Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors unanimously approved the addition of a girls’ wrestling team to its athletic program Monday night.

The move will allow the three girls currently participating as part of Lehighton’s boys’ team to compete in girls-only tournaments and gets Pennsylvania one step closer to sanctioning the sport and giving it its own state championship.

“Our three girls had hoped to be here tonight but one was not in school today and the other two are involved in a chorus concert, but they are very excited for the opportunity to compete against other girls,” Lehighton varsity wrestling coach Floyd Brown said during the meeting.

In the two weeks since Lehighton’s board workshop on Dec. 5, seven additional districts added girls’ wrestling as a sport, including Hazleton in neighboring District 2.

The three Lehighton girls out for the wrestling team in the 2022-23 season is a school record, but Brown and athletic director Kyle Spotts said they’re confident participation will increase following Monday’s action.

“National data has suggested that girls are more likely to come out for wrestling once they know they don’t have to wrestle boys,” Spotts said in his proposal to the district school board.

As many as eight Lehighton girls showed interest in participating in wrestling at the high school level before the season started.

“I didn’t get to talk to all of them, but the two I did speak to indicated they were just unsure about working out with the boys so I think we could see those numbers go up now,” Brown, who will also coach the girls’ team, said.

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body of the state’s high school athletics, has vowed to officially sanction girls’ wrestling as a sport when 100 schools approve it. Lehighton, on Monday, became the 88th school to take that step.

“With an official girls’ team, Lehighton would also be able to hold dual meets against other schools with girls’ teams,” Spotts said. “There are currently nine other official girls’ teams within District 11. Those schools are a reasonable driving distance that we could schedule dual meets against if we wanted to also compete in this format.”

Other District 11 schools to add girls’ wrestling include Tamaqua, Bethlehem Liberty, Bethlehem Freedom, Bethlehem Catholic, Pine Grove, Palisades, Parkland, Easton and Executive Education Academy.

With the current coaching staff able to coach both programs the only costs associated with the program, Spotts said, would be for tournament entrance fees and transportation costs with district vans.

“Our girls’ team will have the opportunity to compete often with our goal to provide as many opportunities as possible,” he said. “We believe each girl can easily obtain over 10-15 matches the first year with an increase in opportunities as the program gets established.”