Tai Nguyen, goalie for La Jolla High School’s CIF championship soccer team, makes a startling admission about his save in the shootout that won the semifinal game at Serra. “I blacked out,” says the eccentric junior. “After the ball touched my glove, I blinked. Everything stopped. “When I woke up, the guys were celebrating. I saw the ball rolling away.” Not too many sports heroes would confess that they weren’t eyes-open alert at the moment of their greatest athletic achievement. But the admission comes with a sincere credit to his teammates for setting up the situation: “The penalty shooters made all of their shots (in the shootout, which followed overtime) so I could do what I did,” asserted the 17-year-old, who plans to play for a Premiere club team next year in addition to returning for his senior season for the Vikings. After the initial five-shot phase of the penalty kick format – with La Jolla and the Conquistadors alternating shots one by one – the two teams had to go to additional kickers to break the hour-and-a-half deadlock. That meant, with the Vikings kicking first and having netted their sixth straight kick, a block by Nguyen on Serra would mean automatic victory. The junior goalie lunged to one side, dropping to the ground to defend against the shot. As he knelt, he put both hands down to block the shot. The ball dribbled away harmlessly, and Viking players streamed midfield to mob Nguyen and celebrate their ticket into the finals, which they won three days later. For a moment, Nguyen sat stunned before being embraced by his teammates. It was all in a day in the life of a unique, athletic high school student who has focused his energies on becoming a better soccer keeper. He says Victor Zendejas, the Vikings’ assistant varsity coach, who is a vociferous commander and advocate for his players during matches, had a lot to do with his success this past season. Zendejas, whose own son plays the same position Nguyen does professionally for the Tijuana Xolos, right across the border from the family residence in the South Bay, worked individually with Nguyen on diving, jumping and punting the ball. He also worked with the developing goalie, new to the varsity last year, on mental approach and positioning his teammates on defense. But the veteran coach didn’t have to help bump up the young man’s skills was in being vocal. And that’s what sets Nguyen apart – especially off the soccer pitch. As head coach Marcos Gonzales, who tends to understate things, has observed: “He has a personality.” In other words, he’s quite a character. “He says things.” But Nguyen wasn’t giving a hint of an unorthodox mind. Goalies are known for standing apart, showing their independence. They want to be known by their teammates as reliable, but they are the only ones who have to face the rest of the team and even try to block their shots in practice. Nguyen, though, was the picture of grace when a visitor arrived at his family’s residence on a rainy day. He first thanked his guest “for taking time out of your day” to conduct the interview. Then, at the conclusion, he extended both hands in a heartfelt goodbye and iteration of gratitude for being the subject of a story. What he did acknowledge – short of his head coach’s description of him as a “personality” – was his joking nature. But he portrayed that as part of the usual give-and-take between teammates who rib each other. Nguyen says he wants to be known as a funny person. “Hopefully, I’m funny,” he said. “You have to tell a lot of jokes to be funny. A lot of them fall short. “Before practice, we kid each other a lot. (My teammates) make fun of goals they’ve scored against me.” At practice, “I like to make it fun. Some (teammates) come to practice tired. Make some jokes, then it’ll relax them.” As a person, he wants to be approachable. “I try and stay positive,” he says. “I don’t want to be the guy, ‘he’s mad,’ ‘he’s sad.’ I want to be the one they can approach, talk to. Tell some jokes. Get them to relax.” His mother Joy, on the other hand, is “pretty serious. She works in real estate. I guess in that job you have to stay serious.” In her seriousness, she gets on her son to excel in his sport. “She yells at me after the game for my mistakes,” he reports. “I guess my coaches aren’t hard enough on me.” His own yelling is an outlet, and it serves a strategic purpose on the team in his role as keeper: “It’s fun. You have to yell. I’m always talking. I can’t always yell (in other settings), but when I get on the field I can let it all out.” “If my defense needs to push up, step up, (I yell instructions).” These terms, also heard frequently from the sidelines during matches, mean to guard opposing players – “to go up to the ball, try to steal the ball,” in Nguyen’s words. “‘Push up’ means everybody attack (defensively).” Besides his mother Joy and stepdad Robert, Nguyen has two brothers, Kwan, 13, an eighth-grader, and Jae, 9, a first-grader. “I’m the sporty guy in the family,” the big brother says. “One is a dancer. That’s Kwan. Jae is an artsy guy.” At school, he comments, “I don’t have the hardest classes.” He’s going to take advance-placement government next year as a senior. Between classes, he hangs out with “some of the soccer guys,” including teammates Marco Furlanis, a talented sophomore, and Andrew Estrella, a junior. “I talk to a lot of the team members,” he says. He names Evan Lewis, a sophomore who was moved up to the varsity from JV during the season after midfielder Jack Barone was injured, and Gilberto Hinojosa. Nguyen has a definite attraction to basketball. He mentions