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The Story Behind Sun Devil Soccer Star Olivia Nguyen’s Success

Cronkite Produced Feature Stories in 2020-21 Opens in a new window
The Story Behind Sun Devil Soccer Star Olivia Nguyen’s SuccessThe Story Behind Sun Devil Soccer Star Olivia Nguyen’s Success
PETER VANDER STOEP

By Brandie Bosworth

Brandie Bosworth is a student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. She is working in the Public Relations Lab with the Sun Devil Athletics team and will graduate in the fall of 2021.

Arizona State senior Olivia Nguyen’s career with the Sun Devils women’s soccer team feels like a full circle journey from her childhood.

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The Tempe native regularly attended Sun Devil Soccer games as a child and grew up in a sports-oriented family. She has two older brothers and is the youngest of the three. Her brothers participated in baseball, wrestling and football—but unfortunately for her dad, neither of them played soccer. 

“My dad grew up playing soccer and is a huge soccer fan. He always wanted a child to play. So when my two older brothers didn’t pick it up, it was put on me,” joked Nguyen.

Her dad, Benny Nguyen, said it all started when he took his daughter along to her brothers’ sports practices. Olivia - a kindergartner then - would get bored, so he brought a soccer ball for her to kick around. Eventually, when he noticed how much fun she was having, he brought training cones and taught her drills to challenge her. Shortly after, he signed her up for the YMCA soccer team.

“I could tell with Olivia, she wants to play more competitively,” Benny Nguyen said. “She was like, ‘OK I love playing this, but let’s get going.’”

Eventually Olivia Nguyen enrolled in a club soccer team, Arizona Sting FC, under coach Kim Byrnes. Byrnes taught the players not to just focus on winning, but to analyze their actions on the field and learn from those decisions. Occasionally, other club teams would need players for tournaments, and Byrnes asked Nguyen to play up in the age division. This team eventually was absorbed into SC Del Sol, which is based in Phoenix.

Nguyen said she is grateful for the time she spent with SC Del Sol because it prepared her for the demands of college soccer, including fitness levels and travel schedules that sometimes cause student-athletes to miss their classes. For her, the club team experience was competitive and about personal development.

On her high school team, the Corona del Sol Aztecs, Nguyen said her experience was more social. She loved being able to wear her jersey with her teammates, which kept soccer fun for her. During her time on this team, her coach Matt Smith said she was the best player he had coached at the school, and she was named Offensive Player of the Year, All-City First Team and All State Second Team honors. 

“High school [soccer] gave me a glimpse of what it is like playing for a school, and something bigger than yourself,” Nguyen said.

When the time came to go to college, Nguyen found herself wanting to remain close to her roots.

“I thought, I want to get out of Arizona. I want to go super far. But the deeper I got into the recruiting process, I realized that family is a big part of my life,” said Nguyen.

Benny Nguyen said she was offered a scholarship to play at Pepperdine, where you can see the ocean directly from the soccer field. He recalls telling Olivia it was her “ticket” to experience different places. However, Olivia’s older brother went to play for the Northern Arizona University football team. She thought it was special her parents had the opportunity to go to all of his games. After seeing how involved her family was with her brother’s college sports career, she changed her mind about moving away.

“Once I got the offer for ASU and went on my visit, I was sold,” Olivia Nguyen said. “On the spot, I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

Benny said he couldn’t ask for anything better than his daughter choosing to play for the Sun Devils. Although the drive to the soccer stadium is short, the family also travels to places such as North Carolina and Oregon to cheer the team on at away games.

“As superfans, we are going to be there,” Benny said. “We just want to go and watch her play.”

Coming to play for Arizona State was “definitely an adjustment” for Olivia Nguyen. Since soccer is a fall sport, the freshmen class is not only thrown into college life but also right into the soccer season. Being a student-athlete, there was a learning curve for Nguyen when first navigating college. As a student, she had to work with her professors and peers to get notes when she was traveling for games. As a student-athlete, she realized she could have been the best player on her previous teams, but in college, the skill levels are even or higher for some players.

“You can go [about adjusting to the team] one of two ways,” Nguyen said. “Either not being happy about it and not accepting it - or just trying to be a sponge and learn as much as possible.” 

Nguyen chose the latter. She learned to control what she could - her effort levels. She gave it her all at practice and games, tried to learn more from others, and believed in herself and her abilities. This was hard at first because she said it is easy for a player to reflect their self-worth on things such as the number of minutes they play or the number of goals they score.

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Graham Winkworth, the head coach of the Sun Devil women’s soccer team, said Nguyen has always been a player who wants to learn. She brings a list of questions to each of their individual meetings because she wants to be better and to grow. Last season, she played more minutes and scored more goals than she did her first two years combined. Winkworth credits this change to her increased confidence and her drive to surpass any expectations put in front of her.

“She’s so coachable, she’s just elevated her game and is playing at a higher level than not just what I expected she might be able to perform at, but at what she expected she could probably perform at,” Winkworth said.

Nguyen emphasizes being a team player and embracing your role on the team. For some players, they play all 90 minutes of the game. For others, they are the loudest voice on the bench cheering on their teammates. She believes both roles are equally important and dependent on each other. If everyone embraces their roles, they can all work in the same direction to reach the same end goal.

Olivia Nguyen participates in the team’s culture group, which works to keep the 31 players on the same page. Her teammate, Isabel Dehakiz, said Nguyen not only finds creative solutions to fix a divide in the team but takes time to create genuine connections with individual players.

For example, when Dehakiz found out she tore her ACL, Nguyen was in the first group of girls who went to Dehakiz’s house to check-in. Later, Nguyen and her mom arranged a lunch with Dehakiz and Dehakiz’s mom. Dehakiz said she is grateful for this friendship because the pair can talk about soccer, fitness, school or relationships and she knows Nguyen will always be there to listen.

“We’re the same grade, same age, and [have been] playing for more than a decade of soccer...she’s my best friend, but I still look up to her,” Dehakiz said.

Dehakiz and Winkworth both describe Nguyen as a leader because of the dedication she has to the sport and the team.

“She leads by example in where she was as her role on the team, with regards to playing time, and where she is now,” Winkworth said. “The younger players can see what she’s done...and see that she wasn’t given it on a plate…That speaks very loudly even if it’s not vocally.”

During the summer, the coaches do not have contact with the players. Winkworth said this is a true test of character because there is no one watching to see if the players are keeping up with their fitness routines. However, Nguyen keeps up her strong work ethic even during the off seasons.

Dehakiz said, “She didn’t get to where she is overnight, or because of genetics...it was because of how much work she put in months in advance.”

Nguyen is majoring in biological sciences and pursuing a minor in sustainability. The self-described hard worker is completing her Barrett honors thesis by volunteering in research labs. She hopes to follow a 4+1 accelerated bachelor’s and master’s degree program and expand her thesis. In her free time, you can find her binge-watching Netflix with her roommate (she’s currently watching Criminal Minds) or relaxing with her teammates. She is looking forward to returning to the Sun Devil women’s soccer team for her fifth year as a result of the coronavirus.

“I am proud of myself. I think if my freshman self saw where I am today, she would be really happy,” said Nguyen.

From growing up watching other Sun Devil Soccer players to being on the field, when Olivia Nguyen looks out into the stands and sees other little girls, she can’t help but feel special knowing she was once in their place. 

“I want to leave a legacy of being the silent worker, that always works hard and doesn’t stop until they get what they want,” Nguyen said. “I think that kind of exemplifies my story here.”