“Uno, dos, tres, cuatro…” the Bishop’s basketball players were counting to 10 in Spanish, Chinese, and English as they knelt in roughly concentric circles around the center jump position in the middle of the Knights’ gym, doing stretches after an hour and a half of prepping for Maranatha Christian the next day.
Their workout under 11th-year head coach Nick Levine — who also served six years as an assistant at Coastal Conference rival La Jolla Country Day — ended with conditioning. But for one player on the floor, Tristan Vuong, it meant something different.
In less than five short months after his 18th birthday, which he celebrated on Feb. 3, he will enter the Naval Academy and begin his “plebe summer” in Annapolis. His inspiration and model is his mother’s father, Mui Gia Phung, who served as a lieutenant commander in the navy for the Republic of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
“The way my grandfather carried himself” was how he communicated honor and integrity to his grandson. “Entering the Naval Academy has always been my goal.”
To be frank, Vuong says, “At first, my parents forced me into a military background. Then I embraced it as a passion,” joining the Young Marines at Miramar at age 7.
Probably different from a similar joy and passion he exhibits for the brotherhood of the Knights basketball team. Vuong is one of five seniors on an upperclassman-led unit that has had to “pull positives out of defeats,” in the words of teammate and captain Jacob Tsai, during a recent stretch of close losses in the first round of league play.
“He’s one of the best shooters in the county, in my opinion,” states Levine of Vuong. The 5 feet 10 inches tall guard, carrying a 3.9 GPA, is paired with Tsai, the Knights’ point guard, and a third senior, Owen Turner, both 6-footers. “(Turner) usually guards the best guard on the other team,” Levine says.
Sophomore Jojo Bryant is a dynamic attacker who also plays for the Bishop’s football team. “He’s another combo guard (like Owen), has vision, sees the court very well.” Lucas Myer, 6 feet 4 inches tall, plans to play at Div. III Macalester College (Minnesota) next year.
Romeo Wright, a 6 feet 6 inches tall junior, is a shot-blocker and “presence” in the paint, says his coach. “He has gotten way better with his offense this season.”
Tsai, the captain with a 4.15 GPA headed for Yale in the fall, cites a quote from Teddy Roosevelt that assistant coach Graham Cartwright turned him onto recently about not caring about the opinions of the critic or the fans: “They know neither defeat nor victory,” the former U.S. president and Rough Rider said.
“I take what other people say with a grain of salt,” Tsai says simply. These comments point away, instead, to the “positives” the Knights can learn from losses.
Wright is pulling down 13.6 rebounds, with 10.8 points a game. Myer leads a balanced attack with 12.3 points per game.
