When Title IX was passed in 1972, fewer than 300,000 girls participated in high school sports. Today the number has increased 847% to an astounding 2.7 million girls ("Update: Title IX" n.p.). While many people would agree that Title IX has played a major role in women's participation in sports, the act is very controversial. Title IX was signed by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972, for Education Purposes only, marking it illegal for educational institutions to discriminate because of someone's sex. In March of 1988, the law was amended and Title IX policy would apply to all programs administered by educational intuitions receiving federal funds including sports programs ("Title IX: 25 Years" n.p.). As a result of Title IX, 1,629 girls participated in high-school wrestling in 1997, up from 112 in 1990 and 760 in 1994" (Tomlinson n.p.). Colorado has the largest number of female wrestlers in the United States, in 1995 there were 55 female wrestlers (Tomlinson n.p.). At Green Mountain High School in Denver, Bill Maurice has coached girls in each one of his past three wrestling seasons. He states "Girls should be allowed to wrestle but I've been against girls wrestling against boys, I don't like it, and I never have." He also believes that the only reason that it has been allowed to happen is because the Colorado High School Activities Association is afraid of a lawsuit because of Title IX (Tomlinson n.p.). Even without the threat of a lawsuit, girls should be able to wrestle at Green Mountain High School. Men's programs need to make up their mind as to whether they want to allow girls to wrestle along side them or supply funding to form a girls program at the schools.
             Girls should be allowed to wrestle, they are showing interest. Boys have never had to show interest in playing any sport to have a chance to participate in it. Females are people too and have the right to ...