On the 50th anniversary of Title lX, a Carroll High School freshman and her mom spent the day on Capitol Hill attending the Girls Wrestling Advocacy Day.
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“If the state doesn’t sanction the sport their athletic association does not have to create equal opportunity amongst the athletic directors and the schools, so they’re forced to wrestle boys,” Carroll High School Wrestling Coach, Britney Carrington said. “It’s necessary.”
Carrington coaches her 14-year-old daughter, June Pyles Tresser, as well as serve on the board that sanctioned women’s wrestling in Ohio.
The nonprofit, Wrestle Like a Girl, had 140 people attend the Girls Wrestling Advocacy Day in Washington D.C. to bring together girl wrestlers from the remaining 14 states that have yet to recognize girls’ high school wrestling as a sport.
Their mission is to advocate with facts and data for more opportunities in their respective states, according to a press release from the nonprofit.
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The decision is up to the states, Carrington said. Every state has a state athletic association and it’s up to them to vote on these decisions.
“We need the support from our congressional staff to really go back home and say equality needs to happen now,” Carrington said, “it’s 2022, these opportunities have to exist for our youth.”
Tresser has been wrestling since she was 7-years-old and wants more girls to have the opportunity to participate.
“That’s the part that is important to me is how big the community will get,” she said.
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With wrestling being an individual sport, Tresser feels it allowed her to learn how to push herself and be in control of her own performance.
Not only will this allow the wrestling community to grow, it will also allow female wrestlers to be competitive without having to wrestle on a boys team.
“Being one with the boys team, it’s not the most comforting feeling,” Carrington said. “The time is now.”
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