Girls wrestling will get a trial run with girls-only tournaments this season

Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com

Girls wrestling is getting a trial run this season.

A few girls-only tournaments have been set up as pilots as the possibility of adding girls wrestling continues to be explored. The idea was spawned out of a wrestling subcommittee which met on Nov. 15.

They will help in determining if “there are enough girls in the state that are interested in wrestling to make it feasible to add girls wrestling as a sanction sport,” according a letter from wrestling committee chair Ernie Derrera.

“We’re really in an exploratory phase right now,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Harry Waterman, who is in charge of wrestling. “We’re trying to gather more information, and this will help in that.”

The first girls-only tournament will be held at Frederick High School on Jan. 14 in conjunction with the Warrior Invitational. Three-to-four others are tentative.

It’s possible that other girls-only tournaments will be held this season if the idea gains steam. Derrera’s letter to all wrestling schools was seeking teams willing to host other events.

The girls-only tournaments will use the following guidelines:

• Any girls seeking to compete must be a current member of her high school team, and meet all eligibility requirements of student-athletes.
• They tournaments will use seven of the 14 weight classes in place in California: 101, 111, 121, 131, 143, 160 and 189.
• Girls who wrestle in a girls-only event cannot be “double-bracketed” into both the girls-only tournament and the concurring event.
• Matches in girls-only events will not count towards season records, and they may not be used for postseason seeding purposes.
• The girls-only tournaments will not count toward a team’s 28-point limit.

If the pilots are successful, it follows that the possibility of adding girls wrestling would become increasingly likely.

Any data gathered at these tournaments will be used by the wrestling committee as it continues to weigh if (and how) to sanction the addition of girls.