Nassau adding first high school girls wrestling dual meet championship
Haley Gonzales of Hicksville wins at 120 pound in the inaugural Nassau girls wrestling individual championships on Feb. 2. Credit: Neil Miller
The sport of girls wrestling at the high school level continues to explode across Long Island . The exponential growth in Nassau County has led officials to add the first girls dual meet tournament in Long Island history.
“We’ll host the first-ever girls dual meet championship,” said Patrick Pizzarelli, the executive director for Section VIII, which governs Nassau County school sports. “The Section VIII Athletic Directors and Championship Advisory Board approved the event for the 2025-26 season. We’re giving our girls another opportunity to compete in a sport that is really taking off.”
The inaugural dual meet championship is scheduled to take place at Uniondale High School on Jan. 21, 2026.
“A great deal of time and effort went into making this a possibility for our girls,” said Section VIII girls wrestling coordinator Sean Severin. “This doesn’t happen without eight other school districts joining MacArthur High School of the Levittown School District in officially establishing girls wrestling teams.”
There are eight high schools in Nassau rolling out girls wrestling teams for the first time. They include Glen Cove, Bethpage, Valley Stream, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Jericho, Long Beach, and Hicksville. MacArthur had a varsity girls wrestling team in the 2024-25 school year.
Girls wrestling is the fastest growing sport for girls in the country. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of girls wrestling teams across the country has quadrupled over the past decade. The number of girls wrestling in high school increased to more than 50,000 last year. In Nassau County, there was an increase of 53% in the 2024-2025 season from the 2023-2024 season.
“There is an incredible amount of interest in girls wrestling,” Pizzarelli said. “We grew from one full team and a bunch of independent wrestlers to nine full teams.”
There are six girls wrestling teams in Suffolk County. All six teams include multiple schools being hosted by one school. The Town of Huntington hosts seven schools, Rocky Point, Bay Shore and Bellport host six apiece, East Islip hosts four and Copiague hosts two.
“We have 31 schools participating in the sport,” said Pete Blieberg, the assistant executive director at Section XI. “We’re also seeing continuing growth in the sport.”
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
