Punahou senior Rachael Lau, who maintains a 3.90 grade-point average, is a two-time All-State soccer selection. She's a team captain for the second straight year.
Seeking Purrr-fection
Helping her father in his veterinary
office is just one thing Punahou's
All-State player Rachael Lau
does in her spare time
If Rachael Lau seems unimpressed by all that she has accomplished in her 17 years, she can be forgiven.
The Punahou senior has enjoyed much success on the soccer field for the past few years, earning two All-State honors, three all-league selections and the ILH's Co-Offensive Player of the Year award last season. A four-year starter for the perennial power Buffanblu, Lau is serving as a team captain for the second straight year.
As a member of the Honolulu Bulls Soccer Club, Lau participated in the U.S. Olympic Development Program from 2000-03, winning a spot on the Region IV Team twice, and an invite to the U.S. Under-14 National Camp in Massachusetts in 2001.
"What can I possibly say about Rachael?" Punahou head coach Jorge Barbosa said. "She is unbelievable. In our 4-4-2 system, she does it all. She looks for every ball and distributes and gets us going. And she is also our leading scorer as well.
Punahou's Rachael Lau helps her dad, Dr. Bert Lau, with a cat at his veterinary clinic. Lau is a senior team captain for the defending state champion Buffanblu.
In the classroom, Lau maintains a 3.90 grade-point average, taking courses that include advanced-placement biology, honors Chinese and calculus. After scoring more than 1300 on the SAT, Lau has begun to receive interest from a number of Ivy League universities.
"My main focus is definitely my studies," Lau said. "Don't get me wrong, I love soccer, but it's the icing. It's been that way for me since I was very young."
After returning from official recruiting trips to Harvard and Brown, Lau was courted aggressively by Cornell. Yet, she still does not seem very moved by what she has accomplished and the potential path for success she has laid for herself.
She will not take a lot of credit for her honors. She won't even bask in the glow of being one of just 34 players in the country selected to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas Scholar All-America Team early last week. The honor was the first in recent history for a Hawaii prepster.
"She's worked really hard for everything she's received," said Rachael's father, Dr. Bert Lau.
"Whether it was soccer or school, we've never had to tell her to practice or study more. In fact, it's quite the opposite. We usually have to tell her to stop. She's just so focused."
Rachael Lau's focus has never been on herself. She has not bookmarked her life with her achievements and awards. Instead, her focus has been on her role models. By following their leads, she has found success and happiness.
"I think a lot of it is hard work," Lau said. "But I always had good examples. My siblings, Brianna (Cal) and Eric (Creighton), really set the standard for me. I saw how hard they worked and followed their lead. I have to sacrifice sometimes, but there's been great rewards.
"On the field, I was lucky to have Romy (Trigg-Smith, Princeton) and Charlene (Lui, Brigham Young) as upperclassmen to look up to. Morally and ethically, I always had my parents there to support me and instill values in me.
"When I am done with everything, college, and decide to settle down and have kids of my own, I'd like to raise them the same way I was raised."
In her spare time, Lau can often be found helping out her dad at his clinic, Island Veterinary Care. Her mother, Christine, is the office manager. Rachael does everything from walking dogs, cleaning cages and sweeping to assisting Bert in surgical procedures.
"I've been doing it since I was little," Rachael said. "There's times when it's not fun, but when challenging cases arise, I watch my dad solve them. It is definitely worthwhile. I'm lucky to have experience outside of school, it gives me another perspective on things."
Bert notes that the size of his daughter's hands, as well as her eagerness and intelligence, have been of great use.
"She comes in very handy when we need help holding things in small areas," Bert said. "At times like that she would scrub in and glove up and get her hands in there and hold so I can suture it back together. She's like a scrub nurse. Once, we were doing a liver flute procedure on a cat, and she had to stick her hands in there and hold the gall bladder and squeeze it out."
While dad may hope that Rachael chooses to follow in his footsteps, she may have other plans. "I am thinking about studying something in the sciences, mainly biology," Rachael said. "I have some interest in genetic engineering in particular."
While Lau thanks all who have helped her set her course, she will have to get used to taking some of the credit someday.
"It's different getting used to having everyone on the team looking up to me," Lau said. "It's a new role and I'm still trying to get used to it."
Now a role model herself, she had better get used to it.
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