Southern Section 4-A Badminton : Nguyen Leads Garden Grove to the Title

Canh Nguyen led Garden Grove High School to the CIF Southern Section 4-A badminton championship as the No. 1 seed Argonauts defeated Nogales, 13-6 Thursday at Huntington Beach High School.

After losing the first set to Amani Purcell in boys’ singles, Nguyen took a three-set victory, 8-15, 15-12, 15-13.

Nguyen’s singles win was especially satisfying because Purcell, who shared titles in both boys’ and mixed doubles at the Southern Section individual championships May 9, helped to eliminate Nguyen and his sister Thuy from the championships in the semifinals. The Nguyen brother-sister mixed doubles team avenged that loss by defeating Purcell and his partner Debbie Collins, 15-17, 15-12, 15-12.

But Nguyen said he wasn’t thinking of revenge either time he beat Purcell.

Instead, he said the victory was satisfying because he wanted to help win the championship for Garden Grove Coach Vicki Toutz.

Toutz, who led Garden Grove (17-2) to her first CIF team title in 25 years of badminton coaching, was pleased with the outcome.

“As a badminton player who has never won a national title and as a coach who has never won a CIF title----it feels good,” Toutz said.

Tracy Hudson and Thuy Nguyen swept girls’ singles play. Hudson, who won the individual girls’ singles championship and is ranked second nationally in the under-18 division, defeated Nogales’ Toni Kim and Caroline Zalaba by 11-0, 11-0 scores. Nguyen, ranked fifth nationally, beat Kim 11-0, 11-0 and Zalaba 11-0, 11-1. Nguyen finished second to Hudson in the individual championship.

Nogales ends the year 18-2, the only losses coming against Garden Grove.