The IHSAA is scheduled to vote tomorrow on officially sanctioning girls wrestling.

If it passes, the proposal will create a state championship for one of the fastest-growing high school sports in the country.

Although girls wrestling saw a 27% increase in participants in 2019 according to the NFHS, it’s still not a sanctioned sport in Idaho, meaning girls must compete against boys to qualify for the state championship.

In each of the past two years, Pocatello High School has hosted an unofficial girls state championship.

“Obviously it’s just an invitational. We couldn’t call it a championship, but we tried to get all the best girl wrestlers in the state to compete at it,” Pocatello head coach JB Plato said. “I think the first year we had 56 girls, and then last year we had 113 girls sign up, so more than doubled in a year.”

Plato, along with Aberdeen coach Jordan Johns, was instrumental in creating the committee that eventually advanced a proposal to the IHSAA.

Pocatello had nine girls participate on its wrestling team a year ago.

“(Johns) started the committee, and I’ve worked with him closely and helped draft the proposal,” Plato said. “He was the one that kind of stood up and looked for volunteers to help put this together. I think at some point, him and I just kind of ran with it, really stayed on the state about it, kept it kind of at the forefront.”

According to numbers from the NFHS, 49 schools across Idaho participated in girls wrestling in 2018-19, the most recent year for which there’s data, with 112 total participants.

Several of the top invitational tournaments across the state, including the Tiger-Grizz Invite in Idaho Falls and the Rollie Lane Invite in Nampa, have added girls brackets in recent years.

“(In the proposal), we were trying to emphasize that girls wrestling is growing, and our numbers throughout the state for high school participation were growing,” Plato said. “We had 11 or 12 girls tournaments in the state (last year). The year before, we probably had five. ... And I think the board realizes that and in looking at the data, realizes that this is something that can be supported.”

If the proposal passes, the first girls state wrestling championship will take place in 2021-22.