Girls VS. Boys

Zack Fowler, the father of undefeated girl wrestler Piper Fowler, says the possibility of his daughter not allowed to participate in a boy dominated league “would be a travesty”.

Piper is 24-0 this season.

All of her opponents are boys and some of them are state champions.

Zack expects her to have a bright future in the sport of wrestling.

But her success could come to a screeching halt next season after State Representative Bruce Griffey introduced a bill prohibiting athletes from participating in sports leagues that do not match their gender assigned at birth.

Bruce Griffey: “We all know that males have bigger hearts, bigger upper body strength and that can give them a genetic advantage when competing against women in a number of sports.”

But for athletes like Piper, her success relies on skill, not genetics.

Today, Griffey took the time to speak with News 12 about considering a change in the bill’s language.

“If we need to tweak the legislation so that girls that are participating in individualized sports againts male competition because there is not enough females in it, I’m more than willing to tweak the legislation”

Zack Fowler says, “I think that ultimately, the girls want to compete against girls in their own league, but certainly when the opportunity arises just to get mat time -just to get matches. They feel they should be able to wrestle boys when it’s necessary because often times there is not enough girls at their weekly matches for everybody to get a substantial number of matches like the boys get.”

Fowler believes girls having the option to choose leagues would be a fair approach.

“Right now I think it’s more of a matter of making sure that the girls have an equal option. So if girls don’t have an equal option to football. Then maybe there is a few girls that can make the football team until there is enough interest for a girls league in football.”

He says he can only speak from the perspective of a father and coach.

Her accomplishments would not have been possible if her competition was limited.

“The things that she’s learned, the experiences that she’s gained, I think every young girl should have the opportunity to get. Often times we try to label people and put them in their little boxes and Piper proved to me that’s not the idea that I should take with my kids.”

Griffey reiterates that the purpose of the of the possible rule change is to protect female  athletes from being discriminated and compete at a disadvantage, simply because they were born a girl.

He says he will meet with the TSSAA Commission about the issue.