Chatsworth Highs Grant Wang hits the MIT jackpot

During a volleyball event journey to Las Vegas in March, Chatsworth coach Sina Aghassy confiscated all his gamers’ cellphones and put them in his backpack to make sure they centered on their sports activities project — with one exception.

Anyone ready to be taught if they had been accepted to a faculty may briefly have access to their telephone.

The gamers are standing in a hallway listening to their coach consider their efficiency when Grant Wang, the group’s star 6-foot-6 senior, decides to open his telephone to test whether or not he bought a message from MIT.

“I opened it up a couple minutes before it was supposed to come out and all I see is confetti,” he said. “I was in shock and all I did was make a noise.”

Aghassy, not realizing what the noise meant, said, “Can you quiet down a bit?”

“Five minutes into his talk, I started breaking down crying. I got overwhelmed by emotions,” Wang said.

Teammates didn’t know if it was good news or dangerous news as they noticed his tears.

“My teammate whispers to me.”

Wang tells the good news, “I got into MIT.”

“Everyone breaks out cheering and going wild.

Wang had kept it a secret that MIT was his dream school. He was so disappointed in the fall when he was put on the deferred list that he didn’t think he’d get in.

He becomes the fourth volleyball player from Southern California to be accepted to MIT, joining three others from Redondo Union who he knows.

He’s never received a grade other than A in Chatsworth’s magnet program focused on STEM. He’s such a math whiz that he took geometry in eighth grade and finished all his math classes, from chemistry to calculus, last school year. This year he’s focused on AP Physics.

He already owns three rings — one playing for Chatsworth’s state championship basketball team with Alijah Arenas and two City Open Division volleyball titles. He’s going for a third ring this season as Chatsworth is expected to be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the volleyball playoffs. He gave up basketball for volleyball, a sport he didn’t start playing until his freshman year.

“I love the sport. I always put in extra work,” he said.

Redondo Union High volleyball gamers (from left) Tommy Spalding, Vaughan Flaherty and Carter Mirabal are headed to MIT this fall.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Unlike the Redondo Union trio, he doesn’t surf and performs no devices even though his Redondo Union associates are wanting for a drummer to start a band. Wang is aware of math formulation, but drumming? “I cannot,” he said.

“In college, I’m going to learn how to drum so I can join the band,” he joked.

His dimension and enhancing expertise make him a good volleyball prospect for the future. He appears all set besides for dealing with cold climate.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in weather under 60 degrees for two days,” he said. “My parents said, ‘Good luck,’ they would send me some hot Korean soup during tough days.”

Asked how he turned such a good pupil, Wang said, “My mom and dad always put me in academic settings trying to get me to learn as much as possible.”

B’s on a report card are usually not allowed in his household.

He supplied a rousing endorsement for his educators at Chatsworth.

“All the teachers put their heart and soul into us,” he said.

As for his volleyball coach, he appreciated Aghassy giving access to his telephone for just a few minutes and apologizes for disrupting his speech.

What a reminiscence it is going to be for years to come telling the story of being in Las Vegas and studying he bought into MIT.

It was his jackpot price more than money.