Cindy Lucila: The Official Who Wrestled With Destiny

Not just the best wrestlers from Texas starred at the U.S. Marine Corps Nationals.

There was also a large contingent of officials from Texas USA Wrestling that a chance to be in the spotlight in some big matches earlier this month at the Fargodome.

One of those officials was Cindy Lucila, who had a finals match at the 16U women’s national championship. 

“I wasn’t really nervous until it was time for me to get on the podium and when the spotlight came on, that’s when the nerves kicked in,” Lucila said of the finals. “I missed a few calls because I was nervous, but everybody told me I did a good job.” 

This was her third time being an official at one of the biggest tournaments in the world. 

She said she was busy most of the spring and summer participating in tournaments and felt she had earned the chance to be in a national finals.

“I think this season, because I think going for my (USAW) M1 (mat one) upgrade, there’s been a lot of scrutiny on me,” she said. “The first time I felt it was at the U.S. Open when they put me on the platform. They hadn’t been watching me all week; they had been watching me on video and what I look like on video. So it was like. I was already used to it, but, yeah, it’s it took some time to get used to it. I’m a really shy person. I’m quiet.”

She’s on track to be the first female in Texas to be an M1 official, which is the highest category for officials. Lucila said that to be an M1, you have to be good in the chair, know how to run a mat, and be good on the whistle. 

She said her goal in 2025 is to reach the highest category for a freestyle official. She said her goal is to do the women’s college national championship, but that is a tournament where you have to have the M1 status. 

Her summer travel included officiating at the U.S. Open, the Junior Duals, the U23s and Fargo. 

Most of her time at Fargo ranged from 8 hours to 12 hours on the mat with a few breaks in between Greco and freestyle.

Now that Fargo is in the rearview mirror, the San Antonio resident is going to take a little break. She said she plays to get back in shape, aiming to lose 20 pounds to start competing in jiu-jitsu again. 

That sport provided the opening for her to get into being a wrestling official.

She started doing taekwondo 15 years ago when she was in Miami and when she moved to Philadelphia, she couldn’t find a schools he liked. That led to her discovering MMA and jiu-jitsu. 

She moved to Texas in 2018 and by coincidence, the high school folkstyle association was having a meeting where she was doing workouts for MMA.

Lucila admits she didn’t know much about wrestling, but a friend urged her to try. She started with doing skin checks and just learned on the fly.

A coach helped her understand the rules and she would read the rule book. She eventually would jump in classes and train with the wrestler.

When she started learning wrestling moves, it transitioned into jiu-jitsu.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this works. I’m actually winning tournaments now,” she said.

She’s been doing NCAA wrestling for the past two years and will said she loves officiating. Lucila travels throughout the college season with folkstyle college tournaments in Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Locally, she’s done men’s and women’s matches at Schreiner University in Kerrville.

“I love the national tournaments,” she said. “I do love the women’s college wrestling a lot. I did a club dual in Iowa and that was a lot of fun. But I also love doing the local high school folkstyle duals and tris. Not only are they 20 or 30 minutes from my house, I love the energy.”

When she’s not working as an official, she’s a tax prepare and launched Five Star Income Tax in San Antonio.

She said it provides flexibility and allows her chances to travel when it’s not tax season, not to mention the IRS is closed in November and December.

“Through my travels, I get to see places that I’ve never seen before,” Lucila said. “I get to talk to people that I would normally not talk to. This experience at Fargo has been been a surreal experience for me. Sometimes I look back and I’m like, I can’t believe I got this far with no background and not knowing anybody. I literally knew one person in the (wrestling) community when I started doing this eight years ago. One person and now I know so many people in USA Wrestling family.”