HELENA — As of the 2024-25 season, 85 high school girls wrestling programs from across the Treasure State are up and running as a sanctioned varsity sport. The momentum surrounding the sport continues to grow and rise to new heights.
"We've seen significant growth each year in the girls wrestling program," said Montana High School Association associate director Scott Wilson.
There are now 45 states across the country that have sanctioned high school wrestling as a varsity sport for girls. The 2021-22 season was the first official girls wrestling season in the state of Montana. Since that inaugural campaign, the sport has simply taken off.
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"The first couple of years we saw the numbers basically double each one of those years, and now we're just on a constant increase," said Wilson, who has been a member of the MHSA staff for the past eight years.
MHSA executive director Brian Michelotti has also been quite impressed by the rise in girls competing on the mats throughout the state.
"It's really unbelievable to see what has happened in the sport," Michelotti said. "When they show up and are a part of our major state wrestling tourney down in Billings, the high-quality wrestling and passion and desire that we are able to see through our girls that now have that opportunity in our women's sports is just phenomenal."
The impact surrounding the phenomenal growth of girls wrestling throughout the state has been felt in Helena in a big way.
"The girls, they have bought in, they find it fun, there is good camaraderie with the girls and the growth," East Helena head wrestling coach Tim Baird said.
"Between the three schools here in town, we have some really good wrestlers," Baird said.
One of those wrestlers is East Helena sophomore Marlee Fox. The energetic student-athlete, who competes in the 105-pound weight class, is taken aback when she thinks about how far the sport has come.
"It's kind of hard to believe, especially on the girls side. There are new tournaments now because of how many girls there are, so it's pretty cool," said Fox.
Out of more than 33,000 student-athletes involved in high school athletics in Montana, 1,500 are engaged in wrestling. The MHSA has hopes of increasing the number of girls on the mats in the years ahead.
"The ultimate goal is to try to get the same number of participants that we have in our boys program," Wilson said.
The MHSA also has a plan in place to help attain that goal for girls wrestling in the not-too-distant future.
"We've just tried to take the opportunities and increase those," Wilson said. "We are going to place the top eight girls at the state wrestling tournament. In the boys division we only place the top six, and so things like that have also helped increase (girls participation). The ultimate goal for us is to get three classifications in girls, which matches the boys."
Wilson told MTN girls wrestling is the fastest-growing varsity sport in Montana.
High school wrestling factoids:
- Boys wrestling was originally sanctioned by the MHSA during the 1956-57 season.
- Hawaii was the first state to sanction girls wrestling as a varsity sport in 1998.
- The five states that don't have girls wrestling on the high school level include Delaware, Indiana, Mississippi, Vermont and Virginia.
- In 2023, the University of Iowa became the first Power 4 collegiate institution to offer women's wrestling.
