Khairi Sears didn’t make Team Jamaica’s original roster for the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship tournament in San Diego. But when a spot opened up because of an injury, Sears seized the opportunity.
“I was really humbled coming into the tournament, because I wasn’t supposed to be there. I had a lot to prove to myself and my teammates,” says Sears, who plays attack for the UML men’s lacrosse team. “Being the new guy coming in, I knew I had to be ready and play my hardest.”
Sears did just that for Jamaica, helping the team advance to the quarterfinals for the first time ever. He scored 13 goals in seven games, including three goals in a 7-6 upset win over seventh-seeded Italy.
“It was amazing playing with a bunch of guys who have the same background and culture as you,” says Sears, who was born in Connecticut but whose mom, Karen, is from Jamaica. “Lacrosse isn’t very available in Jamaica. We thought about all the kids back on the island watching us. We wanted to do our best to inspire other kids to do what we were doing.”
Sears, who grew up in North Carolina and Ohio, knew in the fifth grade that he wanted to play college lacrosse.
“Lacrosse had the best parts of every sport. It’s physical, but you have to be agile and smart, too,” says Sears, who would watch college lacrosse games on Saturdays and then go out in his backyard and try to replicate the moves.
After a postgraduate year in Salisbury, Connecticut, Sears was recruited to play for the River Hawks.
“I fell in love with it. I wanted to do my best to raise the program to be the best it could be,” says Sears, an America East All-Rookie selection after netting four goals and three assists as a freshman.
Sears also liked what he saw in the Manning School of Business, where his concentration is in analytics and operations management. Growing up, he would go on business trips with his dad, Greg, who is vice president and general manager at Pall Corporation, a global supplier of industrial filtration systems.
“I’ve always wanted to be in business. I’m interested in being an operations manager,” Sears says. “My dad gets to travel a lot, and that’s definitely what I want to do.”
How will his experience with Team Jamaica on the world stage help him with the River Hawks?
“It definitely gave me a lot of confidence,” says Sears, who also represented Jamaica at the Under-21 World Championships in Ireland in 2022. “It also taught me the importance of having a team to rely on. We had great camaraderie and sportsmanship.”
Sears doesn’t blink when asked about his goals for the River Hawks.
“I want to win a conference championship and go to the NCAA tournament. That’s been the ultimate goal since I first started playing,” he says. “I’m not worried about my own accomplishments. I just want to win games out on Cushing Field and make UMass Lowell proud.”