Gomez picked to help new league give wrestling a larger platform
Austin Gomez has been running his meat wallet.
That means talking trash, according to Lance Palmer, Gomez’s upcoming opponent in Real American Freestyle, a nonscripted wrestling league that debuts Aug. 30 at Cleveland’s Wolstein Center.
Gomez — a three-time state champion at Glenbard North, two-time All-American at Michigan, and a 2024 Paris Olympian representing Mexico — will face Palmer, 11 years older at 38, in the 155-pound match of the 10-match card.
Gomez called Palmer on his own social media game.
“He’s been talking a little bit of smack,” Gomez said.
Anything to build publicity for the new professional wrestling circuit. RAF may be nonscripted, but they want to sell seats.
“Me, I’m more reserved. I do my talking on the mat,” Gomez said.
In May he won his weight class at the Pan-American Championships in Monterrey, Mexico, his second Pan-Am title. In July Gomez went 2-2 at the Budapest Ranking Series, going 2-1 after a first-round injury default.
Training with the Cliff Keen Wrestling Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and expecting his first child, a boy, in September, Gomez was selected for the inaugural Real American Freestyle by Izzy Martinez.
Namesake of the Izzy Style Wrestling club and a former coach at Montini Catholic, Martinez in April co-founded RAF with others, including the late Hulk Hogan.
RAF wrestlers with Illinois ties include Montini graduate Real Woods, Lockport’s Matt Ramos and Chicagoan Kennedy Blades, who won Paris silver in women’s freestyle. The Aug. 30 event will be broadcast live on Fox Nation.
“It’s an honor to be one of the wrestlers chosen to be on the first card,” Gomez said.
“Wrestling’s one of the oldest sports in the world, and I think what we’re missing as a sport is our talents and wrestling being shown to the world and the country. I think wrestling as a whole, we’re not out there as much,” he said.
RAF will shortly announce its second event, and starting in 2026 Gomez said it plans to offer monthly events. More opportunity to highlight the sport.
“I love competing, I love the sport, and anytime I’ve got an opportunity to compete I jump on it,” Gomez said.
“I’m super grateful that I’m able to be on the first card, and I think it’s going to be a huge card. It’s going to be an amazing event and I can’t wait to be part of it and see this thing grow in the near future.”
Making a splash
Behind swimmers such as Luke Bucaro, Abby Hill, Derek Long, Isla Lynch, Antonika Shapovalova and Eva Wetzel, Barrington Swim Club won its fifth consecutive Illinois Open Water State Championship at Lake Manteno on Aug. 5.
Barrington led by nearly 50 points over the St. Charles Swim Team, 190 points to 140.50. No team had previously won five straight titles at the event.
As you read this, Marmion junior Brayden Capen, St. Charles North junior Thomas McMillan and Hinsdale Central junior Luke Vatev are in Otopeni, Romania. They got a summer vacation extension to compete in the 10th World Aquatics Junior Championships, which began Tuesday and run through Sunday.
The names of this trio are all over Illinois Swimming’s short course and long course records. Vatev was among the Red Devils’ foursome that set a national record in the 200-yard medley relay in last season’s IHSA preliminaries.
Man in blue
By day, Jim Spade of Bartlett works in sales in industrial refrigeration.
Also by day, and night, Spade is an umpire specializing in softball for national tournaments and high school games.
Picking it up as a teenager in Vandalia, Ohio, and then again in 2008 three years after moving to Bartlett, Spade worked the Junior League Softball World Series in Kirkland, Washington, July 27-Aug. 2.
A crew chief, he was at second base for the championship game, a 2-0 win by Columbus, Texas, over Illinois’ own Evergreen Park.
Spade was recommended by Little League representatives at Central region headquarters in Whitestown, Indiana. He’d previously been chosen to work the 2023 Senior Softball World Series in Delaware.
“My goal is to get the Little League Softball World Series in Greenville (North Carolina),” he said.
Typically he does 40 to 50 tournament games a year, and the same amount of high school games. He generally gets assigned Upstate Eight Conference softball games but also will travel to Burlington, Hampshire, Huntley, Kaneland and elsewhere.
Other than the oddity of a game suspended due to sunshine — in players’ eyes — the Junior League Softball World Series ran smoothly. Sportsmanship is “top notch,” and coaches and officials are “dedicated to the tenets of Little League, the community, the volunteerism,” Spade said.
“The experience is always awesome. I tell the folks down at the Central region that it’s always my favorite week of the year. I’m hooked, I love it.”
doberhelman@dailyherald.com