THE BONDS BROTHERS : Bosses of the Offenses at Cal Lutheran, Hart Follow Father at Home

I got a 007 watch and it’s a one and only

I got a I-Spy beeper that tells me when you’re lonely

Now don’t you call James Bond or Secret Agent Man

Cause they can’t do it, like I can

--Bruce Springsteen,

“I’m a Rocker”

Tom Bonds is an avid Springsteen fan who was born to run the Cal Lutheran College offense, but it would take someone else --like his father or brother--to sing his praises.

Although he wears No. 7 on his jersey and is the Kingsman with the golden gun, Bonds is humble and self-effacing almost to a fault. A review of his accomplishments, however, reveals an athletic thunder ball. The 19-year-old is a smooth operator who conducts private investigations on opposing defenses.

Bonds is the top-rated passer among Western Football Conference quarterbacks and ranks seventh in the National Assn. of Interscholastic Athletics in total yardage. He was named conference player of the week after completing 20 of 24 passes for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns in CLC’s 34-7 victory over Western New Mexico last Saturday.

An opportunistic scrambler, Bonds’ first pass in a Cal Lutheran uniform as a freshman last season was a 53-yard completion. He sidestepped three rushers before unloading that bomb against San Francisco and has been dancing around defenders ever since.

As a senior in 1983, Bonds led Hart High to its only Southern Section football championship and was named All-Southern Section. In the title game, Hart overcame a 13-0 North Torrance lead behind three Bonds touchdown passes to win, 29-16.

In the spring, he was an All-Foothill League third baseman. The license plate on his car said it all: QB N 3B.

Still, at Cal Lutheran, it took the sophomore a full season to assert himself as a leader among older teammates. Bonds quietly built an impressive list of accomplishments before becoming the boss in the huddle.

“In addition to having a great arm, Tom is poised and mature beyond his years,” Cal Lutheran Coach Bob Shoup said.

“There isn’t a guy on the team who thinks of Tom as a sophomore,” wide receiver Greg Harris said. “He’s earned respect.”

James Sr., watching Tom leave the family’s home in Valencia recently to drive to his apartment in Thousand Oaks, said: “There goes one in a million, that kid.”

Earlier in the evening, as Tom does homework with his girlfriend, Dawn, at his father’s living room table, his depth and sensitivity is revealed.

Playing in the background is “The River,” a Springsteen song about an American dream shattered by the reality of a decaying industrial city. Bonds, clear-eyed product of suburbia and its insulation from life’s dark edges, a young man who has known little but love, brightness and success, turns to Dawn and softly says, “Listen to this song, babe. It’s so good.”

You sit and wonder just who’s gonna stop the rain

Who’ll ease the sadness

Who’s gonna quiet the pain

We’re runnin’ now but we will stand in time

To face the ties that bind

--Bruce Springsteen

“The Ties That Bind”

Jimmy Bonds, 16, is Tom’s younger brother. Never has he felt it so acutely.

Hart High is Jimmy’s domain now, two years after Tom won the football title and all those honors. Although he has better physical tools than his brother, Jimmy, who also plays quarterback and wears No. 7, is having as tough a time replacing Tom as Roger Moore did replacing Sean Connery.

Hart is 0-3-1 after being picked in preseason polls to win the Coastal Conference. Although Bonds’ statistics are decent, having completed 46 of 113 passes for 538 yards, he is frustrated. Hart fans have had more than enough views to a kill.

The failures are doubly difficult for Bonds because he has come to expect success. He led the junior varsity to 10 straight wins last season, throwing for 1,698 yards. The year before, the freshman team was 6-0 before Bonds was injured, and finished 9-1. He threw for 31 touchdowns and had only six passes intercepted during those two seasons.

And Bonds, who is six feet tall and 180 pounds, doesn’t stop playing when football season ends. He was the shortstop on the varsity baseball team last season and will be a point guard on the basketball team this winter. Jimmy is an old-fashioned three-sport star.

“The juniors, especially, look to me for leadership,” Bonds said. “Maybe I’m starting to feel some pressure.”

If he does, neither James Sr. nor Hart Coach Rick Scott have witnessed it.

“Jimmy feels he can do well any time, any place,” James Bonds said. “There is no doubt in his mind that he will fulfill his potential.”

Added Scott: “He is a great competitor with a heart like a thoroughbred. Jimmy Bonds is the least of the problems on this team.”

Bonds, who carries a 3.6 grade-point average, says he will keep striving to live up to the expectations people have for him. Perseverance is his strong suit. He never says never again.

“I know I can be as good as Tom was,” he said.

I catch him when he’s strayin’

Like any brother would

Man turns his back on his family

Well he just ain’t no good

--Bruce Springsteen,

“Highway Patrolman”

When Jimmy Bonds takes the field on Friday nights, Tom and James Bonds are in the stands. When Tom Bonds takes the field on Saturday afternoons, Jimmy and James Bonds are in the stands.

Tom went on the sidelines to speak with Jimmy as Hart began the second half of last week’s scoreless tie with Saugus. It was the first time the brothers had talked during a game.

“You’ve got to fire up these guys,” Tom said. “Take charge in the huddle and yell at people who are dragging.”

Jimmy, who says “my brother is my idol” without embarrassment, followed Tom’s suggestion. “I was more vocal in the second half,” he said.

