The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the SanctionPA movement to bring high school girls wrestling to the Keystone State.

By no means was it stopped.

“At this time last year, there were zero high schools in Pennsylvania offering girls wrestling as a sport,” North Allegheny coach Dan Heckert said. “Despite the pandemic, from March to November, that number reached nine.

“We're anticipating a few more next year. It's going to grow. It's a matter of time.”

Heckert is on the SanctionPA task force. North Allegheny became the only high school on the western side of the state to have a girls wrestling team this year.

The other eight Pa. schools offering the sport are JP McCaskey, Executive Academy, Easton, Central Mountain, Gettysburg, Annville-Cleona, Governor Mifflin and Brandywine Heights.

State senator Scott Martin (R-13), a former PIAA and national heavyweight wrestling champion, recently introduced a resolution designating this Sunday as Pennsylvania Girls Wrestling Day.

The first girls state wrestling competition will be held at Spooky Nook in Lancaster County that day. JP McCaskey in that county was the first state high school to introduce girls wrestling as a varsity sport.

“We traveled east to compete this year,” Heckert said. “Roster numbers are low right now, so teams merged with each other to give the girls a feel for what a dual match is like.”

There has been a 30 percent increase in high school girls' participation in wrestling over the past year.

Leah Wright, media liaison for the SanctionPA task force, said more than 100 girls will be competing in Lancaster County Sunday.

“It's a landmark event,” she said. “Girls wrestling is the fastest growing high school sport in the state.

“We were hoping to have 20 to 25 high schools have teams this year. The pandemic took away that goal. But we know the numbers are climbing.”

Butler and Seneca Valley both hope to get some type of girls wrestling program in place, possibly as soon as next school year.

“Sometime in April, I'm planning on seeking board approval to do a survey of our student population to gage interest in the sport and go from there,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said.

Butler has one of the top female high school wrestlers inn Pennsylvania in freshman Ana Malovich. She will not be competing Sunday, but two Butler youths — Brin Zehmisch (age 11-12) and younger sister Rowan (9-10) — will be participating in the youth portion of the event.

“We're hoping to introduce it (girls wrestling) as a club sport at first,” Golden Tornado wrestling coach Scott Stoner said. “We're running a wrestling club downtown this summer and we want to teach girls what the sport is all about there.

“Once this gains traction ... I know we have girls in this school dustruct who are interested.”

Butler has at least two girls wrestling in its youth program right now, Mylan said.

“We've had girls wrestling at the junior high level over the past 10 years,” he said. “They get to the high school level and it tails off. They don't want to wrestle against the boys.”

Seneca Valley wrestling coach Kevin Wildrick agreed.

“We've got three girls in our elementary program,” Wildrick said. “If we had a (girls) team right now, I know we'd have more.

“It's not a bad possibility we'll be starting a girls program soon. We will never know how many girls are truly interested until we form a team.”

Heckert said that growing high school boys wrestling programs, such as those at Knoch, Mars and Slippery Rock, can benefit by forming girls teams.

“The added interest would benefit both teams at the school and they would grow together,” he said. “That has already happened at other places.”

Some elementary and junior high teams in the state are adding separate girls programs to accommodate interest.

“Pennsylvania has a rich wrestling tradition that will only grow stronger with the official recognition of girls wrestling in the near future,” Sen. Martin said in a prepared statement.

“We can all look forward to seeing more girls take advantage of the opportunities associated with this great sport that allow individuals to achieve tremendous success in life.”