SAN DIEGO COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Nguyen to Showcase His Talents
University of San Diego soccer player Trong Nguyen hopes to play professional soccer outdoors in Europe, but his coach believes Nguyen’s style is perfectly suited for the indoor game.
“His heart lies with the outdoor game,” USD Coach Seamus McFadden said. “He’s voiced concerns to me about the stability of the (Major Soccer League). But in terms of his ability, he’s built for indoors. He’s awfully quick and awfully smooth. He’s the best player I’ve ever had. He runs through a brick wall for you and puts the team ahead of himself.”
MSL coaches might soon be trying to sway Nguyen, a 5-foot-8 sweeper who is a second-team Division I All-American. He will play in the 1991 College Indoor Soccer Showcase in Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 12.
Sockers Coach Ron Newman was hoping Nguyen would train with the team after his eligibility was up in December, but he hasn’t.
Nguyen would be the second Torero to reach the MSL. The other is Chris Duke, a rookie with the Kansas City Komets. Duke played in the Indoor Showcase last year, and McFadden said the former midfielder’s stock rose with a strong performance in that game.
“It’s an important game,” McFadden said. “If you do well you could go from not being drafted to being drafted, or you could go from being a fourth-rounder to a first-rounder.”
Nguyen, a native of Vietnam who now lives in Tucson, played primarily as a back-line midfielder for USD. In four years, Nguyen had 10 goals and 14 assists and was named the Toreros’ most valuable player and All-West Coast Conference three times. In some ways, he has put USD soccer on the map. He’s the university’s first All-American.
However, when he got his plaque recently, it read: Trong Nguyen, San Diego State.
Sportsmanship pays off: Northwestern tennis player Branaca Elsberry’s exemplary style on the court has brought her the highest award given to a junior player by the Southern California Tennis Assn. Elsberry, who played on three San Diego Section 2-A champion teams at The Bishop’s School, has been selected by the SCTA for the Evelyn Houseman Sportsmanship Award. The United States Tennis Assn. has also given her a lifetime membership.
Elsberry, currently the Wildcats’ No. 3 singles player, might be a good sport but she’s also not a bad athlete. She reached the semifinals of the 1989 section individual tournament and, as a first-year player on Bishop’s softball team, she started at shortstop, batted over .500, had a single-season section record 19 doubles and set a number of school hitting marks.
U.S. International baseball Coach George Kachigian done everything to raise funds for his team except invite the public and charge admission to the morning workouts at the USIU field.
Maybe he should. The cast of players who use the field daily includes Benito Santiago, Craig Lefferts, Terry Kennedy, Matt Nokes, Bob Geren, Eric Show, Billy Beane and Eddie Williams. But Kachigian just hopes some of them show up Friday at Telly’s sports bar in San Diego.
Friday will be USIU Sports Night at Telly’s, helping to benefit the baseball team, which, as of last week, had yet to raise about $8,000 of $24,000 to fund the 1991 season.
“Hopefully, we can get some pros out (to Telly’s),” Kachigian said. “I kind of brief them on what’s going on. Some of them have been very generous.”
Empty cup: USD tennis player Jose Luis Noriega, the NCAA’s sixth best singles player last season, played Davis Cup for his native Peru this year. However, the opportunity didn’t exactly leave Noriega, a 21-year-old junior from Lima, jumping for joy. Peru was eliminated by Brazil in the first round and Noriega was twice defeated in straight sets.
Jaime Oncins defeated him, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, Saturday. On Monday, he fell to Luiz Mattar, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5. Mattar’s victory in the rain-delayed match clinched Brazil’s triumph. Noriega, a two-time All-American, likely will find the competition less hostile when he returns to action Feb. 12 for the Toreros.
Nice week: After last week, it might be mandatory for everyone in the Western Athletic Conference to learn how to pronounce Kieishsha Garnes’ name. The 6-3 junior from Brooklyn, N.Y. scored a career-high 38 points in a 79-75 overtime victory over Wyoming Saturday. That performance made her the WAC’s leading scorer at 22.0 points a game. She also leads the conference in rebounding average at 10.4.
Good-luck charm: USD’s Julie Doria averages only 3.7 points, 2.5 assists, 2.7 rebounds and less than one steal a game. But the Toreras are 9-0 since Coach Kathy Marpe inserted Doria, a 5-7 junior guard from San Pasqual High, into the starting lineup. The Toreras were 3-8 when Doria was made a starter Dec. 31 against Colorado State. Their only loss since then, 64-60 to Loyola Marymount, came in a game in which Doria did not start.
