Far from home, close to greatness

Gomez, a native of Puerto Rico, sees championships in his future

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Sophomore wrestler Franklin Gomez couldn’t have always been this good, could he?

“I think I was,” Gomez said with a smile.

Gomez, No. 4 in the 133-pound weight class with a 20-1 record, aspires to win multiple NCAA Championships during his time at MSU, but his goal when he first began wrestling was much simpler.

“When I started wrestling, we didn’t have wrestling shoes, you had to earn your wrestling shoes, so I was wrestling without (them) for three months,” said Gomez, who began wrestling in his native country Puerto Rico at age 12. “I remember I wanted them so bad because everyone had some besides me and some other kids.”

After about five months, Gomez finally earned his wrestling shoes by beating children who had been training for five years.

He was a natural on the wrestling mat — ranked No. 1 in his weight class and wrestling three weight classes up for a challenge — and decided it was time for a new test once high school rolled around.

Leaving his family behind in Puerto Rico, Gomez moved to New Jersey before the beginning of his freshman year to improve his wrestling and get a good education.

While the education at his New Jersey high school was what he was looking for, a combination of things led Gomez to move back home after one year.

“It was kind of difficult because of the language — back then I didn’t speak English as well as I do now,” he said, adding that the wrestling program wasn’t what he expected.

“Education-wise everything was good, but at the end of that year I decided I wanted to come back because of the weather and not being able to be around my family.”

Gomez went back to Puerto Rico during his sophomore year and picked up right where he left off. After an impressive sophomore season Gomez decided to give the U.S. another try, this time at Brandon Senior High School in Brandon, Fla.

While in Brandon, Gomez lived with a host family and instantly made an impact on them, said Mike Joyce, who opened his home to Gomez.

“Franklin’s like a Michael Jordan – he makes everyone around him better,” Joyce said. “We’re a better family because of Franklin. He’s one of those kids, if you’re around him enough, he makes you better.”

It was in Brandon that MSU head coach Tom Minkel got his first glimpse of Gomez.

“I was actually in Florida looking at somebody else from the same high school, and his high school coach, who’s a friend of mine, said, ‘Hey, you ought to check out Franklin Gomez,’” Minkel said.

“I watched him at the state tournament, and he was clearly an exceptional athlete.”

Despite Minkel’s interest in him, Gomez had no interest in coming back up north. But at the urging of his high school coach, he visited MSU with high school teammate Rocky Cozart, who no longer wrestles for the Spartans.

Luckily for Minkel, MSU sparkled in the aspects that Gomez was looking for: a church he could go to, people he can trust and a nice campus.

A career record of 51-9 in less than two seasons at MSU has gained Gomez national attention. But it’s an individual NCAA Championship he wants.

“I know I can win a NCAA Championship title, I know I can win it,” he said. “The question isn’t if, it’s when, because I’m up there with the top three guys.

“I’m right there and before I leave I’m sure I’m going to win at least one title.”

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