This year students will have two new chances to play on an athletic team as Boys Volleyball and Girls wrestling are on their way to Merrillville High School.

“This year the ISHAA are adding both girls wrestling  and boys volleyball this year as emerging sports,” Athletic Director Janis Qualizza said. ”Emerging means they do not have a state tournament for the first 2 years while schools are preparing teams.”

Girls wrestling will be considered a winter sport and will coincide with boys wrestling.

“The girl’s head wrestling coach will be Coach Maldonado, who is already the boy’s head coach,” Qualizza said. “He will have a female assistant as well.”

Last season, the boys wrestling team had female Sophomore (Freshman at the time), Joy Cantu competing with the team. This year, girls are still allowed to compete on the boys team, but with restrictions.

Meanwhile, Boys Volleyball will be a spring sport, with a callout meeting being held right after school on Wednesday in the main gym. If you cannot make the meeting, please leave your name in the Athletics Office before the meeting.

The impact of these sports on other athletics is yet to be determined.

“I don’t think girls wrestling will impact another sport during winter,” Ms. Qualizza said. “Boys volleyball may take some athletes from other sports, but again we will not know until we start this spring.”

Most importantly, these two new sports will give students new opportunities, Ms. Qualizza said.

 “As members of the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) we certainly want to offer all the sports the other seven schools will be offering, so that we can remain competitive within the conference. At this time, all DAC schools are offering both new sports,”  Ms. Qualizza said.