Kelli Sousa Hated Losing, But Seldom Did
Kelli Sousa Ho
Kelli Sousa Ho admits she hated losing more than she loved winning.
That’s a perfect mindset for a volleyball setter – not the position that receives the most glory but the one that controls a team’s offense – and TEAM is the key word.
Sousa, her last name during her playing days, led just about every team she played on in assists – and those teams usually won. In fact, in her junior year at Santa Clara (2002) she led the entire nation in assists with 14.38 per game. She still ranks second in Bronco career assists with 5,207.
Kelli’s election to the Castro Valley Sports Hall of Fame comes after a volleyball career that featured elite Junior Olympics competition with the City Beach 18’s club team, four all-league seasons at Bishop O’Dowd High and four years at Santa Clara where she was named first-team All-West Coast Conference her Junior and Senior years.
Everywhere Sousa played, victories came in bundles. A two-time Junior Olympic All-America selection, she helped City Beach to a silver medal at the 1999 Junior Olympics in New Orleans; she led O’Dowd to three straight league titles and was named Player of the Year as a senior; Santa Clara went 90-33 overall, 47-9 in conference play, and advanced to the NCAA Western Regionals all four seasons she was there. Like she said, Kelli hated to lose.
Sousa began playing CYO volleyball and basketball at Our Lady of Grace in Castro Valley, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Kim. Always close, the sisters played together two seasons at Bishop O’Dowd High School.
“We were very different types of players and personalities,” Kelli said. “She was more cautious, reserved. I was more aggressive, more competitive.”
The two were “pepper partners,” warming up together before practices and games – and even in their own backyard. “For better or worse, she had to put up with me,” Kelli remembered. “I’m sure she found me pretty demanding.”
But when Kelli went to Santa Clara, Kim was her biggest fan. “She was always rooting for me, always there for me,” Kelli recalled. “When we lost my final college game up in Seattle, I walked out, and she was the first person I met. She was crying.
“Kim and her husband made this incredible, amazing video of highlights of me playing. It’s still the most special gift I’ve ever been gifted.”
Named one of the top 75 volleyball players in the country by All-Starter Sports Magazine while at O’Dowd, Sousa received dozens of recruiting letters from colleges, but narrowed her choices down to the University of San Diego and Santa Clara. Broncos coach John Wallace was the deciding factor.
“I still consider him a mentor and forever a friend,” said Kelli, who first met Wallace on a recruiting trip to Pepperdine where Wallace was an assistant coach.
At Santa Clara, Wallace emphasized ball control, which fit Sousa’s game perfectly. The Broncos had sisters Cindy and Chrissy Hirsch in the back row and Kelli claims they made her job easy with perfect passes so she could set up the hitters in the front row.
“I loved the team environment,” Kelli said. “The lessons I learned from volleyball I use every single day.”
Kelli Sousa Ho now lives in Denver with her husband, Alex, and two children: two-year-old son Oli, and one-year-old daughter Rose.
Kelli promised she would not pressure her kids to pursue sports when they reach the appropriate age, but if they happened to take an interest in volleyball . . .?
“Nothing would make me happier,” she admitted.
This is the 13th in a series of 16 articles profiling the 2024 inductees into the Castro Valley Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame ceremonies and banquet will be held Sunday, April 21, at Redwood Canyon Golf Course. For tickets, go to castrovalleysportsfoundation.org and click on “Events.”