Conwell-Egan linebacker Gavin Pond follows dad’s footsteps, making a name for himself in the Catholic League

When Conwell-Egan assistant football coach John Pond watches his son Gavin on the field, he can’t help but notice similarities that make his heart smile.

Quick quips from his wife, Nicole, also can elicit a smile, but for a much different reason.

“My wife watched me play in college and sometimes she says, ‘It’s so crazy. It’s like watching you — except he’s better,’” John Pond said while laughing at a recent C-E practice. “I’m like, ‘Thanks, babe.’”

Jokes aside, Gavin Pond, a senior linebacker for the Eagles, has made a name for himself in the Catholic League, earning first-team all-league honors as a junior.

This season, Pond is off to a good start.

He returned a fumble for a score in the Eagles’ 47-6 demolition of Kensington on Sept. 1, marking C-E’s first game on its new turf field on the school’s campus in Fairless Hills.

Ivy League coaches from Yale and Princeton have shown interest in Pond, as have coaches from Lehigh, Lafayette, and Fordham. Coaches from Power 5 schools also have expressed interest, but, just like his father before him, the 5-foot-11 Pond is considered undersized.

Naysayers, however, aren’t new to the Pond household. In fact, they were the motivation that fueled a once-chubby preteen to change his diet, his body, his workout habits, and his future.

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John Pond, now 39, was a 5-8 outside linebacker who set several school records at Bristol High School before he played college ball at Division I-AA New Haven (now Division II) and then Albright.

The elder Pond finished his high school career with a school-record 84 sacks and also owns the single-season record with 28, breaking his own record of 22, which he set as a freshman.

The 2002 graduate said he also holds the school record for career tackles (656) and will be inducted into Bristol’s Hall of Fame in December.

“It was a good ride,” John Pond said. “Now, I’m just enjoying the passenger seat following my kids and their success.”

Early on, success wasn’t assured for his oldest. Gavin Pond was chubby and slow when he played youth football. That’s around the time he decided to change.

“He said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to be fat anymore,’” John Pond recalled. “He’s very goal-oriented.”

Pond began meal-prepping at around 12 years old, his father said. He’d make chicken and rice meals for an entire week and a mini soufflé concoction for breakfast.

John Pond and his wife are fitness “fanatics” who work out consistently, he said, so their son likely picked up some of their habits.

Before long, Pond slimmed down, grew, and got faster as he entered high school.

“Me and my wife say he’s an old soul,” John Pond said. “He’s just different. He knows where he wants to be and he knows what he has to do to get there.”

Pond transferred to C-E as a sophomore after his freshman season at Neshaminy.

When he arrived in Fairless Hills, he says he pestered the Eagles coaches every day so he could learn as much as possible.

Eagles head coach Jack Techtman said it took about three weeks before Pond moved from junior varsity to varsity. Not long after, he became a starter.

Meanwhile, Gavin also has had an eye on his father’s records. Not his sack records, though. Instead, he has been coveting his records in the weight room.

By his senior year, Pond said, his father bench-pressed 425 pounds. Pond currently benches about 300 pounds, but says he has time because his father didn’t reach his max until after his senior season.

Pond does, however, squat 500 pounds, which he says is more than his father could at his age.

As for similarities on the field, Pond said it’s more about subtle things he’s seen watching his father on YouTube.

“We have the same style of play,” Pond said. “He [was] crazy. You know how I am kind of smaller, well, people wouldn’t expect us to be as strong, fast, and as good as we are.”

His father also notices similarities in how his son carries himself, especially during post-play celebrations.

“When I watch film, it’s kind of really cool,” John Pond said. “It’s just how he reacts to the ball, the mannerisms, body language when he pops up after a big play and screams. It’s like, ‘Yeah, wow, that’s my son!’

“Gavin is probably the hardest worker I know. His knowledge of the game is better than mine was at that age. I was just an athlete. I didn’t study the game the way he does.”

When it comes to college coaches underestimating Gavin because of his height, John Pond suggests to his son that he not fret too much. Men in his wife’s family, he added, are 6-3 and taller, and many were late bloomers, so continued growth isn’t out of the question.

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Plus, he says his son can overcome his stature limitations with speed, strength, smarts, and hard work.

So, when his wife teases him about his son having already passed his prowess on the field, John Pond smiles because it’s a funny line.

But the truth is …

“There’s no better thing as a father,” he says, “to say that he’s better than I was.”