MHSAA adds official Michigan girls state tournament for 2021-22, the 31st state to add girls wrestling

The Michigan High School State Athletic Association (MHSAA) voted on Thursday to create an official state high school championships in girls wrestling for the 2021-22 season, making Michigan the 31st state association with a girls wrestling program.


It was reportedly a unanimous decision reached by its 19-member Representative Council during its annual Spring Meeting.


This was posted on the MHSAA website, in a story by Geoff Kimmerly, the Second Half editor

The addition of a girls division to the Individual Wrestling Tournament series and approval of a common start date for all Fall sports highlighted actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Spring Meeting on May 3.


Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, a championship division for female competitors who participate on MHSAA member school teams will be added to the Individual Wrestling Tournament series. There will be 14 champions awarded, based on weight classes established by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Qualifiers will be determined via a sectional format, and girls will continue to compete on boys teams during regular-season and team tournament competition; girls also may choose to compete in the boys individual tournament instead of the girls bracket. A total of 401 girls competed in wrestling for MHSAA member schools during the 2019-20 school year, up from 250 in 2017-18 and then 327 in 2018-19. The girls division proposal had been put forth by the MHSAA Wrestling Committee.


Numerous media reports about the decision were posted yesterday and today, including the following:

MLive.com: MHSAA adds girls wrestling state tournament for 2021-22 school year

FOX 2 Detroit: Michigan high school girls who wrestle to get their own state tournament

Toledo Blade: Michigan adds girls wrestling individual state tournament


Michigan has had a successful unofficial state high school championships run by its coaches association in recent years.

State Associations with Girls Wrestling in alphabetical order (31)

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin


USA Wrestling is actively involved in the effort to expand girls high school wrestling opportunity through its High School Girls Development Committee, co-chaired by Joan Fulp and Andrea Yamamoto.