SanctionNY

What Is #SanctionNY:

#SanctionNY is a grass roots effort by wrestling leaders in the state of New York to work towards getting girls wrestling as a sanctioned sport in New York. There are currently 21 states that have officially sanctioned girls wrestling and our goal is to get New York on board. The NYSPHSAA has a mandate that a minimum of 4 schools In four Sections are needed to form girls teams before the NYSPHSAA Board will consider sanctioning the sport.

#SanctionNY Goals:

  • Educate coaches and administrators on girls wrestling

  • Work with individual schools to form official girls teams

  • Provide resources to schools and coaches to develop girls teams

  • Work with the NYSPHSAA Wrestling Steering committee and state office on sanctioning efforts

  • Help coordinate competition opportunities until sanctioning is achieved

  • Provide opportunities for girls to be able to reap the amazing benefits of the sport of wrestling

  • To get girls wrestling as an official NYSPHSAA Sport and have a NYSPHSAA State Championship

    Girls Wrestling is Growing - Time to get your school on board:

    The fastest growing sport in the US at the high school level is girls wrestling. Last season there was over 21,000 girls wrestling at the high school level, according to NFHS Participation statistics. Early indications are that girls wrestling will have another huge bump in growth this year. There are currently 21 state high school associations that sanction girls wrestling. In addition, there are over 75 colleges that have women’s wrestling which include two colleges in NY and five across the boarder in the state of Pennsylvania. Currently, there are approximately 924 girls wrestling on New York high school teams and more are on middle school teams across NY (*waiting on modified team data).

    Why you should add girls wrestling?

    • Self-improvement

    • Increased winter sports options for girls

    • Cost effective sport to add

    • Post-secondary opportunities for girls

      What girls will wrestle?

      Wrestling provides a unique opportunity to attract new participants to a sport. Data exists to suggest that girls who wrestle may be girls who were not previously active in another sport. Further, with 6000 less participation opportunities for girls during the winter months, wrestling gives another opportunity to participate in sports during the winter season. With approximately 500 boys teams, wrestling provides a built-in system to quickly add a girls team and increase participation. Like boys wrestling, girls wrestling also provides the opportunity for girls of all physical sizes and backgrounds to compete.

      If you build it, they will come:

      The data has shown that if you provide an opportunity for girls to wrestle other girls, they will come out for the sport in droves. You will not have an issue attracting/recruiting girls to your team. States that provided girls only teams have shown growth as high as 400% in the first year. It is important to offer a girls team to really reap the benefits of the recruitment.

      Additional Information:

      A very detailed document that outlines the entire sanctioning process can be found at www.sanctionny.com. In addition, this provides a Q and A that we worked very closely on with the NYSPHSAA to ensure the process of sanctioning was as clear as possible.

      We hope that you will take the time to read the information and look to add a girls team. Girls wrestling is coming and we hope that you will help lead the effort.