Philipsburg-Osceola girls wrestling recognized as a varsity sport: ‘It’s about time’
Two Centre County school districts will now have girls wrestling teams, after the Philipsburg-Osceola Area board of directors voted Thursday night to add the program after a push from girl wrestlers and their families.
Girls wrestling will become the 15th sport at the high school and the second girls wrestling team in Centre County, with Bald Eagle creating a program in June 2021. Head coach Justin Fye told the board earlier this month that girls wrestling could become a PIAA-sanctioned sport in the 2024-25 season.
In February 2022, girls wrestling was granted Emerging Sports Status by the PIAA, according to the SanctionPA girls wrestling organization, which worked with Fye and other P-O officials. To become sectioned, the PIAA requires 100 member schools form official girls teams — P-O is now the 96th.
“In January, many of the coaches that are helping out with our girls program and many of the girls showed up for a board meeting, and at that board meeting, I was able to present some information about our numbers,” Fye told the CDT. “(It) wasn’t just about the popularity of girls wrestling in the area or in the state of Pennsylvania, but around the country and the world. It’s probably one of the fastest growing sports for females right now.”
Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District Superintendent Greg Paladina is excited for the opportunity the new program will bring to female athletes in the district.
“I think it’s absolutely wonderful that girls have an opportunity to wrestle, particularly other girls,” Paladina said. “The fact that girls wrestling is getting sanctioned — it’s about time. We’re excited to be on the ground floor of it.”
SanctionPA president Brooke Zumas is looking forward to the expansion of the sport within Pennsylvania.
“Girls wrestling in Pennsylvania is now only four schools away from being eligible for a sponsorship vote by the PIAA,” Zumas said in an email. “The growth of girls wrestling across the commonwealth has exploded over the past two years with a 240% participation increase. This growth has happened because of schools like Philipsburg-Osceola. This success further cements SantionPA’s viewpoint that if you create equitable opportunities for girls athletics, growth will follow. We look forward to supporting and watching the program of Philipsburg-Osceola flourish.”
Girls have been part of the wrestling programs at the elementary, middle and high school levels in the past in the school district. District parent Chris McCully reached out to Fye about a number of girls signing up for middle school wrestling in 2022, with six girls joining. With another girl joining the varsity program, McCully wanted to know about having a “Girls Night” for wrestling.
That was held in early November, with about 25 girls in attendance, from kindergarten through 12th grade, Fye said.
“So, what we wanted to do at that point was to continue having the girls night and we continued a couple of nights a week. For a couple of hours, they would come into the wrestling room, Coach McCully (Philipbsurg-Osceola girls club wrestling) would be there and a few other parents would help out with that.”
As the season began, five girls in the junior high program stuck with wrestling. Fye’s team landed three girls on the varsity program. Even with the numbers rising, the coaches continued their nights of all-girls wrestling, with McCully adding a few more nights a week for workouts. The program leaders discussed creating a girls team as it became closer to Christmas, with a big push from SanctionPA.
Paladina hopes that other schools in Centre County join up with Bald Eagle and Philipsburg-Osceola to field a girls wrestling program in the future.
“(Athletic Director) Kelly Rees has been pivotal in contacting other schools and other programs to try to get as much competition that we can for the girls,” Paladina said. “The one thing that I will say about it is that we had a strong group of families that really wanted to make this happen, our board wanted to make this happen and we’re excited — we’re excited for the girls to get this opportunity.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2023 at 2:45 PM.
