It is a critical time for girls’ wrestling in Ohio.
Riding the wave of success of the inaugural OHSWCA Girls State Wrestling Championships this winter, the push for statewide recognition is stronger than ever. That push received a major boost last week when the OH Girls High School Wrestling Task Force launched the #SanctionOH movement
Both local and national groups threw their full support behind this movement, including Ohio USA Wrestling, the OHSWCA, National Wrestling Coaches Association, the National High School Coaches Association, the OH Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Wrestle Like a Girl.
“This is a great opportunity for young women in Ohio to be able to wrestle against their own gender. It’s time we get to the forefront of the national movement,” said Jeff Martin, communication lead for the task force. “The time is now to make a push, with sustained effort, to sanction girls wrestling in Ohio.”
Florida recently became the 24th state to have its state high school governing body officially sanction girls’ wrestling. More than 260 wrestlers competed in the unofficial state meet at Hilliard Davidson back in February. Fourteen champions were crowned, including Warren Local freshman Hayley Snyder.
The results, and the push for recognition that followed were detailed in this LedeNews.com story from March 10.
The announcement of the #SanctionOH movement will only add to the anticipation and participating in the 2020-21 tournament.
Tommie Goff, left, helped coach Ellie Paterra at the state meet. Paterra is a member of GT Wrestling, Goff’s training center in Weirton. 
The girls of GT Wrestling in Weirton pose for a photo. A few of these girls will be part of Big Red’s team this winter.
The Push Locally
Girls have been participants on the club, junior high and high school levels locally in the past.
Once in middle and high school, however, doing so meant joining the boys’ team. Malvern’s Olivia Daniels, the 189 girls’ champion, advanced to the Ohio boys’ district tournament, finishing third at the sectionals. She actually won one of her consolation round matches at the district level. Indian Creek’s Ellie Paterra, who trained at nearby GT Wrestling in Weirton, was the runner-up at 116.
Many schools have a couple girl wrestlers, but never enough for a full squad. Until now.
Steubenville Big Red announced recently it was forming its first all-girls wrestling team. It will be led by head coach Mike Blackburn and assistant Tommie Goff, who will serve as the de facto girls’ team head coach.
Goff owns and is the lead coach for GT wrestling and his daughter, Ciara, is an incoming freshman at Big Red. He’s been involved with the girls’ wrestling movement since his daughter took up interest.
“We had about 20 girls initially interested during our sign-up period and we planned to have a spring club to teach the basics and intro to wrestling, but with COVID, we weren’t able to do that,” Goff said.
Goff noted that the OHSAA sanctions the sport officially, his team will function as a junior varsity arm of the Big Red wrestling team. The girls then can still wrestle on their respective boys’ teams, despite also participating in various all-girls wrestling events.
Five girls, including Ciara Goff, wrestled for GT and also Harding Middle School’s team last winter. Goff served as Harding’s coach, so he knows he has a few experienced wrestlers joining the fold. Ciara was the state runner-up in the girls’ junior-high level state meet.
Local Talent, Local Tournament
The Big Red girls’ team is hosting all-girls tournament on January 30. Defense Soap, a Cleveland-area based company, is helping out by sponsoring the tournament, which will feature a jeweled crown for the winners and medals for second through fourth.
“We’re still waiting to get the final flyer approved by the schools, but from just the initial talk back and forth with some of the other coaches around the state, I know a number of teams are going to be there,” Goff said.
Goff is looking at a pool-style event where each weight class is limited to 16 wrestlers, broken up into pools of four. That will guarantee each wrestler 4-5 matches. Priority will be given to schools with full teams, like Olentangy Orange and Miami East, to help fill out the bracket. But other schools will be able to send individual wrestlers to the tournament.
Goff even foresees a day in the future where the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference may feature either an all-girls bracket or a separate tournament for the girls. But he knows that is still a way’s off. Neither Ohio nor West Virginia sanction the sport and Big Red being the lone school with a full team doesn’t produce the needed numbers for a separate girls’ bracket at the OVACs just yet.
“It’s definitely got to grow a bit more on this side of the state,” Goff said. “It’s bigger out toward the western part of (Ohio). To be able to pull in full lineups for the OVACs, it’s definitely going to take a few years.”
Statewide Has the Numbers
Numbers isn’t a problem statewide in Ohio.
The state meet had a large turnout, both in participants and fans, packing the gym at Hilliard Davidson High School. Goff was there, helping coach Paterra on Saturday of the event as her high school coach was at a boys’ meet. He was impressed.
“I thought it was a great tournament,” Goff said. “It definitely can’t get any larger and still be held in that venue. It was pretty packed for the number of girls and teams and spectators.”
That participating was pre-#SanctionOH numbers. Those will be miniscule in comparison to the anticipated participation for this season.
“In talking with Jeff Martin and Brian Nicola, we’re looking at close to 800 girls this season,” Goff said. “That’s a ton of big numbers. Those numbers deserve to be sanctioned.
“Having it sanctioned adds legitimacy.”
It also adds fans to the state tournament at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus. More fans mean more ticket sales and money for the OHSAA. The venue usually doesn’t fill up completely until the finals at the boys’ state tournament. Adding the girls’ bracket would guarantee a filled arena throughout the weekend.
That likely isn’t happening for 2020-21. But given the anticipated growth of the girls’ state championships for year two, the OHSAA would be hard pressed to not make the move for the following school year.
“I am good friends with the Shores out of Miami East and in talking with George and his wife Tracy—they are big advocates in Ohio—they say that it seems like (sanctioning) is just round the corner.”
For more information visit the #SanctionOH web page linked above or follow @OHGirlWrestling on Twitter.
