His Career Was Enjoyable and Successful--While It Lasted : Boys’ player of year: Chau Nguyen, honored for the second year, will take memories of singles and mixed doubles titles to UC Irvine, which has no program.

Wearing his ever-present New York Yankee cap, Estancia senior Chau Nguyen looks back on his highly successful high school badminton career and says it has been a lot of fun, but his playing days are probably over.

Nguyen, The Times’ Orange County boys’ badminton player of the year for the second consecutive season, had a sensational year, during which he played a leading role in Estancia’s second consecutive Southern Section 4-A badminton championship.

Teaming with junior Doan Nguyen (no relation), the Nguyens went undefeated (42-0) as they won the section mixed doubles title, defeating Junior Nationals champions Johnny Le and Nhi Phung of Alhambra Keppel, 15-12, 15-6, in the final.

In boys’ singles, Nguyen finished 58-2 and captured the section boys’ singles championship by defeating Keppel’s Le, 15-9, 15-6.

But Nguyen, who graduates this month with a 3.8 grade-point average, will attend UC Irvine, which has no intercollegiate badminton program.

“I’ll probably study in some sort of area in the medical field like optometry or ophthalmology,” Nguyen said. “I’ll play on a recreational basis (at UCI). If any scholarship opportunity comes up, I’d jump at the chance. I’d like to play doubles in college. But mostly, I play the game for fun.”

“He played for the love of the game,” said Estancia Coach Lillian Brabander, who is retiring after 27 years at the school. “The high school game served his needs. He may come back (to Estancia) and help coach next year.”

Nguyen said badminton has played a big part in his social life during the past four years.

“Since just about everybody is Asian in badminton, it’s more like a family,” Nguyen said. “I look at the other players (opponents) not as enemies or foes, but as friends. We get along real good. I have a lot of fun playing badminton. It’s a fun, fun sport.”

Nguyen and his teammates had more than their share of fun this year. In winning its second 4-A championship, Estancia (20-0) has run up a 40-game winning streak in dual matches over the past two seasons. In the section individual championships, Estancia players won four of five events.

In addition to the mixed doubles and boys’ individual championships, Estancia’s undefeated (71-0) girls’ doubles team of Doan Nguyen and Concha Gil and boys’ doubles team of Danh Nguyen (Doan’s brother) and Linh Doan captured titles. Buena Park’s Jennifer Chiu won the girls’ individual championship to complete an Orange County sweep of all events.

“We had a great year, everybody had a great year,” Nguyen said. “We didn’t only have fun winning, we had fun playing. We didn’t feel as much pressure this year.”

Nguyen, who credits a better handle on his emotions for much of his improvement last season, said more intense concentration helped his game this year, especially when he met archrival, Sang Kim of Garden Grove, whom he defeated, 16-14, 19-17, in the individual championship semifinals this year.

“Singles is mainly concentration, because it can get boring,” Nguyen said. “I beat Sang Kim in the first game, but he had game point on me in the second. I stuck in there and pulled it off. I just concentrated on hitting them back over. I think that if I’d have lost that second game, the momentum would have switched in his favor. That second game was scaring me.”

“As a sophomore, he lost his poise when he missed a shot,” Brabander said. “But the last two years, he has been one of the top players in the CIF. He’s such a leader. He has a talent for organization. Last year, he took over and set up the team banquet, and this year, he did the same thing. He sees what needs to be done and goes out and does it.”

And probably had fun doing it.