High school girls wrestling, state by state

Yes: all 51 jurisdictions, the 50 states and the District of Columbia, reported girls wrestling for their high schools to the NFHS for 2025-26, at 8,853 schools. By our count, read off each association's own pages, 49 of the 51 hold a girls' state championship or have sanctioned a first one, and 46 have crowned girls' champions; the District of Columbia and Vermont hold none. The NFHS's own count is 40 state associations conducting girls' championships, and the section below the table says what each count counts. Your state's row links its page: the association, the year of its first girls' championship, and how many girls wrestle there.

Two counts, and they do not match. The NFHS, releasing its 2025-26 participation survey on August 27, 2026, says 40 state associations are conducting girls' state championships and that every state now reports some girls' participation. It does not say which 40, or what it counts as a championship.

Ours is 49 of 51, read off each association's own pages. Of the 49, 46 have crowned girls' state champions, 33 of them in girls' brackets inside the state meet rather than at a separate championship. For 45 of the 46 we could source the year of the first championship; Mississippi crowns girls' champions, but no record we found names its first year. The rest, Delaware, Nevada and West Virginia, have sanctioned a first championship not yet wrestled. The NFHS list is not published, so we cannot say which of ours it leaves out. Both numbers stand here, each with what it counts.

High school is folkstyle, under the NFHS rule book each state association adopts, and a girl wrestles under the same book whether her opponent is a girl or a boy. What she wears, her hair and how a match is scored are on the high school wrestling rules, as written; when practice opens and the state series run is on when wrestling season starts.

What weight classes do high school girls wrestle?

Of the 51 jurisdictions, 40 wrestle one of the three NFHS girls' sets, 14, 13 or 12 classes from 100 to 235 pounds, each in the latest document we read from its association: 25 the 14-class set, 13 the 12-class set and 2 the 13-class set. Connecticut, New York and North Dakota publish girls' lists of their own, Vermont prints none, and for the other 7 (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Mississippi, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia) we could not confirm a list. We read them between September 20, 2026 and October 11, 2026; the three sets are the NFHS's own, from its release establishing them, re-read for 2026-27 on September 20, 2026. The Weight classes column above has each state's pick, and the weight classes page prints all three sets class by class.

What is the minimum body fat for high school girls?

It is 19 percent, raised from 12 by the NFHS: "the minimum body fat percentage for females has been raised from 12 to 19 percent, effective with the 2026-27 season" (NFHS, 2026-27 rules changes release, read September 29, 2026). We found 5 associations whose own documents still print the old 12 percent for girls: Delaware, New Hampshire, Ohio, Utah and Vermont. How making weight works quotes each of those documents and shows how the floor becomes the lowest weight she may certify at.

It depends on the state: each association sets its own rule, and for 31 of the 51 jurisdictions the state page sums up what the association's own documents say, with the link. For the other 20 we found nothing published, which is not the same as a ban: ask the school and the association. Three that differ:

• Virginia (VHSL): A girl whose school has no girls program wrestles on her school's boys team, and before the region tournament starts she must choose whether she is competing in the boys or the girls region and state series. (vhsl.org, read September 3, 2026)
• New Jersey (NJSIAA): A girl at an NJSIAA member school that does not sponsor girls wrestling may enter the state individual tournament as an independent athlete, starting at the district tournament. She must be accompanied by a certified faculty chaperone or an administration approved coach, and the district must certify her six practices and a completed physical. (njsiaa.org, read September 3, 2026)
• Indiana (IHSAA): IHSAA treats boys wrestling and girls wrestling as two separate single gender sports and a female student may not wrestle in a boys program. Indiana also does not permit schools to combine into one team, so a girl whose school does not sponsor girls wrestling has no IHSAA published path to a team at another school. (ihsaa.org, read September 3, 2026)

When she wrestles on a boys' team, which weight classes apply and where she may enter a boys' bracket is on girls wrestling boys, and a parent's guide to girls' wrestling covers the injury numbers, the weight rules and the gear list.

Mostly in February 2027: of the 48 girls' state championships on our calendar, 46 have a date posted by the association, and 37 of those start in February 2027. The first is Alaska's, Dec 18 to 19, 2026, and the last Ohio's, Mar 12 to 14, 2027. The other 2 had not posted a date when we read their pages, so the calendar prints the month and no day. Mississippi has a girls' championship but is not on the calendar yet. Each date was read off the association's own page, between September 3, 2026 and October 14, 2026.

• Iowa girls' state championship: Feb 4 to 5, 2027, Xtream Arena, Coralville, IA (read September 3, 2026).
• Indiana girls' state championship: Jan 22, 2027, venue not posted yet (read September 3, 2026).
• Nebraska girls' state championship: Feb 16 to 17, 2027, CHI Health Center Arena, Omaha, NE (read September 3, 2026).
• Washington state championships, with girls' brackets: Feb 17 to 20, 2027, the dates of the whole tournament, Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, WA (read October 5, 2026).

All 48, with the venue where one is posted and the qualifying path where the association publishes one, are on the girls' state championship calendar.

Participation is the NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, the census every state association files. Each state row links the survey PDF its numbers were read from, and the rows sum to the survey's own national totals, which is asserted in the test suite so a hand edit that drifts fails the build.

The rank by schools and the NFHS's championship count are the NFHS's own: the 2025-26 survey's table of the ten most popular girls' programs, and its release of August 27, 2026, Led by Girls Flag Football and Girls Wrestling, High School Sports Participation Increases for Fifth Consecutive Year, both read on September 29, 2026.

The three girls' weight class sets and the 19 percent floor are the NFHS's too: the sets from the release that established them, re-read for 2026-27 on September 20, 2026, and the floor from the release that raised it (NFHS, 2026-27 rules changes release, read September 29, 2026). Championship dates are the calendar's, each read off the association's own page on the day its championship page gives.

Sanctioning, format, weight classes and the rule for a girl at a school with no team were read off each association's own pages, or off a USA Wrestling or NFHS milestone release where the association keeps no record. Every one of those is linked on the state page with the date it was read, which for this pass was 2026-09-03. Where we could not establish a fact, the page says so and prints nothing, because a missing number beats a wrong one.

Next: the state championship calendar carries all 48 with the dates their associations have posted; the club directory covers the rooms that train girls when school is out of season, and the college directory is where the good ones go after.