Coming up in April the NSAA Representative Assembly will have the opportunity to add two new sports in the winter: Girls wrestling and Bowling.

Last year the Assembly got close to giving the 60% needed to pass to make bowling a sport, there were concerns on how the schedule was going to be structured and what the playoffs would look like. It looks like the NSAA heard those concerns and have made the proper changes. NSAA executive director Jay Bellar said the most recent proposal “addresses many of the issues people had last year.” During the 2017 fall high school bowling club season, the proposal states approximately 900 student-athletes competed on high school club teams around the state.

The other sport the Assembly is looking at is adding girls wrestling. Girls wrestling passed in four of the six districts, and the sport appears to have even stronger support looking at a survey of wrestling coaches conducted by the NSAA. Of the 139 coaches who responded, 118 were in favor of the NSAA proposal of adding a separate girls division and girls state championship.

Bellar said 144 girls in the state took the Optimum Performance Calculator assessment to participate in high school wrestling this year competing against boys. Bellar mentioned that if the numbers were there they would be open to adding girls wrestling.

The proposal right now would start as soon as the 2019-20 season and would call for just one division throughout the state. According to the NSAA there is enough room during the state championships to add the girls format.