After three years wrestling as a student-athlete in Dougherty’s program, Huy Nguyen is now heading into his second year as varsity head coach.
Nguyen’s passion for wrestling first started during his sophomore year in high school. Looking up to Anthony Robles— a one-legged wrestler who won the 2011 NCAA Division I National Champion— as inspiration, he was determined to push himself to a higher level.
“It’s the joy that there’s very few excuses why you can’t be great,” Nguyen said. “If you go out there and grind, there’s no reason why you can’t be better than everyone else.”
Following his sophomore year, he continued to wrestle for the rest of his high school career. During his tenure as an athlete, Nguyen trained under former DV wrestling head coach and current Milpitas wrestling coach, Roberto Clemente. With Clemente’s mentorship, Nguyen went on to win Team MVP during his junior year on the varsity team.
After graduating from DV in 2015, he carried his passion of wrestling to San Francisco State University for two years. In his first year as a Gator, he wrestled in eight matches and was named the Director of Athletics’ Honor Roll in the Fall and Spring Semester.
He later on took his experience as an athlete to transition into a coaching position. He started as a coach for Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco.
Dougherty’s wrestling program has evolved ever since Nguyen’s time competing on the mat. With the implementation of Dougherty’s freshman P.E. wrestling unit, Nguyen has been able to bring in 20-30 kids per class. What started as a team of about 10 kids during his time competing has grown to a total of about 60 wrestlers.
“There are more kids that want to wrestle than I thought; more than I expected really,” Nguyen said. “It’s just [about] getting them the right resources to come out.”
The arrival of more members has brought a new level of team unity. With an established girls team of about 20-30 competitors, a bond between them has been built.
“They’re all in the same grade, same classes, and they all wrestle. That’s that team aspect they have that I didn’t when I was in high school; it was like, three to four, no five, maybe per class,” Nguyen said.
Heading into his second year as coach with a larger team than ever, Nguyen hopes to continue to make an impact on the program.
“The only thing I ask [my team] to do is to perform to the best of [their] ability,” Nguyen stated. “There’s no expectation of winning. The expectation is that [they] go out there and wrestle hard for six minutes and that’s it. Then everything will take care of itself.”
