From Chinatown to Chengdu, Marie McCool's Lacrosse Odyssey Comes Full Circle

WHEN YOU THINK OF MARIE MCCOOL, the word “motor” comes to mind, the alliteration merely a convenient coincidence.

In the final minute of her collegiate playing career at North Carolina — a 15-12 final four loss to James Madison in 2018 — McCool charged toward the net and scored her 183rd and last goal as a Tar Heel.

That’s McCool. There’s no quit. Her playing days at UNC, where she now serves as an assistant coach, ended with a stuffed career stat line of 246 points, 146 ground balls, 81 caused turnovers and 295 draw controls.

But her lacrosse journey motors on. Earlier this summer, she led the U.S. National Team to the Pan-American Women’s Lacrosse Championship in Florida. She’ll vie for another gold medal over these next five days as co-captain of the sixes team competing in the Olympic discipline at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China.

The United States opens pool play Thursday at 9 a.m. local time (Wednesday 9 p.m. Eastern time) against Ireland.

For McCool, the ticket to China is almost poetic. Her motor? That was inherited from her grandparents, who are Chinese and immigrated to the U.S. before her mother, Mary, was born.

“They owned a laundromat in South Jersey. They worked there every single day, never complained about anything and had a great customer base,” McCool said. “It puts things into perspective — how grateful I was to be able to do what I do every day.”

McCool was in high school when her grandmother died of lung cancer, likely caused by exposure to chemicals in the laundromat. Her grandfather died toward the end of her freshman year at North Carolina.

Their origin story goes like this:

McCool’s grandfather, Harry Wong, was born in the United States in 1928 during the Great Depression. His family returned to China, where he was raised. He met her grandmother, Lin, in Hong Kong. Lin’s father — McCool’s great-grandfather — sent her there to be raised by his sister to escape China’s attempts to recruit young teenagers for the communist regime.

They wanted to move to the U.S. since McCool’s grandfather was a citizen, he was able to bring her grandmother with him, leaving behind his village. But they soon formed one in the States. McCool grew up just two minutes away from her grandparents in Moorestown, New Jersey.

“They were very family-oriented, and it was important to everyone,” Mary McCool said. “Grandchildren, to them, were the biggest thing. I wanted them to be a part of the traditions — Chinese New Year’s Day and all the things my parents did and celebrated when we grew up.”

McCool remembers Sunday family dinners in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, located less than 20 minutes from the family’s South Jersey home. And there were her grandmother’s dumplings, with a taste almost as unforgettable as the matriarch who made them the authentic way.

“I don't order dumplings out at other restaurants because I'm a little biased about how good my grandmother's dumplings are,” McCool said. “Now they have these dumpling pressers, but she pressed them with a fork and they were so good.”

McCool’s mother has picked up that mantle, using the recipe and bringing the family’s dumplings to UNC tailgates. Watching her daughter play lacrosse as a two-way midfielder — something seemingly as rare as fork-pressed dumplings these days — reminds Mary McCool of her mother’s restlessness.

“She's our Energizer Bunny,” Mary McCool said. “She can't sit still. My mother was like that. Sunday was her only day off, but she wanted to go out. And Marie is very competitive. She’s the baby, and I had three kids in four years. She was always competing against her two older siblings. She rode a two-wheeler at 3 because of the older ones. She didn’t want to be the only one with training wheels. She would do an obstacle course in the backyard and try to beat her best time. She was a workaholic when it came to her sports.”

SOCCER CAME FIRST. The younger McCool has a picture book about the 1999 World Cup-winning, generation-defining U.S. women’s soccer team and reads it every day. She dreamed of playing soccer at North Carolina, just like her idol Mia Hamm.

She made it to Chapel Hill, of course, but for a different sport she picked up during a winter break from school.

“My parents signed me up for a youth lacrosse camp run by our high school coaches in between Christmas and New Year’s, and I loved it,” McCool said. “I didn’t put the stick down after that.”

While games weren’t widely broadcast like they are today, McCool idolized Taylor Cummings, Kayla Treanor and Michelle Tumolo.

“I was a little concerned when she chose to go to UNC,” Mary McCool said. “I kept telling her, ‘You’re a little fish now. You were a big fish in high school.’ There’s nothing wrong with being a practice player, but I knew she’d want to be on the field.”

McCool appeared in all 22 games as a freshman in 2015, starting the final 10. She went on to become a two-time Tewaaraton Award finalist and the youngest player to qualify for the 2017 U.S. Women’s National Team.

McCool’s grandfather died in April of her freshman year, but he got to see her rise up the ranks as a rookie.

“When he was in the hospital, my mom would have an iPad and they’d watch our games,” she said. “He called goals gold medals because he didn’t speak English well. He’d ask my mom, ‘Did she score another gold medal?’”

