Blue Mountain Eagle’s Gavin Bartholomew… “A mind led with his heart” @BMSDAthletics … Updated with video clips of @GavinBartholom6

Tagged under: District 11, News, Recruiting

Daniel Reed | December 12, 2020

A Quick Story of a Change of Mind, not of Heart:

After chatting briefly with the Blue Mountain Eagle’s football star Gavin Bartholomew via Twitter, and Messenger, I quickly gathered the feeling that Gavin always tries to follow his heart. Things started out different in the beginning though when Gavin committed to play for the University of Buffalo Bulls, who are 4-0 thus far this season and ranked in the NCAA Top 25 for the first time in program history at #24, but let’s not have me get off track here.  Gavin’s heart was with wanting to play for the Panthers of Pittsburgh from the start, but as time passed, and being pushed and pushed, and questioned why he wasn’t committing right away by Bull’s staff, Gavin had conversations with the TE’s coach at the University of Pittsburgh and was told to commit to Buffalo and that if anything changed, he would later then let Gavin know.  So, that is what Mr. Bartholomew did, committed to Buffalo.  While several months passed by, Gavin said he still kept in contact with the folks at Pitt.  Then, it happened, the night before Thanksgiving, Coach Salem and Coach Narduzzi called Gavin and offered him a scholarship, ” So, I didn’t hesitate ” said Gavin. After receiving that phone call, Gavin said he ” talked it over with his family, and then called the University of Buffalo to let them know what was going on “.  The fine program that they are, Buffalo was very respectful of Gavin’s decision since they knew about it, my guess is, knew where Gavin’s heart wanted to be.

I had the pleasure of watching Gavin play a few times last season and was instantly impressed with his skills, the first time was during their week 2 game vs the Midd-West Mustangs where the Eagles won 50 to 19, he was playing at TE a very good, tall TE that could block, catch the ball, run, and make big plays, racking up 102 yards receiving on 4 catches with a touchdown. Gavin finished his Junior season with 527 yards receiving on 27 catches with 5 touchdowns. In his senior season, following a 3 game losing streak, while still at tight end, totaling just 131 yards receiving, and 2 touchdowns through those first 4 games, Blue Mountain’s Coach Mabry made a switch, replacing quarterback Jack Dean, who wasn’t doing all that bad really, with Gavin.  Things started to turn around quickly for the Eagles as they went on a 3 game win streak scoring 117 points in those games behind the offense led now by Gavin Bartholomew behind center.  During that 3 game win streak, Gavin racked up some decent numbers as the Eagles new quarterback, 3 game stats: 20-34-1 = 376 yards(4 touchdowns) passing, 22 rush for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns. Gavin finished out the 2020 season at qb with a record of 3-2, and offensive totals of… 36-66-1 = 521 yards(4 touchdowns) passing, 44 carries for 145 yards(3 touchdowns) rushing, 6 receptions(2 touchdowns), and 34 tackles on defense, 1 sack, 1 int, and 22 punts for an average of 30.6 yards(49 was longest).

Video Clips of Gavin Bartholomew from games that were covered by: Daniel Reed

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