A league of their own: North Allegheny will sponsor girls wrestling

By Josh Rizzo
Massima Curry's trip to the 2019 Fargo Cadet Nationals provided an enormous amount of perspective. For the 17-year-old incoming North Allegheny senior, Curry received some insight on what she hoped wrestling in Pennsylvania could be.

Competing in an all-girls tournament, Curry went 2-2 in the 112-pound freestyle division. The mutual respect on display -- some opponents embraced after matches --made her feel more comfortable.

"The girls try a lot harder because they are equal in strength," Curry said. "The boys just want to beat up on a girl to prove that they are strong. It's better wrestling girls and having a fair shot at winning." 

Starting with the 2020-21 school year, Curry will have an opportunity to see those types of matches on the local scene. North Allegheny's school board recently approved girls wrestling as an official sport.

"We've developed a committee called the Sanction PA Task Force," said Heckert, who will be the coach the Tigers' coach. "We've been working with Powerade, Mid-Winter Mayhem and a bunch of stuff in the east that will have a girls division. These tournaments will all be open, so even if a school doesn't sponsor the sport a wrestler can compete as an open entrant."

The sport is still not sponsored by the PIAA, so there will be several differences from the boys' teams. The Tigers, who are expected to have between six and eight wrestlers, will not wrestle any dual matches and there won't be a sanctioned state championship. 

Gaining PIAA acceptance, according to a PennLive.com story in March, will require the task force hitting its goal of 100 sponsored teams in a three-year period. The soonest the PIAA would sanction a state championship would be by the 2022-23 school year. North Allegheny will be the fourth team in the state to field a program and the first in Western Pennsylvania.

Because the sport is not currently state sponsored, there won't be any official weight classes. Upon arriving at tournaments which sponsor a girls' division, there will be a "madison system" in place.

All of the competitors will be put in brackets based on the number of entrants. Heckert has been pushing for the PIAA to add the sport.

"We wanted to create opportunities for girls," Heckert said. "They can compete in the Olympics and in college. With Pennsylvania being a hotbed for wrestling, why should we sit back and wait?"

Curry, who has been wrestling since kindergarten, comes from a strong wrestling family. She has been trying to help recruit other athletes to come out and compete for North Allegheny.

"We started practicing in mid-January and there were other girls who were interested and got their friends to come," Curry said. "There were also a few boys who had sisters interested in competing."

Heckert said he is excited for the challenge to help get the team off the ground. He will have a group of wrestlers with all different experience levels for the first team.

"We're going to have to take our time," Heckert said. "We have girls that have never wrestled before. We want to concentrate on the basics. The good thing is this is a young sport. A lot of girls are learning the same aspects. We want them compete. The No. 1 goal is to give these girls the confidence to get better."

Josh Rizzo is a sports writer and owner of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Anyone with story ideas is free to reach out at [email protected] or on Twitter @J_oshRizzo.