Jan. 2—GRAND FORKS — When it comes to sports, geography isn’t always conducive to attracting people from outside the area to Grand Forks and UND.
However, for new UND volleyball coach David Nguyen, his move from New Jersey to North Dakota had a lot to do with location.
advertise
“Knowing that there’s a very big center on the recruiting side, as a coach, it immediately threw the green flag,” said Nguyen, who made his first public comments Wednesday in the media room at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks. “The research I did with my family – family is a big thing to me – it made sure my family was in a good situation. In all the research I did on Grand Forks and the Midwest, the first thing that came up was community. That’s very important to me and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
As head coach, Nguyen led Fairleigh Dickinson to the 2022 NCAA Tournament and the 2023 Northeastern Conference (NEC) regular season championship.
Nguyen was named NEC Coach of the Year twice in four seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson. His teams posted records of 9-5, 11-3, 11-3 and 12-4 in the NEC. Prior to his arrival, Fairleigh Dickinson had a record of 3-11, 2-6, 3-13, 0-14, 1-13 and 1-13 in the NEC.
Nguyen hopes to establish a recruiting base within UND’s traditional footprint.
advertise
“We’re going to strategically plan our recruiting process starting with the regional players in our region,” Nguyen said. “My job is to make sure we retain the North Dakota players, the quality of the players and the culture. The whole recruiting process is going to be all over the place, but we do live in a volleyball hotbed, so our focus will start with Minnesota and then Wisconsin and Nebraska. There’s going to be a lot of really good volleyball players in this area for us to recruit.”
Nguyen said the UND campus can be a recruiting tool.
“The campus is beautiful,” he said. “I also did a lot of research, so I was able to see the green campus. I’m excited about the area and excited to explore more.”
Nguyen will work on a reconstruction project at UNU. The Fighting Eagles have had eight straight losing seasons, as the team went from a strong mid-major team under Ashley Hardy (2009-13) and Mark Pryor (2014-18) to a struggling team in the Summit League.
advertise
UND, under former head coach Jesse Tupac, went 7-20 and 4-12 in the Summit last season. It has yet to win a game in the Summit League since joining the Summit in 2018.
“We need to get this program back to where it was,” Nguyen said. “I think we can make this happen. The support and everything the university has given us is there. It’s there waiting, we just have to make sure we push it in the right direction.”
Nguyen said his successful team at FDU is known for its creativity.
“Positionless volleyball is my style,” Nguyen said. “I like players who can play multiple positions and adapt to different situations. I think that’s what we had success with at my old school, and I hope to do the same thing at UND. I want to bring in players who can adapt to different situations.”
advertise
UND Athletic Director Bill Chaves and UND President Andrew Armacost attended Nguyen’s first press conference. Nguyen said he couldn’t believe it when he got the call about getting the job.
“I can’t believe how far my family and I have come in this process,” Nguyen said. “I started at the bottom, as a volunteer assistant, as a manager. And now that a big flagship school like UND has offered me a position … I’m grateful.”
