When the Oskaloosa School Board tentatively approved a contract with the school district’s teachers for the upcoming school year, the proposal included a girls’ wrestling coach for the high school and one for the middle school.  Oskaloosa Superintendent Paula Wright says the District wants to be ready to have a girls wrestling team when it becomes a sanctioned sport next school year.

“We decided we needed to at least promote that.  And so we did authorize a place on the salary schedule for a high school girls wrestling coach and a middle school girls wrestling coach.  If we have interest from girls to go out for that sport, we will hire that position.”

Could Oskaloosa possibly form a co-op team with one or more other area schools to field a team?

“Absolutely.  We are interested in co-oping.  Obviously with wrestling, you need a full slate of wrestlers to be competitive.  I don’t know the interest of our girls here in Oskaloosa and whether we could field a whole team or not.  I do think it’s on the agenda to discuss if there are other smaller schools around us that would like to co-op and work together so that we could put together a whole team.”

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has sanctioned girls wrestling as a sport beginning with the 2022-23 school year.