Zimbabwe-born Tari Kandemiri became a social media sensation when she started Official Lax Girl as a teenager. Now she’s a Nike athlete, co-hosts a show on ESPN and gives back to the game as a USA Lacrosse clinician. She’s featured this month in our November edition’s “My Lacrosse Life” interview. Join USA Lacrosse today to start your subscription.

TARI KANDEMIRI

Age: 24
City: Atlanta
Member Since: 2013

WHY I LOVE LAX TWITTER

I would describe the lacrosse community as an endless watch party. We’re all in the stadium together, virtually, continuously watching games, halftime, eating snacks and then watching more games.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

I want to use my voice to spread a different image of lacrosse — a more inclusive one. How can we make the sport as diverse as we want if we don’t show reflections of what that could look like?

SOCIAL MEDIA PHILOSOPHY

If I don’t believe in what I’m writing — if I don’t enjoy what I’m putting out — then it shouldn’t be out there. The ability for me to be myself and keep it real is what made it so that people can trust me. They always say, “I can see you in the tweets.” That’s just my personality. I’m into making jokes, being laid back and hyper.

SANKOFA CLINIC SERIES

Sankofa reminds me of the joy of the game. You learn all the fundamentals in such a fun way. A couple months ago, we did a USA Lacrosse clinic for the Harlem Jets on Juneteenth. A wide range of people can play lacrosse. There’s not one type of person that plays. The communities embrace us. Seeing the fun they have reminds us of how much fun it is.

WHY IT MATTERS

For people asking why it matters that more Black people play lacrosse, it’s because if we celebrate people’s differences and diversity, it makes us better. It makes our teams better. Everyone learns together. Every so often, an incident does happen — a racial incident where someone is affected. We as a community are speaking out more and taking actionable steps to hold people accountable. We have to keep it real. We can’t have this fun space if we don’t point out the bad things and work together to fix them.

HOW NIKE HAPPENED

Nike presented this opportunity. My passion for the game stood out to them. It was a bit of a different partnership because a lot of what I do is content creation. But they saw it as a way to build the Nike Lacrosse brand. 

PEOPLE BACK HOME

Nike is such a global brand. Everyone knows Nike. Getting to share it with the Zimbabwe community has been amazing. They’re like, “She’s raising the Zimbabwe flag as high as she can.” My grandma knows how to use the voice notes on WhatsApp. She’ll send me messages.

BY THE NUMBERS

33.1K
Kandemiri’s combined followers on Twitter and Instagram under the trademarked handle Official Lax Girl.

30+
Flights per year Kandemiri estimates she takes while traveling as a clinician and ambassador of the game.

14
Minutes Kandemiri’s mother, Portia, spent videoing her opening a welcome package from Nike. “The sneaker game is going to be off the charts,” Kandemiri says. “They got me looking fly out here.”