Losing leg means gaining inspiration to competitor

By KEVIN CALLAHAN • Courier-Post Staff • January 19, 2010

 

HADDON TWP. — Even before a recent workout at Super Fitness in Haddon Township, Pat Font knew people would check out his effort at the gym.

 

 

 

And that was OK.

"I feel like I am an inspiration to others," Font said. "I want to inspire."

Font, 28, lost his left leg below the knee in a car accident in 2005. He is now training for the Paralympics in rowing.

"All I know is I look at the positive in everything, I look at the bright side of everything," Font said. "Everything could always be worse."

Font, who grew up in Collingswood, attended a Paralympics rowing camp at the Texas Rowing Center in Austin for a week in November. He will attend two more camps in the coming months. The camps are a precursor to the June selection of the U.S. National Paralympics team to compete in London in 2012.

"I'm working hard," Font said. "I want to make it."

His hard work is noticed around the gym.

"Sometimes he pushes me more than I can push him," said Eric Mahoney, 30, a Cherry Hill resident who works out with Font. "There are times he calls me up when I didn't want to go to the gym and he says, "Come on, let's go,' and we get a good workout in. He is an inspiration to me. An accident like this, I don't know what I would do."

Font graduated from Collingswood High School, where he was a baseball and soccer player and wrestler for the Panthers. He attended Rutgers University, where he said he was trying to graduate with a biology degree.

"I clearly was not ready for it and transferred to Camden County College, where my major changed on more than one occasion," he said.

During that time, he worked at Super Fitness. In his early 20s, Font was fit physically but said he was unfocused mentally.

That changed in December 2005.

"I woke up in the hospital and I was missing my left leg," Font said.

What wasn't missing was his fighting spirit during six weeks at Cooper Hospital and another six weeks at the Marlton Rehab Hospital.

"I was motivated from the beginning because I had so much support from my friends and family and I didn't want to let them down," Font said.

 

However, the three-sport high school athlete admitted he worried about never competing in sports again.

 

"I knew I wouldn't be able to do it, so I had to settle," Font said.

Six months after the accident, Font settled into a work routine as manager of Super Fitness in Logan Township. During that time, he needed another operation on his leg.

After that, he decided not to settle.

"It allowed me to think and realize that I felt as though I was now ready for the challenge of college," Font said.

He returned to school full-time at Rowan University. He received a degree in biological sciences last August.

While at Rowan, he began rowing.

"I had a visit to my prosthetist office to do a checkup on my prosthesis and that is where my rowing life began," he said. "There was a note on the closet door regarding adaptive rowing that was going to start at the boathouse on Cooper River and I was interested."

Font attended an open house at the boathouse.

"From then on out I was ready to compete," he said, "and I find myself here today ready to pursue my goal of being a part of the Paralympic team."