Canadian trainer Victor Tedondo opens up about Christian Veilleux

There aren't many people outside of his own family that know Penn State quarterback Christian Veilleux better than Gridiron Academy trainer Victor Tedondo. By now, Penn State fans should be familiar with Tedondo, as he's played a major role in the Nittany Lions' success in Canada.

Players like Jesse Luketa, Jonathan Sutherland and others all came to State College at a young age thanks to Tedondo, who's been bringing players down from Ottawa and other regions each summer to camp with James Franklin and his staff. Veilleux was no different, camping at Penn State every summer between 2016-2019. He was just an eighth grader his first time on campus.

Of course, that streak ended last summer when the pandemic shut everything down, and that's a major reason why we reached out to Tedondo, to try and get a better feel for Veilleux's training in the months leading up to his enrollment.

Below is our complete Q&A.

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Snyder: How long have you known Christian?

Tedondo: Christian and I go way back. He started coming to work with me when he was 10 years old, so we have a long history of working together. I actually knew him even a little bit before that, I believe around 8 years old, but he really started training with me and becoming serious about football around 10. That’s when we started working together all the time.

Snyder: You work with a lot of good players who don’t end up coming to the United States to progress their game. What did you see from him that allowed you and his family to understand early on that he had to come to the US to reach his potential?

Tedondo: He started so early that a move to the states was always where this was going. That was always the path for him because he committed himself to that path very early on. He started hitting the 7-on-7 and travel circuit not long after that. I remember he was playing U14 7-on-7 a few years early, so by the time he was actually 14, he had already picked up his first offer from Buffalo. So, we knew very early that he was not going to last playing high school football in Canada. If he stayed here past 15, it wouldn’t help him at all. He was just always versatile, always a good athlete. He was also kind of lucky, I guess you could say, that we had a couple quarterbacks before him. Of course, you know Michael O’Connor, who went to Penn State. I also worked with Chris Merchant, who went to Buffalo. Both of those guys came from our system, so we had experience and connections at a few schools that helped in getting Christian to where he needed to be.

Snyder: So how much of a role did you play in getting him to go to the United States? Did you help a lot in that process, or was that all him and his family?

Tedondo: Well, from the get go, the goal for Christian was to go to the Peddie School [in New Jersey], so Canisius was kind of his second option. We found Peddie to be a great option, mainly because of the head coach there, Chris Malleo. We have a great relationship with him, but financially, it didn’t work out. I believe the tuition would’ve been somewhere around $70,000 for him to go away for three years. So, he ended up in Buffalo, and Canisius is a great school, but I do think Christian always had interest in going deeper south. He wanted the best competition he could find. So, he never really stopped looking around and that’s when we started looking closer at Bullis. I’m really close with people in that area because a lot of my guys went down there. I know you’re aware of Jonathan Sutherland. Luiji Vilain went to Episcopal, too. I knew the head coach at Bullis for awhile and he needed a quarterback, so it was just the right fit. We knew he was going to a place where the head coach played quarterback at the Division I level, so it was a perfect fit for him with better competition. I think it allowed him to grow a lot more and helped him close that gap.

Snyder: He came home last March and obviously worked with you until his enrollment at Penn State last month. How often were you guys able to work up there, especially in those first few months? I know it’s stricter in Canada.

Tedondo: It was much tougher to workout here in Canada. Here in Canada, we took this very serious. Everything was pretty much shut down around March 15th. I don’t believe any of the parks opened up until some time in May, and even then, we were still kind of limited. He was stuck at home for about two months and wasn’t able to do much of anything. When the parks reopened, we did do a lot of speed training, but we still weren’t able to go to the gym and do any lifting. We tried to get as much in as we could from May until the time he went to Elite 11.

Snyder: He went to Elite 11 at the end of June and had a solid performance the first day but didn’t finish as strong as he would’ve liked. What was your thoughts on what you saw or heard? I always kind of thought that the year 2020 was a little unfair to Christian, just because everyone else got another opportunity to prove themselves at some point in 2020. That was it for Christian. That’s the only thing he was able to do football-related in 2020.

Tedondo: Yeah, I think it was a little unfair to be dropped in the rankings and all that, just because it was only one event. Last year was a strange year though, so I understand it, but I don’t think it really represents the player that he is. Even when I compare him to Michael [O’Connor], it’s important to remember that he had Chris Weinke to work with every single day for a year-and-a-half. So, he had an elite quarterback to work with all the time at IMG. Christian didn’t have that privilege at all for the final nine months before he enrolled. I know he was working with Donovan Dooley, a quarterback specialist in Detroit, but again, he wasn’t even allowed to cross the border to do that. And he had been working with Dooley for a long time. I believe that goes back to the time he was in seventh grade, so that hurts. It was definitely tough on him. You could tell he was hurting from it, but he didn’t let it get him down too much. He just started putting in the work again and doing everything he could to improve.

Snyder: What was his attitude like when he learned he wasn’t going to have a senior season? Do you remember much from that time?

Tedondo: I think it was certainly tough on him. Christian is an athlete. He’s very competitive in everything he does. I do think that, with him being an international student, he always knew that it was going to be hard to play football last fall. It’s not like he was a regular student at Bullis, so he certainly wasn’t pleased with the outcome, but he had a good attitude and did everything he could to prepare himself. He was working with me and on his own whenever he could. I think he worked on his skills just about every chance he got. He was interested in maybe going deep into the south for his senior year, but if he would’ve went down to Florida for his senior year, that would’ve been his fifth different school in I believe five years. That’s hard. It also helped that he knew he was going to be enrolling at Penn State in January, so that helped keep him motivated and gave him something to strive for. With him being the competitor that he is though, I know he really wanted to get on the field again and prove himself after Elite 11.

Snyder: What’s Christian’s greatest strength? On or off the field, doesn’t matter. I’m curious to know what stands out to you.

Tedondo: He’s a competitor. We see that in all of these athletes, but that feels even a little stronger with him. He doesn’t like losing. But if there’s one thing I really had to say, it’s that he’s dynamic. He can do a lot. Just to put it into perspective, I’m a huge believer in my guys playing multiple positions. If you look at Jonathan Sutherland, he was a great running back in high school. Christian played both ways for me during 7-on-7. He was our quarterback and our safety. He’s a really good safety that no one knows about. One other thing: I know he doesn’t mind at all lining up at receiver and going to catch the ball. That’s the kind of stuff you want as a leader at the quarterback position. He never thinks he’s above the team or is better than anyone else. He can do so much.

Snyder: Where does he stack up compared to some of the PSU guys you’ve worked with? I know it’s hard to compare different positions, but is there anything about Christian that stands out maybe compared to others?

Tedondo: I’ll be really honest here. Between all of my guys, we talk all the time, and Christian has always been someone that we all talk about very highly. He’s the most dynamic quarterback I’ve worked with, and I love Michael. Michael is my son’s Godfather. Me and Michael are very close. What is different about Christian is that he’s an A+ athlete. Michael was always a pro-style guy who did all of his work with his arm. He was meant for a certain kind of offense. Christian can pick between a few different offenses and adapt. He can do so many different things. Michael was a more polished passer at this stage, but like I said, he should’ve been. He was working with Chris Weinke everyday [who’s now coaching in the NFL]. Christian can improvise and make something out of nothing. Penn State fans are going to enjoy that.

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