Severna Park’s Nguyen Signs With Wagner

A football player with Asian heritage is something of a rarity. A quarterback, even more so.

In that sense, Severna Park senior Vince Nguyen realized he was unique. In late February, he became something of a hero.

That’s because Nguyen has signed to continue his football career at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York. The Seahawks participate in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, as part of the Northeast Conference.

Nguyen joins a short list of Division I quarterbacks with Asian heritage. What’s more, he’s believed to be one of the first Division I quarterbacks with Vietnamese heritage, if not the first.

“There’s a lot of Asian guys, but not all of them are 100% Asian; there’s a mix (of ethnicity),” said Nguyen, a first-generation American and the son of Vietnamese immigrants. “It didn’t really hit me until about a year ago, when I knew I wanted to play in college. When I’d go to the camps and stuff for recruiting, there were never any Asian kids out there. It was like I was the only one, and I wanted to show that Asian kids can do this.”

Nguyen’s story went viral courtesy of AMAZN HQ, an Instagram account that features Asian American athletes across the United States. A February 28 post about Nguyen’s commitment drew nearly 25,000 likes and earned a new following for Nguyen, who was aware the post was coming but dramatically underestimated its reach.

“I didn’t realize it was that big until they posted it, and I started getting messages from people I didn’t even know. People were following me from around the world and in my DMs sending their support, and that really encouraged me to strive harder and keep a bigger chip on my shoulder,” Nguyen said. “Wagner didn’t really see me as Vietnamese or anything – if you can ball, you can ball – but that’s a big part of who I am.”

That this story ever happened at all is largely a sequence of happenstances. Nguyen loved baseball as a child and initially wanted to continue that career into college. He’s quick to credit his parents for their blessing on his sporting endeavors as a priority, which broke with Asian cultural norms emphasizing high academic marks with a goal of becoming a doctor, lawyer, or engineer rather before high athletic achievements (though, for the record, Nguyen has a 4.2 GPA and was also courted by Cornell).

That blessing then extended to football, which he played for the first time as an eighth-grader, and with which he soon fell in love.

“A lot of Asian parents wouldn’t allow their kid to ever do that,” he said. “They get all the praise for this.”

He played defensive end that year, and he hoped to add wide receiver to his repertoire upon reaching Severna Park High.

There was one small problem, however: the JV team didn’t have a quarterback. So, as Nguyen relates it, the coaching staff had various players throw the football just to see who showed potential or at least had a strong arm.

“I guess I stood out,” Nguyen deadpanned.

His high school career was, for a quarterback, trial by fire. By the time he was a senior, the training wheels were largely off and he was making splash plays. One such play, against South River on September 13, 2024, flashed his potential.

On fourth-and-7 from the South River 11, Nguyen escaped heavy pressure and rolled to his right, waited an almost uncomfortable amount of time, and fired a dart to the corner of the end zone, where his receiver flashed open and caught it inches above the turf for a highlight-reel touchdown.

It's that poise and arm potential that has Wagner enamored. Nguyen’s frame — 6-foot-2, 210 pounds — and play-extending mobility were also welcome additions. Nguyen’s ceiling, they believe, can be nurtured and coached up as he gains more experience in the position.

Coming from a school that’s not known for football, and a program that has only recently shifted to more of a passing attack, it might be easy to overlook Nguyen, as many people did.

That’s OK, he said. He’ll take all the fuel he can get, especially now that he’s standing as a beacon to his heritage as a newfound hero.

“It’s motivation, because a lot of people are looking up to me,” Nguyen said. “Folks will message me in Instagram that live across the entire country and tell me that they want me to see and do well for the entire Asian community.”