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On Wednesday, the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) Central Board of Control voted to sanction Girls’ Flag Football and Girls’ Wrestling as championship sports beginning with the 2024-2025 season.

Going into the 2023-2024 year, Girls’ Flag Football is heading into its third year as an AHSAA-sponsored sport but will officially be a championship sport – with its own state championship, regions and playoffs – beginning in 2024-2025. As for wrestling, girls have been allowed to compete for years but have mainly had to compete against the boys. In 2021, the AHSAA held its first ever Girls State Championship for wrestling – encompassing all classifications – but now, girls wrestling will be its own sport.

“This is great news for our girls’ student-athletes,” AHSAA Executive Director Alvin Briggs said. “The growth we have seen in both sports has been amazing in a very short time.”

Heading into 2023-2024, a total of 76 schools have declared girls’ wrestling a sport and 89 have girls’ flag football programs. The board approved creating two classifications for each sport. There will be a Class1A-5A and a Class 6A-7A for girls’ flag football and wrestling.

Additionally, the Central Board approved returning $2.25 million to member schools under its School Athletics Grants Program. It is the largest sum of money returned to member schools in AHSAA history. Also, the Central Board approved the waiver of membership dues for the 32nd straight year.