Built on a legacy: Sunnyside High School breaks ground on new $2.7M facility

For Sunnyside students, families and the Tucson neighborhoods surrounding Bilby Road, a long awaited upgrade is finally moving forward. Sunnyside High School broke ground Wednesday, Aug. 12, on a new wrestling facility that will replace the cramped room where generations of Blue Devils have trained. The more than $2.7 million project is intended to give the school’s boys and girls teams, as well as its free youth program, enough space to practice, condition and continue one of the most successful traditions in Arizona high school sports.

The facility will cover 6,622 square feet, with about 5,500 square feet dedicated to the wrestling room. Plans call for four mats, a coach’s office, a cardio room and a fitness room. The design also includes areas where families can watch practices and spaces to display the program’s trophies, banners and history. Construction is expected to take about six months, with an opening planned for early spring 2027. Until then, Sunnyside wrestlers will train at nearby Sierra Middle School, including during the season that begins in December.

The project is being paid for through capital override funding approved by voters in November 2025. Proposition 416 authorized $120 million for Sunnyside Unified School District improvements involving facilities, safety, athletics, fine arts, technology and transportation. The wrestling facility is the final Sunnyside athletic project connected to that districtwide investment. At Wednesday’s ceremony, school and district leaders joined representatives from CORE Construction and SPS+ Architects to mark the next phase of a project that coaches and families have wanted for years.

Sunnyside’s existing wrestling room has helped produce an extraordinary record despite its limitations. The boys program has won 39 team state championships since 1979, while the girls team has captured back to back Arizona Interscholastic Association championships in 2025 and 2026. Sunnyside was also the first Arizona school to field a girls wrestling team. Over the decades, the program has developed state and national champions, Olympians and hundreds of student athletes who trained in a room that was often crowded, hot and undersized.

The program’s championship history stretches across several coaching eras. Don Klostreich established the dynasty with nine state titles, including eight consecutive championships from 1981 through 1988. His successor, assistant coach Richard Sanchez, guided the Blue Devils to five straight titles from 1990 through 1994. Bobby DeBerry, who joined the staff as an assistant in 1992, later led Sunnyside to 15 championships between 1996 and 2011. Anthony Leon, who became head coach in 2013, has added 10 titles, including nine in a row from 2018 through 2026.

Leon said he recognized the need for a new facility when he accepted the coaching position 16 years ago. He has been involved in shaping the design, from the color of the mats to the height of the ceiling. He described the project as an investment earned over more than five decades, rather than simply a benefit being handed to the program. The new building, he said, will be designed not only for training but also to reflect the history that made Sunnyside wrestling a source of pride across Tucson.

That history also makes the transition complicated. The old room’s demanding conditions became part of the identity of the Blue Devils, and school leaders do not want a larger, more comfortable facility to erase the toughness associated with the program. Principal Stephanie Ponce, whose daughter wrestled for Sunnyside, recalled seeing 70 to 80 athletes sharing the space. Students managed the heat and tight quarters without complaint, she said, but they also deserve a higher quality environment. The challenge now is to preserve the program’s grit while giving its athletes the resources they have earned.

Ponce said the investment reaches beyond the wrestlers who will use the building. The program’s alumni, families and supporters have all contributed to a community tradition that has lasted for generations. Architect Mark Davenport said the new facility will provide room for year round practice and training, while allowing visitors to see the names, championships and accomplishments connected to the program. For a freshman entering the room, those displays could offer an immediate sense of belonging and responsibility, showing what came before and what future wrestlers may help build.

The school expects the new facility to be ready in early spring 2027, when Sunnyside’s wrestlers return from Sierra Middle School. By then, the project will have transformed more than a practice room. It will create a permanent home for boys and girls wrestling, youth athletes and families, while preserving the story of a program that has helped define Tucson’s south side through discipline, achievement and continuity. For Sunnyside, the groundbreaking marks both an overdue investment in current students and a commitment to the champions who have yet to arrive.