FULTON – The Fulton City School District Board of Education met last night, Tuesday, October 11, where it discussed the possibility of adding a varsity girls wrestling program to the district.
During the superintendent’s report, student representative Mali Lamanna read a resolution declaring October 17 through October 21 to be School Board Recognition Week. Board members Brenda Abelgore, Tim Conners, Dave Cordone, Robbin Griffin, Jennifer Mainville, and Jessica Pappalardo were named in this recognition.
In honor of National Principals Month, Superintendent Brian Pulvino recognized FCSD’s six principals: Nathan Murray, Marc Copani, Gina Salerno, Elizabeth Stoddard, Wil Mecum, and Jeff Hendrickson.
Next, Athletics Director Christopher Ells discussed introducing a girls wrestling program to the district. He said in August the New York State Public High School Athletic Association introduced girls wrestling as an “emerging sport.” There are four sections in New York that have at least four schools involved. He also said there are also plans for a state invitational for girls only.
Ells is involved in representing Section III on a state level in regards to girls wrestling. In Section III, other schools looking to add a girls wrestling program include Homer, Holland Patent, General Brown, and Camden.
“At this time, the only [Section III] school that has been approved is Homer. Many of the other schools are in the same situation that we’re in. They are presenting to their boards this week,” Ells said. “We’ve always had one or two girls on our team in the past, so there are schools that are doing mixed competition throughout this year.”
In mixed competition, Ells said a girl who participates in a sport that is designated for boys must complete a physical fitness test and has to be approved by the section and by the state. If the district creates a girls wrestling team, Ells said they would also have the opportunity to wrestle other girls in mixed competition.
“The girls that are wrestling on the mixed competition, quite often they don’t get the opportunity to wrestle,” Ells said. “So they would have that opportunity, but they would also have the opportunity wrestling in an all girls tournament.”
Ells said 16 girls have expressed interest in joining a girls wrestling team. Of those students, 14 do not currently play a winter sport and 12 have been coming to practice at the wrestling club on a regular basis. The wrestling club has also added a girls division. He later said the minimum number of students for a feasible team would be about 10.
“We’re very fortunate in our community that we have a wrestling club, that we’re able to get the communication out there and able to see what kind of interest we would have in something like this,” Ells said. “I do believe we have enough of the girls showing interest… to move forward with a girls program.”
As for the cost of a girls wrestling program, Ells estimates a budget of around $13,000. This would include $8,000 for a varsity level coach, $3,000 for transportation (tentative), and $2,000 for tournament and referee fees (tentative).
Ells said while he can see Fulton having a junior varsity team in the future, for some JV teams, they could face going to a competition and not having anyone to wrestle. He said even for varsity, sometimes they struggle to get the right number of matches because other schools have smaller teams.
Board member Jennifer Mainville asked what the difference would be between creating a new girls varsity team versus keeping a mixed team. Board member Tim Conners explained that separating the teams would give the girls more of an opportunity to be able to wrestle in tournaments because only one student is allowed to wrestle per weight class in tournaments.
Mainville said if the district is considering spending $13,000 on adding a new sport, it should also consider its existing sports’ needs.
The board also asked Ells about how the program will be sustained in the future, both with funding and with generating an interest in the program as the older athletes graduate, and where the funding for uniforms will be coming from.
“The club has always been able to assist with the equipment and they’re willing to step up and buy uniforms for us to get this off the ground, and even if we don’t do wrestling this year, they still have girls at the club that will be wrestling,” Ells said.
After discussion, the board decided to move forward with the idea of creating a varsity girls wrestling team and will again address it at the next BOE meeting on Tuesday, October 25.
To view the remainder of the BOE meeting, see the video here. For last night’s agenda, see here.
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varsity girls wrestling.REALY, wow. whats next, boy’s home economics.