Upon entering Ms. Lindsay Hergert’s room on the top floor of Drexel hall, El Cid met up with the sports medicine and biology teacher, who was wearing a trendy green patterned top and was surrounded by students who stayed after class to ask her questions. In a relaxed manner, she offered us a seat and we noted the perfectly organized classroom. When she informed us that she had worked in interior design right out of college, it came as no surprise.

Although she enjoyed interior design, the world of athletics always seemed to be her home. Ms. Hergert said, “I didn’t like just sitting at a desk all day and just going over plans, so I became a personal trainer.” While she was working in this profession, she went back to school to achieve her Master’s degree in exercise science, and here she discovered her love for sports med. Even before going back to school and becoming a personal trainer, her love of sports had played a prominent role in her childhood. In middle school, Ms. Hergert expressed her passion for all things athletic by participating in basketball, track, and volleyball.

She said, “Volleyball was my main sport. I mean I did basketball and track and stuff like that in middle school, but from high school on, it was all volleyball.” Her love of volleyball never wore off because, after her time as a personal trainer, she coached high school volleyball in Arizona. She said, “When I started coaching volleyball, I realized how much I loved working with kids.”

With a renewed passion, she acquired her Master’s of education and began working at Tombstone high school where she taught science for two years. She then moved to San Diego and saw that Cathedral Catholic High School was looking for a new addition to the science department. She said, “It was my first and only interview for teaching since I got here, and I got it! I feel like the entire science department is like my small family.”

When asked about her teaching style she said, “I feel like I’m laid-back, but I do have high standards on the work that’s turned in to me. I push my students to do their best work.” So, to those students who have classes in that perfectly organized room, be prepared for Ms. Hergert’s passionate, coaching mentality.