Kevin Lau, who coaches Boys Varsity Bowling and Boys Varsity Handball, became the Girls Varsity Table Tennis coach at Townsend Harris High School for the first time this year. He led the team to a successful season, making it to quarter finals for the first time since 2016.

Coach Lau is an elementary physical education teacher in East Elmhurst Community School.  He said he enjoys teaching children about physical education and health literacy because he can witness success  every day. “Learning never stops, and anyone at any age is capable of becoming the strongest version of themselves,” he said. 

Besides teaching, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, along with riding an electric unicycle all over New York City. 

Prior to taking on the handball position at Townsend Harris, he coached youth soccer for four years. Coach Lau began coaching at THHS on the Boys Varsity Handball Team when the opportunity arose during the condensed post-COVID season in 2021.

Coach Lau had table tennis experience through recreational training at a table tennis center. When Sean Zhou approached him in the fall regarding coaching Girls Varsity Table Tennis, he happily took the opportunity and began coaching in the winter. Coach Lau also began coaching THHS Boys Varsity Bowling this year. Coach Lau would consider table tennis and handball to be his two favorite sports. In regards to bowling, he is still bowling regularly to learn and take what he’s learning in the off-season to expand his coaching skills for the upcoming fall season. 

Reflecting on the 2022-2023 season, Coach Lau said, “I’m super happy we had an amazing run, making playoffs since 2016 especially ending our season as quarter-finalists. It’s a huge achievement for my first year coaching these amazing athletes.” 

Members of the table tennis team have praised his coaching style, immense passion, and dedication to the team. “ [Coach Lauplayed a major role in improving the team, this was clearly shown when we made it to quarterfinals for the first time in seven years. He is extremely passionate about table tennis and cares a lot for the team,” said junior Katherine Lian (Classic Multimedia Managing Editor). 

Sophomore Ian You said, “He was extremely dedicated to our team (he bought boba for us on multiple occasions), and would always be willing to take feedback as a coach and use input from our managers to learn how to better teach us. ”

In regards to his coaching style, senior and Captain Josephine Chan said, “He always prioritized training us individually to strengthen our individual skills and helped teach us proper table tennis form and techniques. He prepared us for anything that could happen during our matches and helped us practice depending on whether we played singles or doubles. ”

Coach Lau is “extremely happy with the amount of progress the table tennis players have made from our intense training program in such a short time.” He aims to achieve some goals for the next season, including expanding off-season training for our players outside of THHS, taking training programs to another level with the help of Joola partnerships, and hopefully taking city championships!