Beijing Bound?
With her sights set on the Olympics, soccer sensation Natasha Kai hopes to go for the gold in Beijing as part of the U.S. women’s soccer team.
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Soccer star Natasha Kai says her goal is to make the U.S. Olympic team and to win a gold medal.
Well, with the U.S. women’s soccer team earning a spot in Beijing after a 3-0 victory against Costa Rica in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament semifinals in Mexico last month, Kai is now one step closer to reaching her goal.
In that game against Costa Rica, Kai had two goals and an assist. However, it’s not confirmed yet whether Kai will make the trip to China as the team does not plan to set its Olympic team roster until the end of this month.
But based on her game-winning contributions on the field since turning pro in 2006, an invitation is likely.
“Being a professional soccer player, it’s an experience of a lifetime,” says Kai. “It hasn’t really dawned on me yet. I love playing soccer and that’s what I do. Soccer is my passion.”
Kai, who started playing soccer when she was 7, became interested in the sport through her friends.
“All my friends were playing (with an AYSO team in Laie), and I wanted to hang out with them more, so I asked my parents if I could play,” she explains. “I actually asked them when I was 6, but they said no because we couldn’t afford it. I kept begging them, so they finally let me play, and my dad actually ended up being my coach. He didn’t know anything about soccer, so he had to buy books and videos and learn. For me, as soon as I started playing, I loved it. It was hard at first, but I just stuck with it.”
Kai went on to become a star athlete at Kahuku High School where in addition to soccer, she also played volleyball and basketball and ran track and cross country. She was a two-time Oahu Interscholastic Association All-Star soccer player and was named 2001 All-State player of the year. And in her senior year, she led the Red Raiders to their first OIA division title win.
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After high school, Kai took a year off from sports before accepting a full-ride scholarship with the University of Hawaii.
“After graduation, I just hung out and did some soul searching,” recalls Kai. “I worked a 9-to-5 job at the cafeteria at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. I cooked, washed dishes and did a little bit of everything.
“I just took a year off because my senior year was just a bad year. Everything went wrong with sports, with school. I didn’t know if I wanted to play soccer anymore. I didn’t want to go to school. But finally I pulled my head out of my butt and realized I’m not going to waste my talent. I realized I was ready and wanted to play, and I missed the sport.”
While at UH, Kai was named the 2002 Western Athletic Conference freshman of the year, WAC Player of the Year and earned All-WAC First Team honors. As a sophomore, she led the nation in scoring with 29 goals and again was named WAC Player of the Year and received All-American honors. In 2004, she was called up to the Women’s Under 21 National Soccer team, the first for a female athlete from Hawaii. She also became the first player in WAC history to earn three Player of the Year awards.
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As a pro, Kai continues to make history. In her debut, she became the fourth player in U.S. Women’s National Team history to score in her first two games.
She also is the first player from Hawaii to play for the full Women’s National Team.
Kai, who is based in Los Angeles and lives in and out of hotels, is usually home (in Kahuku) for one week each month.
“When I’m here I catch up on my sleep, work out and hang out with my family,” she says. “And I go to the beach, surf and eat.”
Kai, whose ethnic background is Hawaiian, Chinese, Filipino and Caucasian, grew up in Laie.
Her mother, Sharon, is a teacher at Kahuku Elementary, and her father, Benny, serves as an ambassador at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
She prefers to be called Tasha or TK, and has five siblings whose names - Krisha, Tatiana, Jordan, Jalen and Jurrell - are tattooed on her right arm along with the names of her nephews Kaizen and Zylaher.
“People like to shop, I like to get tattoos,” states Kai, who was on her way to getting another one following her interview with MidWeek. “One time my dad told me that if I ever get a tattoo again, it has to be of his name (in hopes that she wouldn’t get anymore tattoos). So, I came home with Benny loves Sharon (on her forearm).
“I’m super close to my family. My parents are my role models. They’ve been there for me since I was born, through the
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