In a major step forward for the sport, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) delegate assembly recently voted unanimously to adopt girls’ wrestling as a sanctioned sport, starting with the 2023-24 school year. It is the first sport the OSAA has added since softball in 1979. The girls’ division was added to OSAA wrestling in 2018-19 and has been part of the boys’ state championships. Going forward, girls’ wrestling will become its own entity, but is likely to continue running its championships with the boys.

“I think we always kind of saw this as the route,” OSAA executive director Peter Weber says. “This is kind of the natural evolution in our mind of the sport in Oregon.”

The Oregon Wrestling Association held its first girls’ state championships in 2007, eventually moving the tournament to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, site of the boys’ tournament. The OSAA awarded its first state championship trophies for girls wrestling in 2019.

Oregon joins a growing number of state associations that have sanctioned girls’ wrestling at the high school level. Currently 38 states have state championships.