Cypress – It is a Friday morning at Bridgeland High School and a taped-up Conner Weigman makes his way into head coach David Raffield’s office. Weigman, the Bears’ starting quarterback and a Texas A&M commit planning to play football and baseball in college, played one half of football the night before in a 41-14 win over Cypress Woods. He spent the second half as a hype man and assistant coach. 

You see, Weigman does everything, and he does it all well. The 6-2, 208-pound dual-threat is a stud shortstop with power on the baseball field. His first college offer was from the Oklahoma Sooners on the baseball diamond. He’s also a five-star quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class after two years of leading Bridgeland, a relatively new program, into the limelight. 

To be successful in sports requires natural abilities and a strong work ethic. It also requires passion. Weigman isn’t loud or brash. He doesn’t communicate with his teammates with fiery speeches or angry tirades. Weigman leads by example. In two different sports. 

“It is tough to challenge to juggle the two different sports," Weigman said. "I go from a football workout or practice to the batting cages to get some hitting in, but you must love it and then it doesn’t feel like too much. I try to think of it as something I get to do rather than something I must do. I treat sports like a hobby and that keeps it fresh and exciting, and it keeps the pressure down. I enjoy the work.”

Weigman might not be the loudest player in the room, but he’s likely the most competitive. 

Raffield saw that firsthand in the spring of Weigman’s freshman year. Bridgeland returned an all-district quarterback, a sophomore with talent. That sophomore squatted 400 pounds in front of a ruckus weight room in March of Weigman’s freshman year. Weigman, Raffield recalls, raced from the back of the weight room and demanded that 405 pounds be placed on the squat rack. Weigman completed the lift. He’d go on to start for Bridgeland as a sophomore while his competitor ended up transferring out of the program. 

“I saw him play four or five games as a freshman and knew he was athletic and that he had a lot of potential,” Raffield said. “But after that display in the weight room, I knew we had a competitor.” 

The next test passed happened during the first intra-squad scrimmage of that same year. Raffield knew his young phenom was still learning how to practice. It is a challenge for most young players, especially the ones naturally better at sports. Raffield wanted to see what Weigman would do under fire, so he instructed his defensive staff to blitz the young Weigman without mercy. 

“We wanted to light him up to see how he’d handle it. Let’s just say he passed the test,” Raffield chuckled. “Connor handled it in an impressive way. No moment is too big for him. The bigger the moment, the more competitive he becomes and the better he performs.” 

After proving himself to the Bridgeland coaching staff and a 2021 class that started the Bears’ football program, Weigman shifted focus to beating opponents outside of his team. He was named the District 14-6A Offensive Newcomer of the Year in 2019 and the was the offensive player of the year as a junior. Bridgeland went 12-1 in 2020 and reached the third round of the playoffs before getting ousted by Rockwall-Heath. 

“We’re not just trying to be one of the best teams in the greater Houston area. We want to be considered one of the best teams in the state,” Weigman said. “We’re taught to think grand and not be limited to what is around here. Our goal is to go even deeper in the playoffs this year.”

Weigman passed for a combined 6,313 yards and 69 touchdowns during his sophomore and junior campaigns. He added 1,310 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground.  In that span, Bridgeland amassed a 20-4 record with only two of those losses occurring in the regular season. As impressively as any of those numbers, Weigman reduced his interception numbers from his sophomore to junior season to 11 to 3. 

“I used to try to do too much, but now I’m in tune with what is the best decision. You learn with experience and correcting mistakes. My goal is to never do the same bad thing twice,” Weigman said. “I’ve gotten much better at reading the defense and taking what is there instead of forcing things.” 

Raffield marvels at his quarterback’s growth from talented freshman with plenty of upside and moxie to a bona fide leader who excels at the highest level in football and baseball. Take that Thursday night game he was recovering from on Friday morning. Weigman was mad at an official for a missed call early in the game, so Raffield waited until between possessions to calm him down and explain that missed calls happen in a game. Later in the game, that same official relayed to Raffield that his quarterback had apologized unprompted. 

“That is a small thing, but it is a big, big thing,” Raffield said. “He is incredibly mature for his age and he’s not like a normal high school senior. You can offer him advice and he runs with it instead of bucking against it.” 

Weigman is taking these traits to Texas A&M after the fall semester. He plans to enroll early and immediately join the quarterback competition. Jimbo Fisher and his Aggies need as much help as possible at that position given the 3-2 start ahead of hosting Alabama on Saturday. One could argue that Weigman would be in line to start that game if he was already on campus, but that is of no concern to the senior. He’s focused on taking his Bridgeland program deeper into the playoffs. 

Playing college football is his dream, so Texas A&M fans don’t need to worry about Weigman jumping straight to Major League Baseball. Thanks to new NIL rules, two-way players no need to juggle a decision between playing college football and making a living. He’s excited for his journey to continue in College Station, even though he grew up a Longhorn. 

“I grew up a Texas fan, but I look at it like a business decision that is about 40 years and not the next four. The Aggie network is massive and playing for Coach Fisher gives me a bright future in College Station,” he said. “The thing that excites me most about college football is running out of the tunnel at Kyle Field in front of a 100,000 people and playing for Texas A&M.”