San Mateo Union High School District catches up with other districts, adds girls’ wrestling

Because SMUHSD’s six high schools only allotted for one stipend for wrestling coaches, Cap, Mills, Burlingame, San Mateo, Aragon and Hillsdale traditionally fielded co-ed wrestling teams with one head coach running the program. So, when the flag football boon began in 2023, and the district’s schools quickly hired coaching staffs for the newest revolution in girls’ sports, Cap wrestling coach Steve Matteucci cried foul.

“It’s just my pet peeve,” Matteucci said. “When I saw that happened, it just put me over the top in terms of fighting for this, because I’ve been fighting for this for 20 years.”

Matteucci has been coaching traditional boys’ football and wrestling at Cap since 2018, and took over the Mustangs wrestling program in 2022-23. Prior to that, he coached both sports at South City, and helped pioneer girls’ wrestling with the PAL’s first three-time Central Coast Section champion in the sport, Hiba Salem, from 2013-15.

Salem wrestled before the era PAL sanctioned its official girls’ wrestling league. The CCS has recognized girls’ wrestling since 2010 (officially sanctioning the sport in 2014), and the PAL followed suit in 2020, holding its first postseason tournament in the sport in the weeks prior to the pandemic closures of 2020. Since then, Menlo-Atherton of the Sequoia Union High School District has won three team titles at the PAL girls’ wrestling tournament, and Half Moon Bay of the Cabrillo Unified School District has won the last two.

Cap has earned one individual PAL girls’ wrestling title, when Mariah Gonzalez captured the crown in the 137-pound division in 2023-24. Gonzalez went on to a third-place finish in CCS and advanced to the CIF state tourney, where she posted a 2-2 record — all without having an official girls’ wrestling coach of record.

“The only reason she got there was because her parents were able to take her to the tough tournaments to prepare for it,” Matteucci said.

“All I can claim is constantly complaining about it to my athletic director and other coaches, and league reps,” he said. “It’s been a longstanding complaint, and just basically they deserve to be considered just like the boys.

“This year, the ADs and whoever else was discussing this in the district, they finally agreed to have a girls’ stipend. So, it’s a girls’ program, not co-ed.”

Capuchino named Jarin Oca its new girls’ wrestling head coach. Oca served as assistant varsity coach and junior varsity head coach last year.

SSF Unified School District follows suit

El Camino also added a girls’ wrestling coach in Jarrell Diokno, with South San Francisco Unified School District following suit by breaking up the co-ed wrestling blueprint to allow for official boys’ and girls’ teams.

El Camino is another pioneer in the sport, after the inaugural CCS postseason tournament of 2010 when Lady Colt heavyweight Yanira Ramirez captured the first section crown in PAL history.

“For us, it’s a godsend,” El Camino boys’ coach Japheth Aquino said, “because when you’re trying to develop a program, you want to send your boys to a boys’ tournament and girls to a girls’ tournament. ... So, everybody has a chance to develop in their own style.”

With the prestigious 26th Annual Napa Valley Girls Classic tournament taking place Friday and Saturday at American Canyon High School, El Camino is fielding six wrestlers. More importantly, it marks the sixth tournament in which the El Camino girls have competed this season. This time last year, the El Camino boys had competed in five tournaments, the same number as this season. Last season, the El Camino girls competed in three tournaments at the same juncture, half as many as this year.

“If anything, it’s expanding more opportunities for girls, because we can send a staff that goes three separate places (including junior-varsity),” Aquino said.

HMB hires new girls’ coach

While the CUSD has long financed both boys’ and girls’ wrestling, Half Moon Bay hired a new girls’ wrestling coach this season, this after former boys’ wrestling coach Ronnie Ekis stepped down in the offseason, marking the end of an era on the Coastside.

Ekis coached football and wrestling at HMB for 12 years, and officially took over the boys’ program when Tom Baker stepped down in 2020. Former girls’ wrestling coach Sam Temko officially took the reins of the boys’ program this season, and HMB graduate Emilio Bautista was named head coach of girls’ wrestling. Baker also returned to the fold this season as an assistant coach, though Temko said Baker’s role is more akin to director of the wrestling program.

In reality, Ekis’ and Temko’s coaching roles were interchangeable in recent years. Temko and Bautista are working similarly on practice days this season, with Bautista traveling to American Canyon to coach the four Cougars competing in the Napa Valley Classic.

HMB has seen its girls’ wrestling numbers diminish in recent years. The Cougars had approximately 30 girls on roster in 2019.

“And then COVID hit, and that kind of crushed our girls’ program,” Temko said.

Last year, the HMB girls repeated as PAL champs despite having just seven girls on roster. Prior to that, in 2023-24, Jamie Micallef advanced to the state tournament after winning the PAL individual title at 155s, taking third place at CCS, and becoming the first HMB girl to reach the podium at the state tournament with a fifth-place finish.

“Our girls’ program hasn’t had a lot of numbers, but it’s definitely been doing big things,” Temko said.

Cap, while having equal numbers to HMB this season, has grown its girls’ program exponentially in recent years. Last year, the Lady Mustangs fielded just two wrestlers. This year — with Matteucci being able to promise incoming athletes a full-fledged girls’ wrestling program — the roster has grown to nine non-seniors.

“The nine we have this year, it’s wonderful,” Matteucci said. “They’re like little chicks (baby chickens). They do everything together.”