Hall of Fame
David Lau, a native of St. Joseph, Mo. attended Central High School where he was a three sport athlete in football, basketball and baseball. Lau was a member of the 1982 Missouri Tiger baseball team before transferring back to Missouri Western in 1983. Lau was an NAIA Second Team All-America selection in 1986 and an NAIA Honorable Mention All-America selection in 1985. Lau was selected to the NAIA All-District 16, NAIA All-Area and CSIC All-Conference teams in both the 1985 and 1986 seasons.
Lau ranks first all-time in home runs in a season with 12 and is tied for fourth all-time with nine. With 23 career home runs he ranks second all-time in career home runs at Western and finished his career with a .316 batting average to go along with 102 RBI’s in 132 games. He also had a slugging percentage of .579, an on-base percentage of .482 and a fielding percentage of .964 while playing catcher. Lau had 20 career doubles and seven triples to go with 50 walks.
On August 16, 1986, Lau signed a free agent contract with the New York Mets. In 1987-88 he played in Columbia, SC in the South Atlantic League and in 1989 he played in Port St. Lucie, Fla. in the Florida State League.
Following his playing career, Lau went into to coaching, first as an assistant coach at Missouri Western in 1990 before moving back to Florida were he was the head baseball coach at Gateway High School in Kissimmee, Fla. He then moved back to St. Joseph in 1995 and was a teacher in the St. Joseph school district until 1999. During this time, he became the first softball coach in the St. Joseph School District as Central High School started a program in 1998. In 1999, he retuned to the Missouri Western Department of Athletics in his current position of Athletic Development and Special Events Coordinator.
Lau resides in St. Joseph and has three sons; Drew, Alex and Carson.
