Taiwans’ U19 basketball point guard star Ray Chen to play hoops at Gaston College

GASTONIA — Ray Chen had every right to be nervous on his flight to the United States a few months ago.  Not only was this high school senior leaving behind his family in Taiwan, but he was headed for a foreign country whose language he didn’t speak.

Chen was willing to make the sacrifices because they’re all part of a bigger picture. The 6-foot-1 point guard is giving Gaston Day School a big lift this season and hopes to do the same thing at Belmont Abbey College next season.

“That’s probably one of the things that I respect the most about Ray is you have a kid who had this goal of playing college basketball in the United States … but there’s this huge barrier in his way that would probably scare most all of us completely away,”
Gaston Day coach Casey Field said. “He said, ‘You know, that’s something I want to do.’ I don’t know many high school kids that would do that.”

The stat sheet tells some of Chen’s story. He’s Gaston Day’s second-leading scorer at 22.4 points per game and leads the Spartans in assists (3.6) and steals (2.4). He’s developed a tremendous pull-up jumper and he’s one of the best ball handlers on a team full of them.

But basketball’s the easy part.  After moving here in September, Chen has…

via Student moves from Taiwan to play hoops at Gaston Day | student, gastonia, taiwan – Leap of faith – Gaston Gazette.