INDIANAPOLIS — Hoosier high school students will now have two new officially recognized sports to choose from next school year.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association, or IHSAA, announced this week that full recognition has been approved for two sports: boys volleyball and girls wrestling.
IHSAA said the change came during an annual review of by-laws by the Board of Directors on Monday afternoon.
As officially recognized sports, IHSAA will now establish state tournaments for both boys volleyball and girls wrestling with details on the events to be released in the coming months.
While tournaments for both sports have been held by separate entities since 1994 and 2017 respectively, they will now receive IHSAA support and funding.
IHSAA said that, since being added to the "Emerging Sports Process" in 2022, both sports have seen significant growth over 24 months. Officials said that over 1,400 girls from 177 schools have participated in wrestling while there are over 100 high school boys volleyball teams in the state.
The two sports become the first to be fully recognized by the IHSAA since Unified Flag Football in 2018 and Unified Track and Field in 2013, both of which were in partnership with the Special Olympics. Before that, the last official IHSAA sport added was boys and girls soccer in 1994.
To read the IHSAA's full statement on the changes, click here.