Get Involved PA!

What Is SanctionPA?

SanctionPA is a movement to grow opportunities for girls wrestling in Pennsylvania through cooperation with local schools and The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA). The goal is for 100 schools in Pennsylvania to officially recognize and approve a girls wrestling program at the high school level and ultimately have the sport sanctioned at the state level. This movement is supported by local and national organizations, including Pennsylvania USA Wrestling, Wrestle Like a Girl, Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association, National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA), National High School Coaches Association, and the PA Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Why SanctionPA?

For the past five years, girls wrestling has been the fastest growing high school sport in the country. Mirroring the national statistics, Pennsylvania high school wrestling has experienced a 100% growth increase of girls on high school boys teams in the past 5 years. All 12 PIAA district areas have girls wrestling within their area schools. While there are 21 state high school associations sanctioning a girls state championship, Pennsylvania does not yet have an official state tournament and has not sanctioned girls wrestling as a sport.

Data shows that girls would prefer to wrestle and compete against girls. When given the opportunity to do so, participation numbers grow tremendously in a short period of time. States that recently added an official state-association sanctioned girls state championship, such as Missouri [1], have seen growth as high as 400% following sanctioning, and every sanctioned state saw a marked increase in their female wrestling participation numbers.

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. Having a sanctioned sport at the high school level will also better enable Pennsylvania to support larger numbers of participants at the collegiate and international levels. There are currently over 75 colleges that have women’s wrestling with five being in the state of Pennsylvania. New college programs are being added several times a month and will continue to expand opportunities for high school girls.

Adding girls wrestling will also help support the long-term sustainability of boys wrestling. The growth of boys wrestling programs was slow during the years before 2007, but growth accelerated as the number of girls teams grew. The existence of women’s wrestling programs also potentially allows men’s programs to raise roster caps that were imposed to comply with Title IX regulations. Between 2007 and 2019, none of the 46 collegiate institutions that dropped men’s wrestling had a women’s program. Overall, the evidence shows that the addition of women’s programs goes hand-in-hand with the growth and security of men’s wrestling programs.

Sanctioning girls wrestling in Pennsylvania will help expand opportunities for girls to compete in the sport and ultimately grow the sport as a whole.

[1] Why Women’s Wrestling, Why Now: White paper on the current state of wrestling and the benefits of developing women’s wrestling programs

#SanctionPA Webinars

Replays of the latest Webinars from the #SanctionPA effort and how to register for the next webinar session

Test info:

example what is sanction—

example 2

example 3

 For additional questions and media inquiries, contact sanctionpa@gmail.com