The Kentucky High School Athletic Association voted Wednesday to sanction girls’ wrestling starting with the 2023-24 school year.
According to the KHSAA, Commissioner Julian Tackett has been tasked with finalizing logistics for a state championship in girls wrestling with two or four state-managed qualifying sites and finalizing negotiations to find, if possible, a potential consolidated site following a survey of the membership on scheduling implications.
Participation in girls’ wrestling nationwide has tripled in the past three years. A state tournament has been held over the past five years sponsored by the state’s wrestling coaches.
Tackett feels the growth of boys’ wrestling coupled with adding girls’ wrestling will revitalize the sport in Kentucky.
“We have had some unfortunate situations at past venues where we were forced to find an alternate host for a couple of years, including the impact of the pandemic. But we are thankful for a reset and an opportunity to certainly elevate the girls’ event from its operations the last couple of years outside of our management while re-energizing our boys’ event format at the same time,” he said. “Having been around and managed the event during a period of historic growth during my time as an Assistant Commissioner in the office, I, along with our staff, realize the incredible potential for these two events to grow together and be even better in the future alongside one another.”
Fort Campbell was one of the first schools in western Kentucky to field a girls’ team. They have notched several top-five finishes at state including a state runner-up finish in 2019.
Coach Anthony Shingler said the KHSAA’s decision to add girls’ wrestling has been a long time coming.
“It’s huge and it’s about time. That’s not a shot at the KHSAA by any means. I know they had to follow COVID protocols which kind of handcuffed them, but the numbers are there and the teams are there,” Shingler said.
The growth of girls’ teams in recent years at Henderson County, Paducah Tilghman, and Union County will help make wrestling in Region 1 immediately competitive, Shingler said.
“We’ve been the trailblazers for girls’ wrestling in western Kentucky, but now this legitimizes some of the stuff we were talking about six years ago with Hannah Tommerlin and that group of kids that we had back then,” Shingler said. “This also legitimizes the recruiting process that we’ve been doing here at Fort Campbell, preaching that there are opportunities to get to the next level. It’s a way to pay for college. You know, it’s the fastest growing sport in the country, hands down, bar none.”
Fort Campbell sophomore Maddie Hebert is one of Shingler’s wrestlers that feels the move by the KHSAA is the right one.
“It means having a genuine sport. Before, it wasn’t sanctioned and didn’t feel official. Now, I feel like a real athlete, and I feel like I’ve really accomplished something, and I think it adds a lot of legitimacy to the sport,” she said.
Trigg County freshman MaKenna Hendricks has wrestled at the girls’ state tournament and has a state title on her resume. She said she expects more tournaments against other females in addition to a legitimate state tournament.
“It’ll be pretty interesting now. I’ll be able to have more girls’ tournaments and not have to go all the way to Tennessee to have girls’ tournaments,” she said. “I feel like there will be more girls being able to come out from Kentucky to be able to wrestle. It’s pretty cool because I’ve been doing this my whole life and I want other girls to get this type of experience.”
The boys’ program at Christian County has been successful over the past decade and has produced an individual state champion each of the last four years. But they haven’t had any females on its roster.
Coach Dee Leavell is open to the school adding a girls’ team and thinks there is some interest but knows there are some logistics that have to be considered.
“I’ve had a conversation with (District Athletic Director) Kerry Stovall,” Coach Dee Leavell said. “We’re going to need more space right now. We’ve got a 40-man roster right now with wrestling alone. We’re having to use both rooms right now in our high school practices and have needed to get creative because we got our middle school practice at the same time. We’ve got guys all over the gym right now.”
Despite those challenges, Leavell thinks a girls’ program at Christian County could be successful.
Tackett said a membership survey would take place following this weekend’s state championships, with a final implementation plan to include state tournament formats and locations to be considered in May.
