By Vivian Le, Managing Editor
Growing up, minor surgeries became a norm as every few years he’d be required to go back under the knife. Throughout his life, he’s dealt with Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare heart condition present at birth caused by the culmination of four factors, a hole lying in the lower chambers of the heart, an aorta which rests upon the hole, abnormally thick muscle tissue which surrounds the lower right chamber and the impediment of the connection between the heart and the lungs. Against all odds, junior Matthew Nguyen became invested in the world of sports.
As a kid, Nguyen never showed any interests in sports, but began after watching a game of football with his father. After his uncle taught him how to play the game in his backyard, the sport became one of his passions inspired him to join the football team at FVHS.
“[Tetralogy of Fallot] affected me physically, like it was a little bit harder for me to run or my conditioning [was] a little worse than [the rest of the team’s], but I [didn’t] let it stop me,” said Nguyen. “I still joined football. I was only allowed to join football my freshman year after convincing my parents for like three years.”
During the March of Nguyen’s sophomore year, he fell ill due to an infection of his heart, and became absent from school for two months. For the first time since he was born, Nguyen received open heart surgery.
Since the surgery, Nguyen was retired from the football team however he refused to hang up the hat that was his love of football. As an alternative Nguyen became a sports writer for Baron Banner as a way of fueling his passion and keeping close to the sport.
“I think football is just a big thing on campus, it brings a lot of school pride to the school. When the football team does well the school spirit [and] morale just increases,” said Nguyen. “So I feel like if we finally win The Bell one year, the school’s gonna go nuts, and Baron Banner should be there to cover it.”
In the future he plans to attend the University of Missouri in order to further pursue his career as a sports journalist.
“It’s one of the best sport journalism schools in America, so I guess that would be a good start if I want to start my career in there, just go to college and network and grow as a writer,” said Nguyen.
Aside from football, on his free time Nguyen enjoys watching “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” being that his dream is to become the first Asian bachelor. When he’s not watching “The Bachelor” with his mother, his alternative guilty pleasure is watching superhero movies, his favorite being “Captain America: Civil War.” He most often listens to hip-hop and rap music, and his favorite artists are Chance the Rapper and Kanye West.
“My goal [in Baron Banner] is to improve my writing, and be able to gain the experience that will hopefully help me in the future if I want to pursue this as a profession,” said Nguyen.