Speak what you preach

By Emma Guerra

We know that teachers work hard, grading work, making test, all of that, but we might not pay as much attention to campus monitors, counselors, and all support staff.

Coach Jay, a 27 year old staff monitor at Yerba Buena High School, has always been known as a strict, mean person. That’s only if of course, you never had any interaction with him. 

Almost all students at YB don’t know even the slightest bit on why Coach Jay acts so hard on us, and his athletes. 

Coach Jay's legal name is Vinh John Paul Nguyen. Yes, he has three first names. Here’s why Coach Jay has always been hard on his students. 

Coach Jay hasn’t grown up to live such a perfect life. He understands that some of us haven’t either. But he also understands that that’s not an excuse to not try. 

Growing up, Coach Jay had not lived in one place for more than 2-3 years. His life has been in constant movement. That was hard for him; hard to understand what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go. He was never able to set his path. 

Now this affected him in some very good ways that shaped his life and some not very good ways that have also shaped his life, if it wasn’t for this he would’ve never been where he is today. 

Coach: “ Ive went to, I wanna say 10 different elementary schools, 3 different middle schools, 3 different high school, I went to overfelt transferred out of overfelt, went to evergreen got in trouble at evergreen went to silver creek and then had to move back to overfelt. So it was a lot right, even college right, i went to 3 different colleges I went to evergreen community college didn't work out dropped out, went to Huston community college, dropped out and now im here at mission and im doing a great job but thats also because of my life i moved around everywhere its been ruff but at the same time I dont regret it right so i would say it affected me in a lot of negative ways but also some positive.”

He was never really focused on what was important. His junior year he was on the football team, he was always worried about chasing girls. Coach Jay wished he’d focused more on what was important, getting grades up, and being more on himself about football, so that his senior year wasn’t so bad.  

Coach: “I wish I would have taken football more seriously instead of chasing girls. Another one is, I wish I'd gone back and really talked to my wife.”

Now he also understands that most of us want to give up, drop out, or be on our own. At some point he had the same mindset. 

If it wasn’t for his coaches Marcus and Alan, he would probably be one of those things, or possibly something more serious.  

“If it wasn’t for them Coach Jay would probably be six feet under, homeless, or a drug addict and i say tat confidently like that because I didn't grow up the perfect life, those guys truly kept me from making bad decisions. Thats why im so hard on my athletes like, I look up to those guys because dude their the reason why I do what I do.”

Coach Jay just tries to be that Marcus and Alan to everyone else that needs it. 

Coach Jay has three younger brothers that he was responsible for at the age of 21. His first job wasn't the best, but it had some benefits.

His biggest fear is falling, failing everyone around him. He’s hard on all of us because he doesn't want us to fail as well. Being a coach doesn't benefit him for nothing but seeing us succeed.

All he cares about is making sure he’s there for all the kids that don’t have anyone.