Alex Nguyen spent his first 3 ½ years of high school at the Gilroy Early College Academy (GECA), the early college high school located in Gilroy. Even though Nguyen—a Morgan Hill resident—said he enjoyed his time at GECA, he had a burning desire to play organized volleyball (GECA doesn’t have sports teams).
For Nguyen’s last semester of high school, he decided to transfer to Sobrato High to play the game he loves and be reunited with his childhood friends in the process. In most cases, transferring into a school mid-year would be a difficult transition. However, since Nguyen had an established community—the volleyball team—integrating into a new school was seamless at times.
“Having a team made it a lot easier to connect with certain people,” said Nguyen, who plays outside hitter. “You have a family you can talk to and support each other with the same passion for playing volleyball. Plus, I had a couple of friends who I already knew that I could lean on in my first few days here.”
Sobrato entered the week at 0-2; however, Nguyen feels it’s only a matter of time before the team finds it rhythm.
“Right now we’re in the midst of finding out where we need to improve on and where our true strengths are,” he said. “One of our middles had to sit a few weeks due to a sprained ankle, and our other outside (hitter) couldn’t play (in the team’s second match). Once we get everyone healthy and to the starting line, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with for sure.”
First-year Bulldogs coach Daniel Clifton is excited about the team’s potential as well, pointing to Nguyen along with several other impact players, including freshman setter Justin Hoang, senior middle Alex Catale, senior opposite Anthony Tran, senior middle Jordan Soto, senior outside hitter David Villareal and defensive specialists Jett Asuncion and Eric Huynh.
If the Bulldogs end up having the season like they did in 2017—they finished 9-3 and in second place in the Blossom Valley League’s Mount Hamilton Division—there is a good chance Nguyen will play a vital role.
Even though the 5-foot-7, 135-pound Nguyen routinely goes up against taller blockers, he finds a way to score a point or make the correct play. It also helps Nguyen has a nice vertical leap, allowing him to at least partially offset the height disadvantage when he goes up against some of the particularly taller players in the 6-5, 6-6 range.
“As an outside, I need to make a play no matter the situation,” he said. “I need to keep in mind the team is relying on me to either score or get the ball in. Being as short as I am, I have to be a lot smarter when I go up for an attack. There is no way I’m going to hit the ball straight down on a taller blocker, so I have to tip it or hit the ball off their hands at a certain angle.”
Nguyen first started playing volleyball at 5, and his development was aided by being a part of a volleyball playing family. Nguyen is the youngest of four siblings, and Nguyen’s oldest brother, Joseph, 22, plays club intramural volleyball at UC Davis. Nguyen would love nothing more than to attend UC Davis and play alongside the same club intramural team with his brother.
“My dream has to do with the (academic) prestige (of UC Davis) and following in my brother’s footsteps,” he said. “He’s a great player, and our family is very competitive. Our family in general doesn’t take to losing well. We take sports very seriously, and that’s what made me want to be better than all of them. Being the youngest, I was always behind them, and that pushed me to always improve.”
Nguyen credits his dad for creating a Vietnamese scout troop team that all of the children played on growing up.
“It’s a co-ed team and a little bit different than the normal, traditional scout troop,” Nguyen said. “We would play in outdoor volleyball tournaments throughout the Bay Area, and I also have a lot of experience playing in open gyms.”
That is why despite never playing for a travel ball club team, Nguyen looks to be one of Sobrato’s stalwarts this season. One thing is for certain: Nguyen is ecstatic to be playing volleyball at Sobrato. On Nguyen’s first day of classes in early January, he got a kick out of some of the reactions from people he hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Well, I was 4-3 in middle school, so it was a huge difference for people to see me back then and what I am now,” he said.
