A lawn bowling team from Coronado, Javier and Angel Gomez, won a silver medal at the Bowls USA National Championships on Sept. 14, becoming the first father-son duo to reach the podium in the event’s 67-year history.
Angel, just 19, was still absorbing the accomplishment as they received their awards.
“Honestly, getting the medal felt amazing,” he said, admitting that nerves had gripped him during the competition’s final moments.
One other team stood between them and their place on the podium. Angel said he felt a flood of emotion when scores were tallied to show he and his father had clinched second place by a mere point.
“I looked at the board, I looked at my dad, he looked at me and we both just smiled and hugged,” Angel added.
The tournament, held at the Milwaukee Lake Park Lawn Bowls Club, saw some of the country’s best teams compete for supremacy in the Men’s Pairs division.
Teams vie in a marathon of 18-end games spread across three days, which tests physical and mental endurance.
In lawn bowling, an “end” is a round where players roll their bowls toward a small target called the “jack.” Points are scored based on how close the bowls land to the jack, and the game continues for a set number of ends.
But, amid meticulous placements and strategic shots, the Gomezes said something additional was at play: their father-son synergy.
For Javier, a seasoned bowler, and his son, the game is more than a contest. It’s a way to communicate without words — a language only they understand, honed over years of playing side by side.
“As soon as we’re out there, it’s like we’re reading each other’s minds,” Javier said. “We’ve been playing together for so long that we just know the strategies, we know what the other is thinking. It makes it easier when things get tough.”
Tough it was. The competition didn’t start smoothly for the Gomezes. They lost their first match to another team from their own division — a blow that made an already grueling tournament even harder.
But in lawn bowling, the real test is resilience.
“When you’re playing at this level, it’s just just about skill. It’s about staying calm, thinking ahead and not losing focus,” Javier said. “If one of us got stressed, the other knew exactly how to calm things down. We talk it through. We focus on the next move, not the last.”
Their teamwork paid off in the remaining rounds, where the pair managed to claw their way back to podium contention.
Javier said one of the tournament’s key moments came when they played against another father-son duo, much older, but equally seasoned.
“It was one of those moments where you just smile,” he said. “The game is about respect as much as it is about competition. You shake hands at the beginning and the end, no matter how it turns out.”
In the final match, Javier, struggling with physical discomfort, focused on positioning the bowls as close as possible, while Angel’s youthful energy came to the fore.
“We figured that we should take it [the game] slower, find our rhythm and then get more aggressive later,” Angel said.
Rob Behncke and Aaron Zangl of Milwaukee won the event with 21 total points, the Gomezes with 13.
Javier said the silver medal felt like a family victory and a generational one.
“It’s not an old man’s sport,” he said, “it’s a wise man’s sport.”
