The PIAA voted to begin sponsoring girls wrestling as an official sport on May 17, 2023. With the sanctioning of girls wrestling as an official sport in Pennsylvania, students and staff worked hand-in-hand on bringing the sport to our own school.
This year, under the coaching of Tony Gilliano, Haven will now offer a girls wrestling team.
“For the past couple of years there has always been at least one girl on our boys’ wrestling team so [a girls wrestling team] has definitely always been something of interest,” Athletic Director Mrs. Lynelle Mosley said.
With that, interest in girls wrestling has continued to grow.
“We have a huge youth product that has around 30 girls on their youth team so it is definitely something that is on the rise,” Mosley said.
Sophomore Lane Harrington, one of the only girls on previous years’ wrestling teams, explains the challenges that come without a girls wrestling team.
“Before, it was hard. All of the guys had a great bond and once I got to the high school level it was really hard to compete with them because biologically they are different,” Harrington said.
To overcome these obstacles, Harrington has been pushing for a girls wrestling team. For her, communication was key for understanding and assisting the push for a girls team.
“My dad, my coach, and I, all talked to the AD [Athletic Director] about it,” Harrington said. “She was able to take further steps, we made sure everything was going through by constantly communicating with her.”
As for the technical side, Mosley explained that since the sport had been sanctioned, it was much easier to get the team started. The previous Athletic Director Mr. Pat Clancy had already developed a proposal.
“At the time, it wasn’t something that was jumped on because girls wrestling hadn’t been sanctioned by Pennsylvania yet,” Mosley said. “Once it got sanctioned we pushed forward to see if we could get it recognized here as a sport.”
Moseley presented the proposal to the School Board.
“Everyone from the top to the bottom was all in support of it so it was pretty easy to get it on board,” she said.
The interest meeting has already taken place, with a turnout of around a dozen interested girls, and the team is practicing at open gyms each Wednesday night. Their season opens on November 11. The new team brings along opportunities to further success in wrestling at Haven by providing a more accessible option for girls interested in wrestling.
“I’m super excited for this team to be the first ever girls wrestling team at Haven. The group of girls that we’ve recruited are strong and I believe we will be able to build the team up more and more,” freshman Kai Czaplicki said.
