By Joseph Staszewski
Becoming a Wingate Award winner has been a bit of an obsession for Francis Lewis’ Darren Chin since he was a sophomore.
It was after that season that he watched then-handball teammate Michael Zhou earn the honor given by the PSAL to the top senior student athlete in each sport. Joining the ranks of honorees became something Chin strived for and later achieved. He was presented with the honor at a ceremony at the Brooklyn Marriott earlier this month.
“It’s awesome,” Chin said. “I don’t know what to do with it now.”
He fell in love with handball at a young age after first giving baseball a try with his brother. Chin noticed a small number of people were playing handball and decided to see if it was something for him. He immediately took to the game at age 10 and excelled. Chen won his first national title at age 15 at the Junior National Championship.
Each summer he competes in the NYC Council Speaker’s Cup tournament and in the United States Handball Association’s One-Wall National Championship among other events. Chin gets a unique joy out of playing the game.
“It’s probably the most satisfying feeling,” he said. “It’s the closest thing you can get to hitting someone without actually hitting somebody.”
This season brought the greatest achievement of his career in his mind. Chin, who went 14-1 overall this season, helped lead top-seeded Francis Lewis to the PSAL city championship with a 5-0 victory over No. 2 Brooklyn Tech. The Patriots had lost in the semifinals last season. He bested Steven Woo 21-20 during the first singles match in the final, giving his team a point. Winning with his teammates topped anything he did in his career.
“It definitely means more than any of the individual titles I’ve won,” Chin said. “It’s probably the sweetest I’ve ever had to win as a team. They wanted it just as much as I did. I never met a greater group of people.”
Taking home the Wingate was the perfect end to his senior season and high school career.
“I wanted to win this award all year,” Chin said. “I saw all this and I said, ‘I have to have this.’”
