CLEARFIELD – Girls wrestling is the fastest-growing high school sport in the country.
And now girls in grades 7-12 will have a mat of their own at the Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School.
On Monday night, the Clearfield Area School Board unanimously approved creation of a girls wrestling program, beginning with the 2023-24 winter sports season.
In Pennsylvania, there’s been more than a 200 percent increase in girls’ participation in high school wrestling over the past several years.
According to SanctionPA, all 12 Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) districts have girls participating in wrestling within their area schools.
In 2022-23, there were over 500 girls participating on PIAA junior high teams and over 1,000 girls participating at PIAA high schools.
A non-PIAA affiliated state tournament for girls was held from 1999 – 2023 and hosted by PA USA Wrestling since 2012.
Girls wrestling was granted an “Emerging Sport Status” in February of 2022, and on Feb. 14, 2023, the 100th PIAA school started girls wrestling.
That milestone was monumental for the sport, giving it eligibility to officially become sanctioned by the PIAA, which happened May 17 with a unanimous board vote.
The decision made Pennsylvania the 39th state with a girls state wrestling tournament, which will now coincide with the boys championship, beginning in March of 2024 in Hershey.
The move brought home CHS ’00 grad Tim Taylor, who following high school wrestled for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army.
The three-time PIAA state placewinner was a two-time Olympic alternate; five-time U.S. national team member; seven-time Armed Forces Champion; and two-time University National Champion in men’s freestyle.
Taylor was a high school wrestling coach in Colorado, where he also helped start one of the best girls wrestling programs in the state.
Now he’s determined to bring that same success to his alma mater, and in July approached the Clearfield school board about starting its own girls wrestling program.
Clearfield—at the recommendation of District 9—initially started looking into a girls wrestling co-op with Curwensville; however, that was recently tabled by the Curwensville school board.
Taylor, who has been attending the school board meetings, currently has nearly a dozen girls interested in competing, according to a previously-published report.
We have 41 state boys wrestling champions—the most of any PIAA school, stated Taylor last week, as he proposed that Clearfield start its own girls program to “rival” it.
Long-time boys wrestling coach Jeff Aveni also backed the heavyweight he once trained. “We are Clearfield. We are wrestling. And, we should have our own [girls] team.”
For now, it appears the girls will have no shortage of regular season tournament opportunities and will follow the same post-season schedule as the boys with a district, regional and state tournament.
Aveni will oversee both the boys and girls programs, with current plans for Taylor and Morgen Turner to serve as volunteer coaches in the girls program.
