By Tyce Dishman
The Indiana High School Athletic Association has decided to add two brand new sports to the mix.
Boys’ volleyball and girls’ wrestling.
But you shouldn’t get your hopes up yet.
“As of now we don’t plan on adding any of the two new sports emerging from the IHSAA,” Delta Athletic Director Tilmon Clark said.
The IHSAA offers 24 sports now. As of today Delta offers 20 of the 24, all but the two new ones as well as gymnastics and unified flag football.
The last time the IHSAA decided to add a new sport was in 2018 when it added unified flag football, and before that it was 2013 when it decided to add unified co-ed track.
Mark Detweiler, boys’ basketball head coach, said that he has doubts that the two new sports will be a good fit for Delta.
“I’ve been at schools where the addition of sports was destructive of other sports,” he said.
With an enrollment of nearly 800 students, Detweiler fears that the addition of new sports would take away interest from the already successful sports. Detweiler believes that the way we have it right now is the right recipe for success.
Even if these sports are not a right fit for Delta, they will be successful like they have been for years.
These two sports will start competing in Indiana in the 2024-25 school year. Girls’ wrestling will start in the winter, with boys’ volleyball playing in the spring.
The Indiana Boys Volleyball Coaches Association has been conducting their own tournament for many years dating back to 1994.
After girls’ wrestling and boys’ volleyball were added to the emerging sports list the interest in them took off.
Now girls’ wrestling has reached 177 schools and is impacting 1,400 individuals. Boys’ volleyball has impacted many schools, just passing the required number to become an official sport of 100 schools.
Although Delta may not be adding these sports at this moment that does not mean that we won’t add them ever.
“You have to keep an open mind and see how the landscape changes in the future,” Clark said.
