Ji Mai (Kali) Tsou '25 Recruiting Profile

I am looking to attend a college where I can pursue my dream of playing lacrosse on the collegiate level all while building lifelong friendships and exploring careers that allow me to combine my passion for sports, physical therapy, and medicine.

I've loved and played basketball my whole life, but when covid hit my 8th grade year I had to take a break from my favorite sport in hopes to prevent the spread of the virus to my dad, who was nearly paralyzed in the hospital with an autoimmune disorder. In order to get ready for my first high school basketball season, I picked up lacrosse the summer before on a rec team to get conditioning in an outdoor area away from the virus.  After trying it out, I fell in love with the sport and decided to try out for my high school team my freshman year. My basketball coach was very persistent with every player only playing basketball all year round. I knew I couldn't quit lacrosse because of the passion I developed for it, so I decided to stick with lacrosse instead. Although my road with basketball has ended it helped me so much on the field. It gave me previous experience on how to lead a team, work as a team, and it gave me field awareness. I developed the skill to drive to the goal and look for open passes and cuts. I can easily learn plays and the defense is very similar to lacrosse which helped me a lot when first starting.

Playing lacrosse has helped me develop skills on and off the field. I've learned teamwork and taken on a leadership role by helping new players learn the rules and skills in hopes of them developing a passion for lacrosse like I have. I am a hard working, coachable, team player that wants to share my love for lacrosse to others around the world. Freshman year when I was just learning the rules and how the sport is played, I started on JV. After constant practice and help from my coach I was able to move up to varsity in the middle of the season. Now, since sophomore year, I am a starter on Varsity in the midfield position. No matter what obstacles I have faced in the past and will face in the future, I have learned that when things get hard to always get up and keep going in order to follow my dreams.