Coach who didn't know the sport until 2021 now has North Quincy boys tennis on the rise

That was not the case for either of them a few years ago.

Phi Nguyen emerged from the COVID-19 lockdown with a myriad of health problems, including sky-high cholesterol rates. His former North Quincy classmate Don Yang, the Braintree High boys tennis coach, coaxed him out onto the court to improve his quality of life.

Nguyen was hesitant at first, given that he had never touched a racket before.

"I grew up in Quincy, and tennis isn't easy to pick up (here)," Nguyen, 48, said. "Plus, to do it you have to have some type of financial support. You need to buy rackets and shoes and balls. Growing up here, my family were immigrants (from Vietnam), so we never had that kind of money lying around. I did basketball, track and wrestling at school, but tennis was never in my mind at all."

Pretty soon, it was front and center in his mind. Yang's invitation to play, and his patient tutoring, struck a chord with Nguyen.

"I started (playing) around April (2021); by May I was fully committed," Nguyen said. "I'd get home at 4 or 4:30, eat dinner, come out here around 5 and play until 10 o'clock. I did that every single day the whole year of 2021. Tennis, in a way, saved my life."

Eventually, Nguyen decided to give something back. An IT bigwig for the United States Department of Agriculture's Dairy Division, he rearranged his schedule to carve out time for coaching. Since taking over the NQ program in 2022, he's overseen a remarkable turnaround. The Raiders were 6-10 his first season and missed the playoffs but improved to 12-9 in 2023 (first-round playoff exit) and 17-5 last spring, when they beat Grafton in the first round before losing to Duxbury in the Division 2 Round of 16. It was the program's first playoff win since at least 2006.

This season, the Raiders are 15-3 and shared the Patriot League Fisher Division crown with Scituate after the teams each finished 13-3 in league play and split their two regular-season matches. NQ is the No. 8 seed in a loaded Div. 2 field and opens the playoffs on Thursday, May 29 by hosting No. 25 Plymouth South (7-10) at the Bishop Field Tennis Courts at 5:30 p.m. (That match was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed a day.)

"Since (2022) we have been improving big-time," Nguyen said. "They've had tremendous growth from (the time when we were always) the heavy underdog."

North Quincy High boys tennis coach Phi Nguyen, whose family emigrated from Vietnam in 1986, poses with his players during practice at Bishop Field Tennis Courts on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. The Raiders are preparing for the MIAA state tournament, which starts this week.

That increased profile, the Raiders agree, is largely due to Nguyen's tutelage.

"It's pretty crazy that he's been able to lead this team so far," said No. 1 singles player Ian Ronan, a 6-3 lefty who's 15-3 on the season. "It's been all because of him."

Said No. 2 singles player Kyle Zhu, a sophomore who's 16-2: "It's impressive how much progress he's helped us make even though he's just taken up the sport himself and he doesn't have much experience with tennis."

First-year assistant coach John Chen said Nguyen has "a lot of love for the sport" beyond just the boost it's given to his overall health. "He enjoys the fun routine of hitting with people, meeting different people, playing with the kids," Chen noted.

Nguyen's late arrival in the sport has been inspirational, in a way, for the Raiders.

"I tell them, 'I'm an old guy, I started late. If I can do it, there's nothing holding you guys back,'" Nguyen said. "Our belief (as a coaching staff) is if you put in your time as a student, we'll help you get there."

The Raiders definitely "got there" on May 20, when they beat Scituate, 3-2, here in the regular-season finale to claim a share of the Fisher crown. The Sailors had won by the same score in the first meeting, in Scituate on May 7.

"Even though we lost our first match against them, we didn't lose hope," Zhu said.

Junior doubles player Kenneth Le called the rematch "exhilarating," and Ronan labeled his victory at first singles that day as "probably the biggest win of my high school career."

"That's a credit to the boys," said Chen, who works with fellow assistants Kim Yang and Travis Banh. "They put in the work. They really believed that they could do better (in the second meeting). They asked us for help and we prepared them for that rematch. They did well. They stayed focused and they executed the things we worked on."

North Quincy boys tennis doubles players Kenneth Le and Aiden Gao, both juniors, are shown during practice at Bishop Field Tennis Courts on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. The Raiders are preparing for the MIAA state tournament, which starts this week.

Nguyen raves about Ronan's mastery of the mental side of the game. He proudly notes that Zhu got in only seven matches last season, most of them in doubles, before maturing into a force at No. 2 singles this spring. Fellow sophomore Tyler Gao is 9-6 at third singles, and NQ boasts a strong pair of all-junior doubles teams in No. 1 Aiden Gao and Le (14-4 on the season) and No. 2 Brian Chen (10-5) and Philip Wang (10-3).

Wang is an accomplished academic decathlete, who recently led NQ's team to a first-place finish in Div. 5 at the United States Academic Decathlon National Finals in Iowa. He said he appreciates Nguyen's flexibility in allowing him to juggle both of his team commitments.

Speaking of balancing acts, Nguyen said, "A lot of people ask me why I (rearrange my work schedule to coach). I told them that these kids deserve somebody who's willing to make the sacrifice and show them the path. That's what I'm willing to do."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Coach who didn't know the sport until 2021 now has North Quincy boys tennis on the rise