EAST PROVIDENCE — In an announcement made Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 4, the Rhode Island Interscholastic League said the organization for the first time will be sponsoring separate weight divisions for females during the upcoming 2023-24 high school wrestling season.

Beginning this winter female wrestling will be formally integrated into the existing dual meet regular season schedules of schools as well as tournaments, including the state competition held each February and the regional championships to follow in March.

The 2024 State Championship Meet will have 12 weight classes exclusive to females with a chance to earn entrance into the 59th New England Championship beginning on Friday, March 1, at the Providence Career & Technical Academy, the same site of the state event.

Prep for the winter schedule officially begins with the start of practice on Monday, Nov. 27.

Hall of Fame East Providence High School head coach Tom Galligan said he was pleased with the move. A former president of the Rhode Island Wrestling Coaches Association, he viewed integrating the girls' classes into the upcoming season as "a work in progress."

Girls have long participated in the boys' wrestling classes, including several over the years representing EPHS. Last winter, then sophomore Ciara Nunes was part of the program. Also of note recently, alumna Logan Farnsworth and Skylah Chakouian each scored points for the Townies during dual meets and other in-season competitions.

Chakouian, in fact, has continued on to have an outstanding career wrestling amongst females as a member of the Elmira (NY) College team. Now a junior, the 2021 EPHS grad was a 2022 National Collegiate Women's Wrestling Championships All-American while wrestling at 155 pounds for the Soaring Eagles .

"Over the course of the years I've always had girls participating, but especially over the last eight years or so I've have a lot of girls on the team," said Galligan who is about to begin his 31st season the Townies head coach.

Galligan is expecting Nunes and at least one other freshman to start off the season with the program, though he's also heard of more females participating since he let members of the team know it was likely girls would have their own divisions starting this winter.

"A few other kids have already reached out. I don't know if it's just word of mouth, but more girls already seem interested," said Galligan. "So they're excited. It should be interesting, a lot of fun."

According to the RIIL as of this calendar year 37 states have sanctioned girls wrestling as an official high school sport. Citing a surveys conducted by the National Federation of State High Schools’ Athletics female participation in the sport over the last two decades has risen from 4,975 in 2005 to 7,351 in 2010, then tripled to 21,124 by 2018-19 and has since jumped to 49,127 in 2022-23, which marks a whopping 233% increase during the latest four-year time period.

In Rhode Island, the number of female wrestlers competing with their respective schools’ coed teams has grown significantly over the last decade, from eight in 2014 to 68 last winter. The USA Wrestling Girls High School Development Committee noted the five other high school state associations in New England have experienced a similar climb in participation numbers since 2014.

Galligan said the uptick of female participation in Massachusetts, specifically, drove the change in the region, but that it was only a matter of time because of the sport's growth at the top levels.

"In every state you're starting to see more and more girls wrestling," Galligan said. "It's also getting bigger in college and it's been in the Olympics for years now, and the worlds each year (United World Wrestling championships, the international oversight body). There's a lot more interest than there used to be."

Galligan said he anticipates a surge in participation locally now that the Interscholastic League is formalizing the sport for females.

"I think more girls will want to try it," Galligan said of females wrestling at the high school level. "I think sometimes in the past they've been a little reluctant to compete with the guys all the time. Now there's a prize at the end of the rainbow, something for them to work for having their own thing to aim for.

"I think it will keep them in the room (training) and working hard. But that's not something I've had to worry about with the girls who wrestled for me. They're not girls. They're wrestlers. So I think the changes are great. I think they're fantastic."