When John Nguyen arrived in Missoula for fall camp in August 2013, he was uniquely prepared for his first college camp.
Nguyen was in Missoula just a few months after his brother, Peter, wrapped up a celebrated four-year career that concluded with him as Montana’s seventh-leading all-time rusher, just 15 yards shy of the 2,000 yard mark. Peter, much like his younger brother, was a jitterbug on the field. Once the Griz implemented a zone-read based spread system brought by former head coach Robin Pflugrad, Peter slid into the lead back role. The diminutive running back ran for than 800 yards a junior and nearly 1,000 during his final year, picking up more than five yards every time he touched the ball.
His elusiveness also prompted coaches to put Peter deep on punt returns where he forced those in the seats at Washington-Grizzly Stadium to hold their breath every time he touched the ball. It was quite a sight to watch a ball hang up in the air, plummeting quickly into the arms of Peter Nguyen, who at 5-foot-7 looked almost comical as he weaved his way through defenders much bigger than he, almost like a child given a chance to a play with his older siblings in a backyard Thanksgiving game.
Sometimes as Peter was working his way up Montana’s all-time rushing yards leaderboard, John sat somewhere in the stands. Whenever possible, John watched his brother’s four-year collegiate career. And when he couldn’t be there, he no doubt heard the stories of Saturdays in the Big Sky Conference. The heart of the winter conditioning demanded by the various coaches Peter played for, of the tens of thousands of fans that packed Washington-Grizzly Stadium to cheer on one of the most storied programs in the FCS.
by Jason Bacaj
Peter probably could have written John a novella about what is was like to play college football. Had he, it would have gone to good use. While Peter was running around fields in the Big Sky, John was doing similar things for Bellevue High, a national powerhouse, outside Seattle. And had Peter taken the time to write down his experiences into a tight narrative for his younger brother, it would have helped prepare John for the next step. But it still might not have stacked up to the football education John received playing for the Wolverines.
“He was very college ready,” Montana running backs coach Justin Green remembers of John. “I mean, he played as a freshman.”
In fact, Nguyen was Montana’s third-leading rusher in the fall of 2013, rushing for 267 yards in 11 games. Nguyen engendered so much faith from the coaching staff that the Griz staff created a package of plays for the shifty running back to be used against rival Montana State.
This a year after John completed a four-year stay with Bellevue. He spent most of his freshman year on the freshman team. But as the Wolverines laid waste to their regular season opponents taking their rightful place in the Class 3A postseason, Nguyen was invited onto the varsity. Despite playing against some of the best teams Washington had to offer in those playoffs, the Wolverines often rolled to wins with margins of victory so wide that the younger players got a chance to play.
That winter, Bellevue was working on its second consecutive 3A championship and sixth since head coach Butch Goncharoff took over the Wolverine program just before the turn of the century. Goncharoff, with a Wing-T that eventually evolved to include some shotgun, molded Bellevue into a program that first dominated the Northwest and then earned itself a national profile.
Bellevue was constantly stocked with talent that brought recruiters from some of college football’s best programs to the high school’s Seattle-area campus. By the time Nguyen was a junior, playing alongside future Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack and Washington Huskies’ safety Budda Baker, Goncharoff’s postseason record reached 47-2, with no losses in state title games.
by Brooks Nuanez
Goncharoff’s no-nonsense approach made most of the success possible. It wasn’t just his offensive system that made Bellevue and old-school program.
“Every time we had practice it was pretty much full contact,” remembers Nguyen who ran from more than 1,800 yards as a senior at Bellevue. “It was really rough on our bodies. It was really physically exhausting, as well as mentally. He really pushed us to our limit and breaking us down and building us up and breaking us down and building us up. It really helped me become the man I am.”
Nguyen remembers three-a-day practices in the preseason he says are tougher than any practice he has been put through at Montana. Not only were the sessions hard on his body — he was 5-7, an inch smaller than he is now, but also much lighter — the level of competition was comparable to what he has experienced in college. It seemed like every position on Bellevue’s roster could go two and three deep and if Nguyen wanted to get on the field and follow his brother into the college game he was going to have find ways to beat out players better equipped for the the physicality of the game.
Not that Nguyen doesn’t possess many of those intangibles. He has rarely been injured during his four years in Missoula, playing in 47 games, 24 of which have been starts. He has been equally useful in two very different systems, showing an ability to run between the tackles early in his career in Mick Delaney’s pro-style offense, and now, finding the right lanes in a zone-based run scheme the Griz currently use.
“John has no fear,” Green said of his senior running back, who has rushed for 1,947 yards at Montana. “John, dropping a punt wouldn’t phase him. He’d be like, ‘Oh I gotta catch the next one and I gotta catch all the rest of ’em because this is what my team is asking me to do.’ He doesn’t let anything get to him. There is no highs and there’s no lows for him. You see him on the sideline and he rarely gets fired up. That’s kind of his trademark.”
Much like his brother, Nguyen has proven to be one of the more difficult backs for defenders to bring down. He’ll fake one way, shift his hips, then head another, leaving a defender grasping at air. He’ll take a handoff and quickly jump-cut a defender, turning a certain loss into a gain of a few yards — or a chunk of yards.
by Jason Bacaj
During the Grizzlies’ 67-7 win over Mississippi Valley State, Nguyen burst through a hole in the middle of the line and raced 81 yards for a touchdown, a run believed to be the longest scoring run in the Grizzlies 114-year history.
While those talents have been exhibited at the college level, they were, in part, forged at Bellevue.
“Our coach was really competitive with us and having us compete with each other and pushing us to our limits,” Nguyen said. “It was definitely a great experience.”
Nguyen is one of Montana’s latest imports from Bellevue. In addition to John — and Peter’s brother David, who temporarily played for Montana — the Griz made a tradition of recruiting for the nationally renowned program. Former linebackers Kendrick Van Ackeren and John Kanongata came from Bellevue, as did former receiver Cam Warren. There have been plenty more as the reputation essentially forced Griz recruiters to make their way through the school’s doors.
“All of our kids that we’ve got from Bellevue have been successful,” Green said. “They’ve had a different type of way they play and that’s definitely a testament to their coach and their staff and how they coach those guys up.”
The program at Bellevue has recently fallen on hard times as an investigation by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association and a committee of athletic directors from KingCo Conference determined that Bellevue illegally recruited players and coordinated tuition payments for those students at The Academic Institute, using false addresses to gain eligibility for out-of-area athletes. As a response, KingCo put Goncharoff on paid administrative leave, banned the Wolverines from the postseason for four years, prohibited boosters from giving the program financial assistance, and will heavily scrutinize the incoming transfer of athletes.
by Brooks Nuanez
It is a stain for one of the most successful sports programs in the Northwest and it’s been difficult for Nguyen to watch happen to his alma mater. Nguyen counts himself as a proud alum, and he gives credit to what he learned at Bellevue for some of the success he has experienced at Montana.
“It brought me to where I’m at right now,” said Nguyen. “Without that program I wouldn’t be here right now. I learned a lot being there.”
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