Kai Galura '19 Recruiting Profile

When I made the varsity team my freshman I was dumbfounded by the camaraderie they had with each other.  I've never seen the bond they had with each other in any other program.  Soon enough, my senior teammates had included me in their "family".  The respect and kindness they had throughout a school day made other people and teachers enjoy having some of the basketball players around. That sort of respect and kindness grew on me because i wanted to be a positive force on the campus as well. My teammates motivated me to work hard in every practice and in every class.  They always put academics before basketball and they influenced that on me. Our team nearly went undefeated that year having 19 wins and 1 loss.  

After finishing my freshman year, during the summer I wanted to carry-over the tradition of being a family. That same summer there was an incident with my parents ultimately leading to physical abuse inflicted on each other. My parents weren't in the right state of mind when my siblings and I were under their care. A month later, about the 4th day into my sophomore year social workers came to my school informing me that my siblings and I would no longer live with my parents. I was devastated because I knew we were going to live in the foster care system. Fortunately for us, our grandparents were eligible to be our legal guardians.  During school I was miserable because I couldn't get used to the fact that I wouldn't be able to see my parents. My teammates knew something was wrong with me, so they all comforted me and said they were there for me. I felt a sense of happiness and hope, so I worked hard every day in school and practice to repay them for standing by my side. That is when I wanted to take basketball serious, it was like my outlet for my anger and sadness I held in. Regardless of that incident, I wanted to make my parents proud and graduate high school, but ultimately attend college.