Born in Vietnam, He Excels on U.S. Playing Fields : For Le, Football Won Out

Saturday’s Shrine All-Star football game at the Rose Bowl includes players from all over California, but none has traveled as far as Tuan Van Le.

Le’s journey started 12 years ago in Vietnam, when he left his mother and escaped with his aunt six days before the fall of Saigon.

They came to America, settling in Northern California. They had to start from scratch, especially Le, who spoke no English.

From that humble and unlikely beginning has emerged one of the nation’s top high school football players and one of Stanford’s top recruits.

The 6-foot, 170-pound Le played cornerback and wide receiver for De La Salle High School of Concord, helping the school to consecutive 12-0 seasons and consecutive North Coast Section titles. After his senior year, he made several prep All-American teams and was named Northern California player of the year.

Not bad for a kid who, when he started playing Little League baseball, had to play right field so his aunt could stand near the foul line and yell instructions to him in Vietnamese. He mastered America’s sports before he mastered America’s language.

“In Vietnam, I don’t think I would have been doing nothing but walking around the streets,” Le said. “But here. . . . I just had an opportunity and I took it.

“It is the American dream--you can do whatever you want if you set your mind to it.”

Le was born in 1968. His father, a black U.S. serviceman, was killed about the time Le was born. Le doesn’t remember much from the early years, except just before he left.

“I was like a special kid because I was black and Vietnamese,” Le said. “There’s not too many black people there.

“I spent most of my time living with my aunt. I had to have bodyguards and everything like that ‘cause it could be dangerous.”

In 1975, with the fall of Saigon imminent, Le’s family decided to get him out. They feared what the North Vietnamese might do to him because his father was American.

“He would have had to deal with the Orientals because he is black, and with the communists because his father was American,” Le’s aunt, Thai Le Coffelt, said. “If he lived in Saigon right now, I don’t think he would be successful.”

The U.S. military was evacuating Vietnamese who worked for the U.S. government, fearing that they would be subject to reprisals under the new regime. Coffelt, then just Thai Le, worked for the U.S. military as a translator. She told the military that Le was her son so they would let him go with her.

After settling in Pittsburg in Northern California, Le began his acclimation to American life. For many American kids, sports are considered a way out. In Le’s case, athletics were a way in.

“That was the way I could make friends,” Le said. “At school, I couldn’t make friends because everybody was on their level of reading, their level of writing, their level of this and that, and I had catching up to do.

“But the only thing I could do that was equal was sports, because everybody started sports at 8 or 9 years old, and I started at the same time. That gave me an opportunity to be equal and make friends and everything like that.”

He started with Little League baseball. Coffelt came to all the practices so she could translate the coach’s instructions for Le. He became interested in football when he saw it on television, but his aunt wouldn’t let him play at first because he was too small.

Eventually, though, he did play football, and they haven’t been able to get him off the field since. He’s been on only one vacation in the last 10 years because he spent much of his free time practicing and playing.

“During the summer they (his family) would go travel to different places and I would have to skip it because I had practice all the time,” Le said. “It paid off. . . . nice scholarship, but it was like half a family vacation.”

That is another part of the American dream come true for Le--his family. His aunt married Dan Coffelt, an accountant, and they live in Lafayette, an affluent community in the San Francisco Bay area. Le refers to his aunt and her husband as his mom and dad.

His mother, though, is still in Vietnam. She has tried to escape several times, but has been caught each time. Le and his aunt remain hopeful that someday she will be able to join them.

So, is Le now a typical American teen-ager?

“Yeah, but I still have my background,” he said. “I like that, it gives a little mystery. It’s nice to come out of nowhere and make an example.”

His high school football career started from humble beginnings, too. He struggled with his coach his freshman year and it had an effect as he played poorly. With football not going so well, he started to concentrate on basketball, thinking maybe that was his sport.

But he gave football one more chance his sophomore year and showed promise despite suffering a broken collarbone that cut short his season. But it convinced him that football was his sport, and his junior year, he “took off” as De La Salle went 12-0 and won the North Coast Section 2-A championship.

In his senior year, he gave up all other sports and concentrated on football, and it paid off in awards and numerous scholarship offers. Le had four touchdown receptions on offense. On defense, he had 11 interceptions, 5 fumble recoveries, 2 punt returns for touchdowns and a blocked punt. Despite moving up to the 3-A level, De La Salle again went 12-0 and won its second straight title.

He was named Bay Area player of the year, Northern California player of the year, and one of the top 100 players in the country. His speed and desire more than compensate for his lack of size.

As for his future, certainly he would like to play in the National Football League, but it is not of utmost importance. If he doesn’t play professional football, he hopes to become an FBI agent.

“That would be nice to get drafted, but you know, we’ll see (after) the first four or five years,” Le said. “This is great right now.

“I’ve been on a long journey. . . . If the road suddenly came to a dead end right now I would feel good about myself and what I have accomplished.

“If I get an injury that would limit my playing ability and I can’t play football anymore, I would still feel happy that I got to play football all these years. I really love the sport.

“I got out of football what I wanted: Respect and friends.”