POMONA >> Tony Nguyen had already given back to his alma mater Garey High, by previously serving as a defensive line coach for the football team and currently as the head boys basketball coach.

But when Garey was set to start up its girls flag football program this fall, Nguyen was interested in coaching. But before he took the job, he needed to check on his preferred assistant coach: his son Thaj Stevens-Nguyen.

His son signed on and with additional help from his daughters (Tia and Tai Stevens-Nguyen, who record the games), and his wife (Kia Stevens, who does stats), Garey is off to a 15-1 start this season, a far more successful start than Nguyen thought.

“My expectations are always high,” Nguyen said. “But they’ve exceeded them. I’m proud of what they’ve done. They’ve really bought in.”

There are some aspects of this father-son coaching duo that are different from others.

Stevens-Nguyen also went to Garey and played basketball for his father and football (including one year at Diamond Ranch) as well. He served as his father’s freshman basketball coach last year but is also at the beginning of his coaching career. Stevens-Nguyen is 21 and is juggling coaching Garey while playing football for the University of Redlands.

“It was something I wanted to do with my son just to have some fun,” Nguyen said. “I hoped after college and playing football, if he wanted to follow my path into coaching, it would give him a leg up.”

At practice, his son is “Coach Thaj” and despite the fact that father coached son in football and basketball, now there’s a clear delineation of duties: Nguyen is the head coach and handles the defense, while his son is offensive coordinator. Nguyen doesn’t second-guess his son’s play calls.

Stevens-Nguyen, a business major, doesn’t know for sure if he wants to coach long term. But he admitted he had other offers to be an offensive coordinator for a tackle football team and he’s enjoying coaching in the short term.

“Coaching was never like a thing for me,” Stevens-Nguyen said. “My dad said, ‘Hey let’s do it.’ I said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ Eventually, it just grew on me.

“As a football player, I always give it my all, so if I’m going to be a coach ... I promised these girls I’ll give them all I’ve got.”

Father and son both had some trepidation because they had never coached girls before.

“I know (in boys sports) you have to have at least two dogs,” Nguyen said. “With girls, one girl can change the whole dynamic of the game. I wanted to challenge myself, can I coach the girls?

I’m very vocal, with girls, they’re more sensitive.”

Stevens-Nguyen said he’s enjoyed coaching girls more than he thought he would.

“You have to be more patient, because the girls didn’t even know anything about football,” he said. “Honestly, I think the girls are better (to coach) than boys. They listen better.”

The success so far speaks for itself, but the players say it’s about more than just wins and losses.

“They for sure not only teach us about sports, but they teach us about life,” junior Kamya Slay said. “Mostly that nothing comes easy, you have to go get it yourself.”

Nguyen said he has taken a tackle football approach to conditioning, working hard to have one of the best conditioned teams around.

And the girls have wanted even more.

While the team had no expectations entering the season, they got off to a 10-0 start before a 14-7 loss to Azusa on Sept. 24.

“I could see it in the kids’ faces,” Nguyen said. “The bus ride was quiet, not a peep in the bus. Coming back here (to Garey) one of our captains (Aliyah Jones) came to me, ‘Coach, we need to condition more. I can’t believe we lost.’ (It’s great) just to see them buying in, that ‘we’re better than that and we should’ve won.’”

Garey gets another chance against Azusa next Monday.

The seven points against Azusa has been a rarity, with that being the only game this season the Vikings have scored fewer than 18 points. Stevens-Nguyen has enjoyed getting creative in devising a unique offense.

“We have a Philly Special (play). We do our own thing here,” he said. “We do a lot of hook-and-ladders. We don’t see a lot of laterals in tackle football, misdirections. I like to bring that out. It surprises the defense.”

Like most of Garey’s players, Slay plays other sports. But she does do something more challenging than many of them do. In addition to running track in the spring, she is simultaneously playing volleyball and flag football this fall.

“I think it’s worth it (to play both),” Slay said. “Because flag football, It comes easy. I’ve been playing that (volleyball) a long time, since middle school. I also enjoy volleyball, so I don’t want to give it up.”

So you might see Slay playing both sports again next fall as Garey’s flag football program continues to grow.