THE GOALS WERE PLENTIFUL, and the gold medals soon came too. During her freshman season, McCool’s coaches encouraged her to try out for the national team.

“I was like, ‘Are you crazy? Playing alongside Taylor Cummings, Kayla Treanor, Michelle Tumolo — all these greats I looked up to? There’s no way,’” she said. “They were like, ‘Just do it. It’s a great experience, even if you don’t make it.’”

“I was star-struck,” McCool said. “But I felt like I had nothing to lose.”

When then-U.S. head coach Ricky Fried informed McCool she made the 2015 training team, she immediately called her mother. They both cried.

“He’d be so proud of you.”

McCool was 18 when she started her USA career. “I was becoming more familiar with my teammates and the process,” she said. “Every year has been different in a positive way.”

Even the year she got cut, which was 2016, one year out from the world championship.

“They were taking a 24-player roster to Surrey, England for a tour, and I did not make it,” McCool said. “I remember talking to Jenny [Levy] and saying, ‘This is the time in my life when I should be doing internships, but I want to prioritize lacrosse. Lacrosse is my life, but I need to figure out what I want to do after college. I don’t know what to do.’”

While McCool may have been able to read opposing defenses, it turned out she couldn’t predict her own future. What she could control was her next move. She called Fried.

“I just asked for feedback,” McCool said. “I said, ‘I one-thousand-percent respect your decision. The U.S. roster is the hardest roster to put together, and I know I’m young. I’m grateful, but I’d love to be in the conversation for the 18-person roster [for 2017]. How am I supposed to make it if I couldn’t make the 24-player roster? Do you have any feedback for me?”

For McCool, it came down to confidence. Her age was a number, not a detriment.

“I definitely played like I was one of the younger players there, so I think just being more confident that I belonged was something that I needed to work on,” she said.

Then McCool drew on a lesson passed down from her grandparents.

“They couldn't control the circumstances of their health, but what they could control was just being able to work and continue to live their life to its fullest every single day,” she said.

That’s the mindset she adapted. The mindset she still has — control the controllable. McCool could power her own motor.

“I always say that confidence comes from preparation,” she said. “Ultimately, you’re the one who can determine confidence by how you prepare for things. For me, it was putting in the extra hours watching film and truly understanding my strengths, weaknesses and what I’m capable of.”

McCool made the 2017 team, which came with the bonus of competing in The World Games in Poland. It marked lacrosse’s first appearance in the multi-sport spectacle — a key milestone in getting the sport back to the Olympic stage in 2028.

McCool, 28, has been a fixture with the U.S. National Team for the last decade. She reunited with Levy as an All-World midfielder for the gold medal-winning 2022 team and as an assistant coach who helped the Tar Heels win the NCAA championship this year. Her work ethic remains relentless, much like her grandparents. However, she’s also learning and leaning into rest and recovery.

“She’s prioritized her recovery as she got older,” Mary McCool said. “When she does come home, she's taking it easy. She's trying to recover. She goes out and does a little workout, but she’s mindful that her body is not the 15-year-old body.”

But taking her foot off the gas hasn’t meant stopping. In addition to competing for the national team, McCool has played professionally in the WPLL, Athletes Unlimited and now the WLL.

“She’s a disruptor,” said Acacia Walker-Weinstein, head coach at Boston College and for the U.S. field team. “She's everywhere. She's on ground balls. She’s on draw control. She's scoring. She's taking the ball away. She has gotten even better.”

In other words? She hasn’t lost her edge.

“Marie is a competitor,” said Lindsay Munday, head coach at USC and for the U.S. sixes team. “Any team she’s been on, she stands out on the field and for her leadership. She’s someone that other players look to. She can take a game over, and it’s been that way since she was in college.”

And while she regularly draws on her grandparents’ teachings, McCool has also picked up life and leadership lessons along the way from former USA stars like Treanor, Cummings and Tumolo. Treanor and Tumolo are now coaches in the U.S. system.

“I remember what I struggled with and how the leaders at the time made me feel and helped me,” McCool said. “I want to carry their legacy on and be a great leader for these younger players because they are so talented, and it’s been an honor to share the field with them.”

On Thursday, that field will be Chengdu High School in China. McCool has never previously traveled to the country where her family’s story begins.

“She’ll see how hard the people there work,” Mary McCool said. “My parents worked so hard. When they were in their village, they didn’t have the stuff that our kids are so fortunate to have. I want her to appreciate how hard my parents worked to come to the States and give us the opportunity they didn’t have growing up.”

These World Games mean just a little bit more to McCool.

“To be able to play the game that I love, in a place where I have roots, where my grandparents grew up, is meaningful,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to go to China. To be able to go with people I love is special and something I’m excited about.”