Kou Voravong
Kou Voravong grew up in Savannakhet and pursued a primary education there. He obtained the « certificat d'études primaires complémentaire indochinois » - Certificate of Indochinese Additional Primary Studies - (CEPCI) in 1930, went afterward to Vientiane and began his first-secondary-school year at the Collège Auguste Pavie. But because of a conflict which opposed him to French Colonial administration, his adopted father was sentenced to prison that same year. As reaction to this situation, Kou Voravong left school and returned to Savannakhet. As an out-of-school teenager, he practiced sports, especially soccer.
Ou Virak
Born in Cambodia during the first year of Khmer Rouge rule, Virak's father - an officer in the army of the Lon Nol regime - was murdered by the Khmer Rouge before Virak was born. Virak lived through Khmer Rouge rule with his mother and four older brothers. Facing persecution during the occupation of Cambodia by Vietnam, they fled to refugee camps in Thailand before being granted refugee status and moving to Fresno, California in 1989 when Virak was 13.