the sport more than once. On off days, he plays basketball at the nearby La Jolla Recreation Center. He expresses pride as well in his fellow juniors on the other athletic teams at La Jolla. It’s a talented class. “The baseball team is good,” he says. He knows juniors on that squad. He portrays his interaction with teammates in soccer as active, full of jibes, attempts to one-up each other. “A funny thing that happened was we were playing short-sided one time – practicing on half the field. Andrew (Estrella) chipped me,” meaning he scored a shot over the goalie from near midfield. “He won’t let it go. He’ll definitely remind me he scored a 45-yard goal again.” He’s starting to laugh by now in anticipation of telling of Estrella’s comeuppance. “So another time, Andrew tried to score on two JVs. They stopped him.” He grins at his offensive teammate being stymied by two less-seasoned players. As far as his personality, “I’m a pretty open book,” he says, though he’s guarded in this interview. The people who know him “know I like to yell. They know I like to make jokes.” He speaks in a serious tone when it comes to crediting Zendejas, who had a major impact on him this season. “Victor trained me before the high school season,” he explains. “I wasn’t playing club. He definitely prepared me for the season. I’ll never forget in my heart what he did for me.” Zendejas, he says, would remind him about being vocal from the goal if he fell quieter. “‘Tai, you’re not talking,’ he would say,” says Nguyen. “‘Oh, I’m not,’ I’d realize. He’d wake me up. “I tell my teammates to keep their shape – defending their opponent closer. If I see a forward running behind the defense, I say something. No one runs without being seen.” The assistant, a veteran coach who is outspoken and has a strong presence on the sidelines, has played a major role in the development of Gonzales’ program the past two years. For years, the Vikings had talented club players, but they experienced a turnover of coaches, one staying only one year, so there was no continuity. Now, Gonzales’ return has brought stability to a team that was just lacking a guiding hand. Zendejas, alongside him, forms unique bonds with some of the players in his warm, engaging manner. Gonzales is more quiet. Gonzales must be ecstatic over Nguyen’s role in the Vikings’ championship. The team struggled at times and even finished with a losing record (7-9-5). But in the quirkiness of the San Diego CIF system, they came out well while being placed in a lower division in the playoffs, Division 4, due to their uneven record over the past five years. Playoff placement is no longer based on the size of a school’s enrollment. A team’s assignment to a division in the playoffs is now based on power rankings, a system that takes into consideration a team’s past five years of performance. In La Jolla’s march to the title, all the while playing on other schools’ fields due to this year’s construction work on Edwards Stadium, the team rose to the occasion and vanquished Crawford in a second-round match after receiving a bye in the first round. The Vikings beat the Colts 1-0 in a game played at Mission Bay, though it was designated La Jolla’s home game. Barone, just back from an injury that sidelined him for almost a month, scored the game’s only goal during compensation time at the end of the first half. La Jolla played a defensive game much of the second half to protect the lead and secure the win. That put a lot of pressure on Nguyen in goal and the four defenders who play in front of him, Barone and senior Noah Shen, another leader on the defense, and Hinojosa and Alejandro Romano beside them. The win at Serra followed. “We were supposed to be home,” remembers Nguyen, shaking his head. La Jolla held the higher seed and would have hosted the game at La Jolla but for the ongoing construction. “Their crowd was making more and more noise.” During the dramatic shootout, before several of the shot attempts, Nguyen, guarding the southern goal on the Q’s field, raised both hands in a gesture seeming to appeal to the heavens. What was going on there? “I was saying, ‘I’m here. I’m in the moment. I’m going to compete.’” As the penalty kicks unfolded, Nguyen says, “I was trying to read the shooters.” Then the sixth kicker for the Conquistadores, Richard Gaeta, lined up his shot a distance in front of the goal. As Nguyen relates, he blanked out during the shot – possibly from the intensity of the moment – and came out successfully on the other side. Looking ahead to next year, he has dual reasons for being excited, coming on the heels of the first CIF boys soccer championship for La Jolla since 1998. One, the Vikings return a talented bunch. Nguyen ticks off the names of the returnees. Lewis qualified for the U.S. soccer academy, so he appears to be headed to that. But Cesar Canton, a quick striker, will play for the Aztecs club and La Jolla’s school team. Estrella will return, as well as Furlanis, who plays center midfielder, Romano at right back and Max Leonard, a right midfielder. Mason Matalon, a sophomore, is another. The second reason for Nguyen’s enthusiasm is the refurbished stadium. A new surface is being installed on the Edwards field. New facilities will house the Vikings’ new weight room, a new boys locker room, coaches’ offices, a concession stand and a press box. Construction appears to be on schedule, with word of the field being ready for play in August for the Viking football team’s preseason practice. Nguyen and his fellow juniors will get to play their senior seasons in the new sports complex.