BUTTE VALLEY — Gabe Ponce and Butte College football coach Robby Snelling had been talking about Ponce playing for the Roadrunners since elementary school, with dreams of one day moving on to play at at four-year university.
Ponce attended Pleasant Valley High School where he played football under Vikings’ head coach Mark Cooley alongside Snelling’s son Bryson, and after two years with the Roadrunners, Ponce signed his letter of intent to continue his academic and football career at Division I University of Texas, Permian Basin.
“I’m excited for sure. Having three younger brothers and two loving parents is going to be hard to move away, but I’m excited to go compete for a spot and compete for a national championship,” Ponce said. “It was for sure a great experience to be in Chico and to be close with Coach Snelling at a younger age and to grow up knowing Butte is going to be a spot for me to play. Butte really did shape me.”
When asked about his recruiting journey, Ponce described it as, “rough.” He had a Division I offer to Wofford College in South Carolina, and the day before his visit the defensive coordinator who was recruiting Ponce moved to West Virginia, and the offer was pulled. Ponce then relegated to a lot of Division II schools who were offering, but he truly wanted to play Division I football.
Permian Basin, a D-I school, showed a strong desire for Ponce, something he was searching for. Head coach Kris McCullough and defensive coordinator Jake Shaw followed Ponce on Twitter, and Ponce reached out hoping to hear back. When he found out Permian Basin was interested, he asked if it was a partial or full-ride scholarship. The coaches said whatever it was going to take, as they wanted to pair an experienced linebacker like Ponce with returning All-American linebacker Tristan Exline.
“The next day we found out it was a full scholarship, and right away it clicked like God set me up for this. This is where we’re going to go,” Ponce said. “The way they threw the full ride right away showed how much they wanted me was special. Not many do it right away.”
Snelling considered Permian Basin getting Ponce a, “steal personally.”
“I think Gabe could play at a really high level, but at the same time there’s a lot of changes in college football right now, so to be able to go to a really good program in a good conference on a full scholarship for us that’s a huge win on a lot of levels,” Snelling said.
Ponce was fourth on the Roadrunners with 51 tackles, had eight and a half tackles for loss, three pass breakups, and added one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and one and a half sacks his sophomore season.
Ponce said at Butte College he truly learned a lot schematically about football, and knowing terminology and schemes and why you do something is something that sets him apart from others. He learned several different types of defenses at Butte College that he is now comfortable in and looks forward to taking that to the next level.
Snelling said when you watch Ponce play, you can tell he truly loves the game.
“I think there’s some guys you watch play and they do their job, nothing more and nothing less,” Snelling said. “He made big plays all year long when we really needed him, and just enjoys playing and you can see that in how he plays and even how he practices .. He’s worked extremely hard. Hats off to him and his family, who have bought into what we do. I think that’s a big part of it is that he’s always been bought in, and it’s been awesome to see him continue to get better and I don’t see that changing.”