Boca Raton girls coach Nguyen steps down

One of South Florida’s most successful girls basketball coaches has decided to step down from his position.

Boca Raton coach Nhu Nguyen resigned as the Bobcats’ girls basketball coach after eight seasons.

Nguyen said he stepped down because he took a full-time position as a senior pastor at the Connected Life Christian Church in Boca Raton, and he could not commit the time to be a head coach.

“I need to focus 100% on my church,” Nguyen said. “It’s a calling from God, and I can’t shake the feeling. So I had to accept it.”

In his eight years at the helm in Boca, Nguyen built the girls basketball program into a state powerhouse, going 184-73. Nguyen won six district championships in those eight seasons and took the Bobcats to the state playoffs in Lakeland three times.

After losing in the state semifinals in 2015 and falling in a double-overtime loss in the 2016 state title game,

Nguyen’s Bobcats won the 2017 state championship on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Audrey Ramsey.

“You can’t forget the state championship,” Nguyen said. “It took us three years of going to win one. That’s probably the most relieved feeling, as a coach — even though we don’t talk about winning and losing as the most important thing — but that was the best moment you could ever feel. Winning a state championship, that’s one of the greatest feelings.”

Nguyen said he stepped down after the 2018-19 season ended but kept it quiet so his players could focus on their travel basketball seasons.

He said the accomplishment he’s most proud of is helping get players into college.

“We have two kids in the Ivy League, we have several playing Division I, we have kids across the country playing basketball,” Nguyen said. “So I’m satisfied with what happened in the last eight years.”

Nguyen said he would miss coaching at Boca Raton but there were some financial aspects of coaching that he would not miss.

“One of the things I’m looking forward to is not raising $20,000 just to run a program,” Nguyen said.

Although he decided to step down from the Boca job, Nguyen did not rule out being an assistant coach and eventually becoming a head coach again in the future.

“I’m going to be back soon,” Nguyen said. “I’m just taking some time to really focus on the church right now.”