WHSAA Sanctions Girls Wrestling [VIDEOS]

The Wyoming High School sports landscape changed on Wednesday with the addition of girls’ wrestling.

The Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA) Board of Directors unanimously approved the decision to add the sport to the winter season next school year (2022-23). Since 1998, Wyoming has had girls compete with boys, but now they will have their own season.

The Director of Female Wrestling at the Wyoming Amateur Wrestling Association (WAWA) is Jessica Brenton. She’s a former four-time All-American who also wrestled in college for two years. Brenton has been at the forefront of the push to get girls’ wrestling sanctioned in Wyoming at the high school level.

Brenton is in Las Vegas for a USA Wrestling event. She visited with WyoPreps by phone and provided her reaction to the news that became official on Wednesday.

She told WyoPreps that this is about 30 years in the making.

WHSAA Associate Commissioner Trevor Wilson told WyoPreps that they could see this coming. The next step is sorting through the logistics.

WHSAA Board of Directors President and Wright wrestling coach Larry Yeradi also knew this was coming, and he’s excited about the opportunities this will provide to young women.

Back in February, the girls’ Folkstyle high school state championships were held on the Sunday (Feb. 27) after the high school state championships. WAWA sent a team to the Iowa Nationals a couple of weeks back, and the Cowboy State enjoyed great success.

Wyoming is the 33rd state to sanction the sport at the high school level. All the states surrounding Wyoming have also decided to offer girls’ wrestling in the last couple of years.

WyoPreps will follow up this story with some other perspectives in a new post on Friday.