Women’s wrestling dawns at Skyline College

There was no women’s wrestling on the collegiate circuit at the time, but Allen, who coached the Skyline men’s wrestling program, ran a wrestling club at the community college called Peninsula Grapplers. In 1993, Camacho was the first woman to join the club. At the time, she didn’t have many women to wrestle with, and spent most of her time sparring with Allen to train for out-of-state meets.

“There were not too many women wrestlers, so I’d have to travel to other states to find competition,” Camacho said.

Oh, how the times have changed.

Earlier this year, Camacho — a Skyline Athletic Hall of Famer — was hired at Skyline to run the college’s first women’s wrestling program. Set to debut in the California Community College Athletic Association in spring 2025, the Lady Trojans debuted on the mat Sunday, Nov. 3, in the Menlo Women’s Open, a non-traditional schedule, off-season tournament at Menlo College.

Three Skyline wrestlers competed in the tournament, with Graciela Caro winning the championship in the 103-pound division. Caro, a freshman out of Amador Valley-Pleasanton, earned three wins in the round-robin bracket, finishing with a tech fall over Menlo College’s Angelique Cervantes to clinch the title. She also earned wins over Southern Oregon University’s Diamond Lopez, and Missouri Baptist University’s Lillian Hackworth.

Shannon Cleary (Oceana) and Arianna McPike (Mills) also wrestled in the tourney.

Skyline currently has 13 athletes on the women’s wrestling roster. Reaction to the first-year program has been positive, Camacho said.

“Very, very good,” Camacho said. “Everybody’s excited. And they’re just motivated that we have a women’s program, another women’s program at Skyline. Yeah, they’re very, very happy with us.”

The first official day of practice is scheduled for Jan. 15, 2025. The season begins 10 days later, Jan. 25, 2025, with a tournament at Cerritos College. Camacho said she is looking to add wrestlers to the roster by then.

“I’m thinking 18 will be a good number,” Camacho said. “We’re still looking. Hopefully we can get a few more girls.”

Camacho was one of 10 candidates for the position of head women’s wrestling coach, Skyline athletic director Dino Nomicos said. A majority of the applicants were male.

“Wrestling in our area is really good for women and I wanted to add another women’s team,” Nomicos said. “And there’s no other school in the Bay Area that offers it at the JC level.

“It was a good move for us for Title IX; we’re in compliance, we always have been but ... I want to give more women an opportunity,” he said. “And because there was no team and no program in the district, what an opportunity.”

Camacho, 57, is a longtime Daly City resident. She enrolled at Skyline College in 1988 when she moved to the Bay Area from Mexico, and took English as a second language classes for three years while competing on the Skyline cross-country and track teams. That’s when she enrolled in a self-defense class, proctored by Allen, when she made her “vicious” first impression on him.

She said she declined an offer to wrestle while attending Skyline.

“I used to see so many injuries in wrestling, I was like: ‘No thank you,’” Camacho said. “So, I did running ... but when I finish running, I’ll be back.”

Camacho transferred to San Francisco State, and only then joined the Peninsula Grapplers. In 1993, there were only about 1,000 women’s wrestlers nationwide, she said. Now, there are over 65,000.

“So, it’s incredible,” Camacho said.

After giving birth to her first child in 2000 — her first of four children, all boys — she stepped away from the wrestling world with a fine resume, having competed for the USA Freestyle National Team for the 1996-97, and ’97-’98 seasons.

Camacho worked as a physical education teacher for the San Francisco Unified School District for many years, and coached an array of sports at Aptos Middle School in San Francisco’s Balboa Terrace neighborhood. She took over as a full-time athletic director at Lincoln High School this year as part of the district’s pilot program that precludes ADs from teaching and coaching.

In February, she was named head women’s wrestling coach at Skyline.

“My skills, they were OK,” Camacho said. “I’m not going to say they’re the best. It’s been a while. I’m in great shape ... and this opportunity came along. And thank God, I got hired.”