Hart got the ball at its 34-yard line with 32 seconds left in the game. Bonds moved the team 51 yards on two pass completions, but a missed 32-yard field goal at the final gun denied the Indians their first win.

After the game, Tom gently reminded Jimmy of his own struggles when he was a junior at Hart.

“I was one for 13 with minus one yard passing my first varsity game,” Tom said. Jimmy nodded. He had been at the game.

Tom put his arm on Jimmy’s shoulder and continued: “You’re still the man. I thought you looked more confident tonight, and you’re always sure of yourself.”

Jimmy, whose head had been bowed, looked up and smiled.

Two days later, James, Sr., spoke of the exchange.

“You know, after Tommy’s first varsity game,” he said, “we spent the entire next morning talking. He doubted himself in ways Jimmy never does. Those kids are so close. Tommy is Jimmy’s biggest rooter and vice versa.

“Jimmy is the natural athlete. As a baby, he had tuberculosis and the doctor put him on super-high potency vitamins. His hands and feet grew to an abnormal size and he’s been the biggest and best athlete for his age ever since.

“Tommy was always the marginal player. He’s had to work hard for everything. That’s why filling Tommy’s shoes doesn’t bother Jimmy as much people might expect. He’s been better than Tommy at every level.”

Any self-doubt Tom harbored in high school is long gone, however.

Said Tom: “I was always struggling for a spot on the team. Jimmy always was the immediate leader and best athlete. Jimmy has to handle pressure in a different way. Things were always expected of him.”

When a Cal Lutheran lineman objected to being replaced between plays during a recent game, Tom told him to get his fanny off the field. The player, a senior who towers over Bonds, immediately obeyed.

Bonds’ confidence and poise are revealed in many ways.

At San Francisco State, the Kingsmen had the ball and were protecting a four-point lead with three minutes remaining in the game. On third-and-six at the CLC 36, Shoup called time out to explain how to execute an option play involving Bonds and running back Noel Hicks.

Shoup finished talking and Hicks, a senior, stood frozen, absorbing the instructions. Bonds looked at Hicks concentrate, let out a giggle, grinned and said, “C’mon Noel. We’ve got a game to win!” Hicks snapped out of his trance and followed Bonds to the huddle.

So let the game start you better run you little wild heart

You can run through all the nights a nd all the days

But just across the county line, a stranger passing through puts up a sign

That counts the men fallen away

To the price you pay

--Bruce Springsteen,

“The Price You Pay” A little-known fact about Tom Bonds: He has a birth defect in his back that requires him to wear a flak jacket during games. Source: James Bonds Sr.

Anything you want to know about Tom or Jimmy Bonds--statistics, personality quirks, their most intimate goals--James Bonds has the answers.

“Tommy is a sock-folder, very neat and organized,” he said, sitting in a room that can only be described as a four-walled tribute to his sons. “Jimmy is shy but is an intense competitor. He sets goals that would be unrealistic to most kids his age.”

Every award either son has earned adorns the walls of the room. Tom’s side is more decorated, but Jimmy says in jest that by the time he leaves Hart, Tom’s awards will have to be moved to the garage. Fat books of news clippings fill a shelf. There is nowhere James Bonds feels more at home than in this room.

He admits, however, that watching his sons take brutal hits takes its toll.

“The most difficult thing I live through is watching my kids take a beating week in and week out,” James said. “It’s worth it to them, though, so I take a seat and take it in.”

A divorce from Tom and Jimmy’s mother, Coleen, seven years ago brought father and sons even closer. Although the boys remain close to their mother, they lived with James after the split.

Since enrolling Tom in flag football 14 years ago, James has missed only one of his sons’ games, a junior varsity high school game of Tom’s. Dad was in the hospital. “I nearly tore the room apart,” James recalled.

His sons say they aren’t smothered by being the focal point of their father’s life.

“I didn’t go through a rebellious phase,” Tom said, “and it’s because my father and I always communicated. He is involved without being pushy.”

Jimmy agreed, saying: “My dad is behind me all the way no matter how I play. He doesn’t live and die by my success like people might think.”

James played quarterback at Sylmar High, graduating in 1965. But he rejects the notion that he is reliving his glory days through his sons.

“I enjoy their lives,” he said. “Nothing makes me happier than their success. But I also share the burden of their failures. I don’t shy away from either.”

You’re so afraid of being somebody’s fool

Not walkin’ tough

Baby not walkin’ cool

You walk cool but can you walk the line

And face the ties that bind

--Bruce Springsteen,

“The Ties That Bind” When Springsteen came to town two weeks ago, Tom and Jimmy had tickets to one of the concerts.

So did their girlfriends.

So did many of Tom’s friends at Cal Lutheran and Jimmy’s buddies at Hart.

So who accompanied the teen-age brothers to the concert? Their father and Jan, his wife of five years.

And the big, bad Bonds brothers weren’t embarrassed one bit.

“I was proud to go with my dad and Jan,” Tom said. “They love Bruce’s music as much as I do and I wanted to share the concert with them.”

Added Jimmy: “My girlfriend Bonnie was there the same night, but there was no question who I would go with. It’s just that way in our family.”

Maybe it would be different if James Bonds dragged his sons to see Tony Bennett or Julio Iglesias. But he doesn’t and that’s the point.

“Jan and I gear our lives to stay involved with what’s current,” he said. “You could say my sons and I share a lot together.”

And the bond they share, like a diamond, is forever.