VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- After dipping its toe into the water, girls wrestling is getting the full VHSL treatment.
The Virginia High School League voted to fully sanction girls wrestling as an official varsity sport in the commonwealth this week beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. The activity will have its own team state tournaments next winter.
"It's great, especially for the ones who are going to come after me," said Tallwood junior wrestler Tatiana Denig. "Next year, now we're really important. We're here to do what we want to do."
Denig won an individual state crown this past season at 126 pounds. The VHSL has held an open individual state tournament for girls wrestling since 2023, but the official sanctioning will allow the sport to hold regional and team state championships beginning next season, as opposed to zone state qualifiers for only individuals.
"It made me really happy, especially as a first-year wrestler," Tallwood sophomore Aubrie Bryant said regarding the news of the VHSL's vote to fully sanction her sport.
Girls wrestling has grown quite a bit during the last three years, jumping from less than 300 participants to more than 600 in that time frame. The student-athletes who have been there during the expansion of the sport are happy to see how much it's caught fire.
"When I first started, I was one of the only girls in the room," Denig noted. "Now we have three or four girls and we have more girls coming every day to practice. It's really important to me that we keep growing it."
Virginia Beach Sports Center will host next year's girls state championships for Classes 4-6. Classes 1-3 will hold their championship meet in Salem.
