QB Deion Conde bulks up, hopes to shoulder load for Sunnyside this fall

While most Tucsonans have been hiding out indoors during Tucson’s hottest summer on record, 15-year-old Deion Conde has been in the thick of it, pedaling his bicycle down the scorching streets to attend outdoor strength and conditioning sessions.

Conde, a sophomore at Sunnyside High School and member of the Tohono O’Odham Nation, has a drive and determination unlike most others, according to one of his trainers.

In 2019, that drive propelled him from his days of playing youth football to taking on the role of starting quarterback for the Blue Devils’ varsity team, where he completed 114 of 218 passes for 1,604 yards and 13 touchdowns.

It’s a responsibility that Conde, who was named after NFL star Deion Sanders, doesn’t take lightly.

“He’s not one to boast or brag; he just gets his work in,” said Bobby Rodriguez, who owns Jet Sports Training and has worked with Conde for the past two years. “His dad has to work early in the morning, so Deion has to find his own way to the park or gym and he does it on his bike. Most kids won’t do that.”

Rodriguez first encountered Conde as an eighth-grader, when he and a few of his teammates from the Tucson Raiders started coming into Rodriguez’s gym three days a week to lift weights and get their bodies conditioned.

That season, the Raiders 13U team with Conde at the helm beat the Oro Valley Dolphins to win the city championship. Rodriguez called it a great comeback story.

“Deion was just on a different level,” Rodriguez said. “He was throwing some impressive passes, and I thought, ‘This kid is special.’”

Rodriguez began talking about Conde with local coaches, and when the quarterback made the decision to attend Sunnyside, Blue Devils coach Glenn Posey sought out Rodriguez to ask his opinion.

“I said he could play immediately; he was that good,” Rodriguez said.

After seeing Deion in person, Posey agreed, saying that picking him as starting quarterback was a “no-brainer.”

“When he came out to practice, the way he conducted himself, his throwing mechanics and his demeanor were really good,” Posey said. “He had a self-confidence about him and his ability to throw the ball, I knew we could work with.”

Conde’s arm opened the coaches’ eyes right away. Posey told his assistant, Willie Flores, not to change anything in the freshman.

“Just clean up his footwork,” Posey said. “His throwing motion was pure.”

Posey’s only concern with Conde was his size. At the time, Conde stood 5 feet 4 inches and weighed just 125 pounds.

“He’s a little dude,” Posey said. “But we knew with him, he would give us a chance at least of throwing the ball.”

Posey and the other coaches gave Conde parameters during that first season, telling him his job was to throw the ball and not get crushed.

“We babied him to a certain degree, and he didn’t like it. He’d get mad,” Posey said with a chuckle. “But it ended up being great and it was a great decision. He did everything right to make me look smart.”

The Blue Devils went 3-7 last season, with Conde saying the team had some problems with execution.

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“I was really nervous to start. It was my first year of high school football and I didn’t know exactly what to expect,” Conde said, adding that the game moved a lot faster.

Added Rodriguez: “He took his lumps, but he was playing 5A football when months prior to that he was playing youth football.”

Conde started playing football with National Youth Sports about eight years ago before signing on with the Tucson Youth Football and Spirit Federation. There, he played with the Jaguars, Rams and finally Raiders.

Conde concedes that his first season with the Blue Devils “wasn’t the best,” but he’s been putting in the work to get there.

“Deion wasn’t weight-room strong last year. That’s the biggest reason I didn’t want him to get hit,” Posey said, adding that last summer, Conde was struggling to lift 95 pounds.

The Blue Devils recently began socially distant conditioning, with Conde now putting up 200 pounds.

“He worked his butt off ... this offseason. He did a great job,” Posey said, adding that Conde also made great efforts to master the playbook. “It’s been a lot of fun to watch his growth as an athlete.”

After school was shut down due to the pandemic, Conde worked hard to keep the momentum going.

“I just wanted to keep working and not be stuck at home,” Conde said of his efforts during the pandemic. “Even when I wasn’t working out, I would get some of my receivers and go to park and run routes.”

He signed onto Rodriguez’s high school strength and conditioning program at Silverlake Park and in July, began one-on-one training with trainer Jose Felix. When they began training together, Conde weighed 130 pounds. Now he’s up to 150, Felix said.

Felix said Conde’s “by any means necessary” attitude is inspiring.

“Getting to training through Uber, bike or me picking him up, he is very reliable,” Felix said. “He sets the example for younger kids without saying a word.”

Conde hopes to stick with football through college and beyond, and has a laundry list of things he loves about the sport.

At the top of that list: “Probably winning.”

While the Blue Devils are in the early stages of conditioning, working out in separate groups (practice will begin Monday and the season on Sept. 30, per Arizona Interscholastic Association guidelines), Posey said that he can already tell Conde’s efforts in the off-season will pay off.

“He’s got a work ethic about him that any coach is proud to work with a kid like that,” Posey said. “I tell his dad all the time we need to get a stretching board to just get him a little bit taller.”