NCHSAA sanctions girls wrestling, adds 5-quarter rule for basketball
Updated April 27, 2022 10:14 a.m. EDT
https://www.highschoolot.com/nchsaa-sanctions-girls-wrestling-adds-5-quarter-rule-for-basketball/20254530/By Nick Stevens, HighSchoolOT managing editor
DURHAM, N.C. — For the first time since lacrosse was sanctioned as a sport in 2010, there will be a newly sanctioned sport for N.C. High School Athletic Association-member schools in the coming years.
In a unanimous vote on Wednesday morning, the NCHSAA Board of Directors approved a proposal from the N.C. Wrestling Coaches Association to sanction girls wrestling as a sport in North Carolina. Girls wrestling will become a sanctioned sport for the 2023-2024 season.
The timing allows the NCHSAA and wrestling coaches to test run how playoffs and regionals will work during the 2022-2023 season, and the National Federation of State High School Associations will release girls wrestling weight classes in 2023.
"Let me just say how excited I am that (the sports committee) arrived at this ... this is a historical moment for us," NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker said to the board during the meeting.
Sanctioning the sport means girls wrestling will be eligible to hold a NCHSAA state championship instead of an invitational, which has been the case for the last several years.
According to the NCHSAA, there are 210 schools with at least one female wrestler and 125 schools with at least two female wrestlers.
NCHSAA bylaws require at least 25% of member schools to offer a sport in order to be sanctioned. With 427 member schools this year, that threshold sits at 107 schools.
The bylaws define a team as “two or more students practicing and competing in a regular scheduled school season.”