Sophi Wrisk
Episode 338
21 JULY 2025
She is going to be playing for the U.S. Women’s National lacrosse team. She is fresh off the second of back-to-back national championships with the University of Tampa women’s lacrosse team, finishing 2025 with 40 goals and ten assists for 50 points in 14 games, including two goals in the national championship game. In 2024 she was named the Most Outstanding Player of both the NCAA Championship and the Sunshine State Conference Tournament. Before her three years with the Spartans, she started her collegiate career playing at the University of Maryland, where the team won the 2022 Big 10 Tournament. That followed a high school career where she was All-County in lacrosse, volleyball, and basketball. She has also served as the Head Coach of Calvary Christian girls lacrosse.
Notable guest quotes:
“In eighth grade, I committed to the University of Maryland to play lacrosse.”
“I was playing rec lacrosse when I was younger and then I started playing club lacrosse in probably about fifth grade. So, kind of getting myself out there, getting myself in front of coaches. I was also very blessed with the coaches that I had growing up, who, they did play for Maryland at some point in their lives. So that kind of also gave me a little bit of a connection towards them and Maryland was the best. So, I knew I always wanted to go there. That was my dream school.”
(the pandemic’s impact on sports) “put a lot on my mental space and my mental health. Luckily, my family and my faith was there for me, and obviously are still there for me. But, without my family and my faith, I wouldn’t have been able to get through that part of just having everything seem like it (was) ripped away from me all at once.”
“My end of sophomore year there, I thought about quitting lacrosse almost and just completely dropping it all. … I was not in a very good space with everything that was occurring. So, I had a very hard time, took a lot of prayer and took a lot of faith in me just to be like, I have to stick it out. Just do it. Even though this is my dream school and all that I’ve had my entire life, there is some place else for me and I just have to put my faith in God that He’s going to lead me to the better place for me.”
“Unfortunately, went down, and I knew it was my ACL right away. My teammate even 30 yards away from me said that she heard the pop of it, too. So, very gruesome. I went down and … the first thing I said as soon as I hit the ground was just dear Lord, like why? Just like, please, why? This is not happening. Give me a sign that it’s not this. Let this all just be a crazy dream. There’s no way that this is actually occurring.”
“Just the amount of excruciating pain I was feeling was just so unbearable and so hard to deal with. And then eventually as the day went on, it turned to just praying and being like, all right, Lord, you had a plan. This was meant to happen. This is what you have written down for me. So, I just have to keep chugging along and just have faith in you.”
“That game (I) got hit, went down the wrong way, and unfortunately probably messed up something else. And, went out, was praying to God on the sideline once again, just please, please let me finish it. … that could have been our last game if we lost. So, I was like, just let me finish out at least my last game. Just please let me do it. And then thankfully He gave me the strength and the courage to get back out there and finish out the game and thankfully the rest of the season.”
“I think God gives His toughest battles to those that He knows can handle it. So, I think it was almost like God picking me up personally to be like, you know what, I’m going to give you this and this is going to happen. But in the end, you’re going to turn out triumphant and you’re going to finish through it and it’s all going to work out in my favor.”
“It’s given me chances … to … share about my journey and share how the Lord really gave me the strength and the courage to push through it. And hopefully it gives others the same.”
“Once a week, we had our … devotionals on Wednesday where we had a faculty member or a priest or someone would come out and they would lead us through prayer and just different exercises to share and grow in our faith as a team.”
“I usually do (the sign of the cross) in the middle of games sometimes but definitely at the end of the national anthem just praying that I’m having a good game, that everyone on the field stays safe, especially our team and that we can just do our best with the talent and the abilities that God has given us.”
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