Mia Palumbo’s grandfather thought Jake Kadel was a flower delivery boy when he arrived at the family’s home in 2020. Palumbo’s brother, Rocco, died in a car in a car wreck on November 25 when the former Iowa Wesleyan coach showed up a few days later with a bouquet in hand.

Things eventually worked themselves out when Palumbo recognized Kadel and let him in, but it was a turning point for the Oak Lawn, Illinois, native. Trust was established — something that doesn’t happen easily in Palumbo’s world. 

“That showed me a lot about Jake,” Palumbo said. “Jake and (William Penn's assistant) Cash (Wilcke) kind of made their way into my circle. They weren’t super involved in my life before the passing of Rocco. They don’t know him and they never met him, but they’re here for me and I think that’s awesome.”

Palumbo, a 2018 double Fargo champion for Illinois, eventually joined Kadel and Wilcke at Iowa Wesleyan in Mount Pleasant. She reached the NAIA Championship finals in 2022 and 2023 before the school closed in March. 

Kadel’s next step was coaching with Wilcke regardless of location. That led to the head women’s job at William Penn University with Wilcke as an assistant. Palumbo was the first to join her coaches in Oskaloosa, Iowa. 

“I didn’t want to go anywhere but William Penn,” Palumbo said. “I told them right away.”  

No Instagram. No TikTok. No Twitter.

Palumbo is noticeably absent in a world that self-promotes on social media. You won’t see pictures of her sipping a Starbucks latte or flaunting a beach vacation or showing off her new shoes. She uses Facebook to keep up with family and to share wrestling updates, but that’s the extent of it.

“I don’t like social media,” Palumbo said. “It puts on a face for people. People only post what they want you to see. I believe a lot of people fake it till they make it on social media. There’s always going to be haters and I don’t like seeing it.

“I think it’s easy for me to tell if someone is genuine — somebody who’s not there to seek attention. I’m not super talkative with anybody. You don’t know somebody by looking at them on the outside — especially me in a wrestling room. I can relate to the person I am in the wrestling room but I think I’m pretty different outside of wrestling.”

If you think Palumbo gets overlooked, well, you’re right. And she knows it. If you can get her to smile, though, she lights up a room. The magic happens when her tight inner circle puts her at ease. 

“She’s a humble individual and she doesn’t look for the spotlight,” Kadel said. “That makes her unique. That’s what I love about her. She’s humble about everything she does. 

“She’s gone through a lot of struggles, I can tell you that. That path hasn’t been easy for her. She almost wasn’t going to wrestle in college. It was one of the hardest experiences I went through when I was recruiting her as a first-year head coach.”

Rocco Was A Rock

The strain of losing an older brother hasn’t gone away, either. Palumbo recognizes that she’s not going to be ok sometimes — especially in late November when the passing of Rocco is fresh on her mind. 

The greater tragedy is that so-called friends disappeared after his death — something the family doesn’t fully grasp. A harsh reality remains: certain people vanished without explanation. 

“Throughout high school I had him,” Palumbo said. “It was hard to just acclimate myself to knowing he wasn’t there. It took me a little while to get back on the mat because I didn’t know if I wanted to continue wrestling. It was really hard. Even now when I wrestle I think about all the tournaments we had together and it was always just me and him — it was just the two of us.” 

Palumbo wants to win the 2024 NAIA Championships but she wants to be more than a college wrestler or a college champion. The William Penn star wants to win the World Championships and the Olympic Games. Palumbo believes she can do it if she can get out of her way.

“I don’t have much confidence but I think now, more than ever, I can be more than just what I am,” Palumbo said. “I’ve never really had a lot of confidence — even when I was little. I just went out there and did my own thing. 

“I know I train hard and do what I’m supposed to do outside of wrestling but sometimes things don’t go your way as much as you want them to. I think that might be why I don’t have a lot of confidence because I know anything can happen at any moment so I try to leave it all on the mat. That’s all that’s in my control.”

If you think Palumbo is different, well, you’re right about that, too. And, as you may have guessed, she knows it. But, more importantly, she embraces it. 

“My parents told me that I’m part of the one percenters — the one percent of people who are just different,” Palumbo said. “I always told my family that I’m going to be the change. I’m going to make it happen. My parents never had it easy. I know that I haven’t had it easy, but I’m going to be the one to change the cycle. That’s what I tell myself all the time: I’m going to be the change. Just be different than everybody else.”