Now Sanctioned: Girls Wrestling

On January 22, 2022, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) sanctioned girls’ wrestling to be an official Iowa high school sport.  

Over the past couple of years, girls’ wrestling has been one of the fastest-growing high school sports and continues to grow and improve today. Many believe that this was a big step for high schools, mainly because adding new programs in their school districts can be difficult, given certain circumstances. This was a great opportunity for young girls to be able to partake in wrestling. Prior to girls wrestling not being a school-sanctioned sport, girls in Iowa were left with only one option, to partake in men’s wrestling. They also were not allowed to compete or participate in wrestling meets. “There have been so many girls in boys’ programs for far too long, Iowa is a huge wrestling state and the fact that we were the 34th state to sanction [girls wrestling] is really disappointing,” ADM sophomore Addi Herrick stated. This left many female wrestlers feeling a lot of emotions. Some may say it was not fair, due to it not being equal between both genders, or some could say it was just a lack of respect. Over the past years, girls have been shunned for wanting to partake in wrestling, or at the time “Boys’ Wrestling”. This all changed, when in 2022 Iowa approved girls to partake and compete in wrestling.

This benefited both young girls and women’s mental health and physical fitness. The reason being that young women could finally experience improved self-esteem in their sport. The sanctioning of girls’ wrestling allowed young women to be able to participate and compete in wrestling, but also bring in more equality throughout the sport.  Northwest sophomore Vye Nayaka stated, “I really love the wrestling staff, I think they really take the time to make sure you’re being included and always help you out, which I did not receive much last year. We’re all just trying to make our voices stand out.” Last year, Nayaka wrestled for Northwest along with 2-3 other girls. She stated, “Obviously you’re uncomfortable because wrestling is a very physical sport.” She felt as if it was not fair because there was a lot of awkwardness going around between the two genders, and felt as if she did not get the full experience as the boys did. 

On Monday, October 31st, 2022 the Racoon River Girls Wrestling Program held its first official practice at Waukee Northwest High School. This program consists of four different schools: ADM (Adel-De-Soto-Minburn), Waukee, Waukee Northwest and Van Meter High School. 

After three and a half weeks of training and working hard, the Raccoon River Girls Wrestling Program held its first wrestling match of the season at Northwest High School. They started off the season with seventeen big wins. Helena Goad, a Senior at Waukee Northwest, won her first match of the season. Goad stated, “I thought I was gonna lose. I was not expecting to win that match at all, my mindset before the match was kinda off because I had a lot of nerves and anxiety going into it.” Goad is completely new to the sport, she wanted to try something new that was fun while trying to stay in shape for track season.  She had been working hard and going through all of her training and going through new techniques with her coaches. She felt overall relieved that she won. She stated, “I didn’t expect her to give up when I got her to the floor. I thought she was gonna thrash around and stuff so I was genuinely surprised.” Girls’ wrestling is not only a new sport for many others but it is a well-respected sport and provides many new opportunities.

Overall, girls’ wrestling is not only a mentally tough sport, but it boosts a lot of young girls’ confidence and self-esteem.