Tuan Nguyen shines at Pennsauken with stellar volleyball career
The senor will graduate more than 2,000 assists.
You're too short, they told Tuan Nguyen. Until he picked up a volleyball.
Now a senior at Pennsauken, Nguyen started passing the volleyball around in eighth grade. He never imagined it would become as serious as it did. Nguyen joined the boys' volleyball team as a freshman and finished the season with 10 assists. He will graduate with more than 2,000.
"Me, growing up, I was always a shorter kid," he said. "They always said, 'You can't ride this ride because you're so short. You can't do this because you're so short.' When I started playing I just realized I didn't have to be the tallest guy to play this."
Nguyen, who stands 5-foot-7, wants to defy the perceived skepticism not just of him but of his team. Pennsauken, which began playing volleyball in 1993, according to coach Jack Killion, had experienced little success until recently.
But Nguyen has driven the building process. He and two teammates, Kris Kim and Jose Jimenez, played club volleyball last fall to prepare. Nguyen and Kim have signed to play at Rutgers-Newark next year. Killion said Pennsauken built sand volleyball courts to match the growing interest.
And as the school's program has grown, Nguyen said, the players have fed off the outside doubt.
"We're going against 6-foot-4 giants, and we're these under-6-foot Asian kids," Nguyen said. "They didn't think we would make it as far as we did."
This year, the Indians (28-3) have marched to the South Jersey semifinals as a No. 2 seed. They will play No. 3 seed Kingsway on Wednesday, while powerhouse Southern Regional looms on the other side of the bracket.
Before Nguyen and others sparked the program's rise, a Pennsauken trip to the final would have seemed far-fetched. But the Indians surprised everyone last season by upsetting No. 3 seed Kingsway and No. 2 seed Eastern as a No. 6 seed before dropping the final against Southern, which has won four of the last six state titles.
"It was our first time playing in that environment," Nguyen said. "Now we're coming in with experience. We just play our game like we're playing in practice or at home, because that's where we play best."
They could follow the lead of Nguyen, who has a heart of gold, according to his coach, but also plays with higher intensity than anyone Killion has coached.
"He's constantly working at his craft, and he's constantly pushing the other kids to be the same," Killion said. "That's why we are where we are. We're 27-3 because of him driving."
Still, the Indians will be a significant underdog against Southern if they reach the final. But they're used to that role, and they have no problems with being doubted. Pennsauken lost a key player last fall when Jimenez tore his knee ligament, but it kept rolling.
"A lot of people have been sleeping on our team because our school, Pennsauken High, is not known for being a volleyball team," Nguyen said. "So we wanted to show everyone else. . . . I think people are finally coming on, because we're doing better."