The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) has officially sanctioned boys volleyball and girls wrestling as high school sports. These sports will be included in the busy IHSAA calendar starting in the 2024-2025 school year, with girls wrestling joining the winter sport slate and boys volleyball becoming a spring sport.
Both boys volleyball and girls wrestling have been working towards gaining full recognition for years. They were added to the IHSAA’s Emerging Sport Process in 2022, where they held matches in their respective seasons. Now, with full recognition, both sports will have an IHSAA state tournament. Details about the tournaments will be announced in the coming months.
Girls wrestling has been holding their own tournament for the past seven years thanks to the Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association, while boys volleyball has been hosting a state tournament since 1994 through the Indiana Boys Volleyball Coaches Association. Both sports have experienced significant growth during their time in the Emerging Sport Process, with over 1,400 wrestlers from 177 schools participating in girls wrestling and more than 100 schools participating in boys volleyball.
These new additions mark the first sports to be fully recognized by the IHSAA in six years. The last sport to gain recognition was unified flag football in 2018. Unified track and field was the only other sport to join the IHSAA in this century back in 2013. Both boys volleyball and girls wrestling are co-ed sports partnered with Special Olympics Indiana, showing a commitment to inclusivity in high school athletics.