Ponder becomes new baseball coach at Catholic

Former Pike Road coach Alan Ponder has taken over the baseball program at Catholic. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

When Catholic athletic director Daniel Veres went in search of a baseball coach, he only had to make one phone call.

Allen Ponder will become the Knights’ new baseball coach, taking over for Chandler Avant after Avant resigned from the position last week to search for a job in private business in Michigan after his wife Julia accepted a position in the state.  

“We love Chandler and he was doing a great job here but life happens,” Veres said. “The timing of everything worked out. We identified the person we wanted to go after and we went after him. I think he’s a top 10 high school baseball coach in the state of Alabama. His results speak for themselves. It’s not that we didn’t have that before but Allen has his own coaching style and he’s been around a little longer than Chandler. I don’t think we could have hired a better coach.”

Avant just completed his second season at Catholic, taking over a rebuilding effort in 2024 and guiding the Knights to the playoffs. This past season, Catholic missed the playoffs but return virtually every starter from last year’s team, making Avant’s departure that much harder on both the players and the head coach.

“It’s tough,” Veres said. “He’s a great guy, too, and he loves baseball. He had coached football the last two years and he was going to focus solely on baseball this year, giving year-round instruction to our players. I’m losing a friend, too. His wife was our dance coach, so they’ve been a nice part of the community. They’re going to be missed.”

Veres wasted no time in contacting Ponder, who was released a year ago by Pike Road and has spent the last year in private business in Troy. After spending 2025 away from the sport, it didn’t take much convincing to get Ponder to return to the diamond.

“I think when you get away from the game for a year like I did, it gives you time to really sit down and evaluate if you still have that passion for the game, those competitive juices,” Ponder said. “When last season rolled around, I went and watched some high school games and it really gave me a new appreciation for it and made me realize that I missed it.

“I certainly wasn’t looking for an opportunity, but I was certainly willing to entertain one if one became available.”

Avant wasn’t looking to leave, either, but didn’t feel he had a choice after the opportunity that was presented to his wife, a local broadcaster who is a Michigan native. He wasn’t able to inform all of his players immediately because of the summer break and said the conversations he did have with players were difficult.

“It was a challenging conversation to have with them,” Avant said. “They were sad and I was sad, but at the end of the day you have to do what’s best for your family. It’s going to be tough leaving that group. They were so young and we got them when they were so young. It’s pretty exciting what they can do (this upcoming season), but they can do it with or without me.”

That’s the conversation Avant had with Ponder, convincing him to take the job.

“I’ve known Coach Avant for a long time so when he let me know that he was leaving and heading up north for an opportunity for her, I called Chan and asked him some questions and he did not have one bad thing to say about (Catholic),” Ponder said. “In fact, he sang their praises. And what was most appealing to me was the family atmosphere that he said Catholic has and most importantly the level of support he said he received from the administration, the athletic director, from top to bottom.

“I’ve known him for a long time and I have all the confidence in the world that I’m walking into a well-coached team, one that will be fundamentally sound. For me, that’s all I’m looking for.”

Avant, meanwhile, said he wasn’t sure he would pursue a high school coaching job in Michigan.  

“I’m probably going to get into the fitness industry,” he said. “I don’t think I want to coach up there just because of the weather but they do a bunch of (training). Not a lot of schools have entire indoor facilities so they have to get their players trained somewhere.”

He added that he was thankful for the opportunity to coach at Catholic over the past two years.

“It’s been very rewarding,” he said. “I was just trying to give each and every player an opportunity to play at their highest potential, to let each player fulfill their dream. That has an upside for reward, especially with the talent coming up.”

Ponder was hired in the summer of 2020 at Pike Road and promptly guided the Patriots to the Class 5A state finals. But after three seasons, the school system and its popular baseball coach parted ways after Ponder failed to earn his teaching certification.

He spent the previous six years at Pike Liberal Arts in Troy, winning the Alabama Independent School Association Class AAA state championship in 2018 and 2019.

A native of Auburn, Ponder is a 2002 graduate of Lee-Scott Academy, where he compiled a .517 batting average and set a school record with 49 home runs in five years on the varsity. His senior year, he was 12-0 on the mound with a 0.09 earned run average (allowing one earned run in 79.2 innings) with 139 strikeouts and seven walks. His No. 44 jersey was retired by Lee-Scott Academy.

Ponder was named “Mr. Baseball” by the Alabama Sports Writers Association in 2002 and remains one of only two AISA players (Morgan Academy’s Gunnar Henderson in 2019) ever to win the prestigious award. Ponder was drafted twice, selected by the Orioles in 2002 as a high school senior and by the Pirates in 2008 upon his graduation from Auburn University Montgomery.

He was signed out of high school by Jim Wells at Alabama, but left the Crimson Tide after three injury-plagued seasons. He transferred to AUM and played for Q.V. Lowe, where he experienced a resurgence in his career, going 9-1 on the mound and hitting 31 home runs with 133 RBIs in two years for the Senators. He was inducted into the AUM Hall of Fame in 2017.

He played for a year in the Pirates’ organization, then returned to Montgomery and went to work at Strike Zone for a year. He got into coaching in 2010 at Lee-Scott Academy for three years, then went to Lakeside School for two years before moving on to Pike Liberal Arts.