Parents of tragic Colorado QB Dominiq Ponder hail coach Deion Sanders as they speak out for the first time since son’s death: ‘Couldn’t have made it without him’

The devastated parents of late Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Dominiq Ponder have spoken for the first time about their grief, the legacy of their son and how Deion Sanders has helped them navigate their darkest hour.

In a moving interview with the Daily Mail, speaking for the first time since his tragic death, mother Catrina and father Wendell described Dominiq as a man who ‘would give you the shirt off his back’ and had ‘grown from a boy to a man’ in his two years playing under head coach Sanders, known to many as ‘Coach Prime’.

‘We are broken,’ Wendell, Dominiq’s father, said. ‘We are doing the best we can. But we are so proud of him. We just cannot believe the love we have received. Thousands of text messages and phone calls.’

‘Just shock,’ Catrina added. ‘It’s truly unbelievable. This was going to be his year.’

Ponder, 23, died in the early hours of Sunday morning in Boulder in a single car accident after seemingly losing control of his Tesla, crashing into an electrical line and rolling down an embankment.

He was a backup quarterback at the Buffaloes, where he spent the past two years. Ponder had fallen in love with life in Boulder, telling his parents it was going to be his home forever and throwing his all into earning a bigger role on the team.

‘Said he was never going to leave,’ Wendell explained. ‘He said “if I make it to the NFL, great, it’s my passion but if not, I am going to coach here and I am going to live here.”‘

The biggest reason for that, his parents say, is the influence of Sanders, the two-time Super Bowl winner who played Major League Baseball at the same time as his football career.

‘He spent more time with our son than we did, the last two years,’ Catrina says, before Wendell adds: ‘He loved Coach Prime more than anything. 

‘And the last few days, without him, we couldn’t have made it at all. Coach Prime is one of the greatest men on this planet and I am honored that my son played for him.

‘I can’t explain it. His voice is so soothing. I’m in shock and I see him pop up on my phone because he calls on FaceTime and just to see him, it calms me down. 

‘Coach was his father, just like I am. There just couldn’t have been a greater person that I would have wanted in my son’s life.’

The last time Wendell and Catrina saw Dominiq was when he returned to their Miami home for Christmas. 

‘That’s one of the happiest memories I have,’ Catrina remembers. ‘He was here, Christmas and New Years, and it was the best time, the happiest. He was so motivated.

‘It was unreal, the maturity. He went from a boy to a man. His confidence, his work ethic. Blossoming more and more. He just had a dream and was working so hard. We only got to spend so much time with him the last couple years. But when we did see him, it was amazing.’

He had bulked up, too. Dominiq was determined to make 2026 the year he broke through under Sanders and added to the two appearances he made last season for the Buffaloes.

‘This year, we believed he was going to play a lot but he had to work,’ Wendell said. ‘He was like 189 pounds when we dropped him off in Boulder and the last time we saw him, he was like 220. Just big, 6ft 5, all muscles and full of love and happy.

‘But we could see how much he had grown mentally. Changing and turning into a man and as a father, that is what you want.

‘I was most proud of the man he was becoming. The growth in the last two years was unbelievable, night and day. And that all has to do with Coach Prime.’

But when Ponder walked through Sanders’ door in Colorado two years ago, the head coach was getting a young man who was already a credit to his family.

Ponder had started playing football at five, despite Wendell’s best efforts to get his son to follow him into basketball. Ponder did still play the sport, though, and his time on the court as a kid had a life-changing impact on a friend he made, Carl.

‘We moved to Florida and he met a boy through basketball who had a bad life and he made really good friends with him,’ Catrina says, proudly, before Wendell adds: ‘We ended up adopting him.

‘He’s been with us since seventh grade. He’s our son and we wanted to save him. Dom knew he was going to have to share everything and he didn’t care.’

Dom’s sister, Monroe, is 14 and Catrina says her daughter is ‘a little female version’ of her brother.

‘We have never had the conversation about death, really,’ Wendell says. ‘She loves him like nothing else. He was a big brother to her and more like a father, he played my role. She is doing ok. I am proud of her. 

‘She understands that God needed an angel, God needed him and God had to take him. As hard as this is she understands that he is with her in spirit, he is with all of us.’

Catrina adds: ‘She is doing a lot better than I would have imagined. All she needs to do is look in the mirror. He is gonna be there. They loved each other so much. He loved his family and we loved him.’

The day after Ponder’s death, his Colorado teammates went ahead with spring practice to honor their teammate, saying they believe it’s what he would have wanted.

‘It made me proud that his brothers are picking it up for him,’ Catrina said. ‘Everybody loved him. That child lived 10 lifetimes in his 23 years. He just had fun. He lived.’

The Buffaloes will wear a patch paying tribute to Ponder in 2026, with his initials and his No 22 emblazoned on their jerseys.

‘We are so proud, honored, they wanted to do that,’ Wendell says. ‘Dom will always be there, a part of the University of Colorado. He will always be a Buff. He loved his teammates, he loved people and he would do anything for anyone.

‘He saw the way Coach Prime operated and he embraced that. He used the word “charisma”, would say “Coach Prime is full of charisma and I am going to be just like that”. I used to think “Yeah… Coach Prime is Coach Prime!” and his story is unbelievable, but that was his role model.

‘I hope his legacy is these kids can learn to get along and love each other and tell each other. Don’t be scared to say “I love you”, don’t be scared to hug it out because Dom wasn’t scared of those things.

‘We are so proud of him. But we are sad. We miss our son.’ 

Ponder’s family have set up a GoFundMe to help cover expenses of Dominiq’s funeral. If you want to donate, please click here