Javier and Angel Gomez are going back to the U.S. National Lawn Bowling Championships, two years after becoming the first father-son team to reach the podium in the event's 67-year history.
The Coronado Lawn Bowling Club pair won the 2026 Southwest Men's Pairs Playdowns in August, beating out 29 other teams in a double-elimination bracket to claim one of only two regional berths to Nationals, according to the Coronado Eagle & Journal. They'll represent the Southwest Division in September in Laguna Beach.
Every match in the playdowns consisted of 18 ends, with teams playing two matches per day.
The pair knows the national stage. On Sept. 14, 2024, in Milwaukee, Javier and Angel won silver at the Bowls USA National Championships, the first father-son duo to reach the podium in the competition's history, The Coronado News reported.
A sport born on Seventh Street
Javier Gomez, 55, has lived in Coronado most of his life and raised three children on the island. He picked up lawn bowling in 2013 after his family was introduced to the sport at the Coronado Lawn Bowling Club, based at the John D. Spreckels Center on Seventh Street.
Angel, 21, started seriously competing in 2020. He is the youngest bowler on the U.S. national team and finished fourth at the 2024 World Bowls Junior Indoor Championship in Hong Kong.
The father-son dynamic cuts both ways. At the South Central Open in Arizona, they drew each other in singles. Angel took the first set; Javier won the second and the match by a few millimeters.
"I've been his coach this entire time. There's really nothing I can hide from Angel, and there's nothing that he doesn't know that I'm … going to do," Javier Gomez told The Coronado News.
What's next
Both Gomezes have international competition on the calendar beyond Nationals. Javier will travel to England for a Professional Bowls Association tournament, while Angel heads back to Hong Kong. Javier said he hopes lawn bowling makes the Olympics by 2032.
"We're just going to take it one game at a time, one ball at a time, and see where it ends up … As much as we'd love to win it … for me, I've already won just by playing with my son," Javier said.
Angel will also teach a new five-week "Coronado Sunset Bowlers" class for adults ages 18–40 at the John D. Spreckels Center beginning Thursday, Sept. 3, from 5–6 p.m.
