After years of training, long days and a lot of waiting, Liz Hogan not only played on the U.S. Women's Lacrosse team this past summer, she took home a trophy.

Hogan, 33, a Redwood City resident and teacher at Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton, took part of the lacrosse world championship as the U.S. Women's National Team's goalkeeper in July. The team won the gold medal, its fourth world title in a row. She said she’s received an outpouring of support from the Sacred Heart community, with many students asking, "Can we see your medal?"

"It's hard balancing work life as a full-time teacher," said Hogan, who has taught physical education at the school for six years. She is an associate dean and also coaches lacrosse at Sacred Heart. "I'd train when I could. To finally get that call in February, it was pretty incredible to know all that hard work paid off."

She booked many 12-hour days, arriving at school by 6 or 6:30 a.m. and would work out until 8:15 a.m. She’d teach, then practice again after school, with her days going until 6 or 7 p.m.

Hogan, who is originally from Rochester, New York, came to the area originally to serve as assistant coach to the women’s lacrosse at Stanford University. She ended up taking on a PE teaching job at Sacred Heart.

"Getting to see them (students) grow up and progress is rewarding to see," said Hogan, who first tried out for the team in 2009 and was on the training roster in 2013 and 2017. "I didn't expect to get into teaching. … It was really just happenstance. They needed a first grade PE teacher. I really can’t imagine doing anything different."

Hogan started playing lacrosse in the second grade on a boys-only team -- it was her only option at the time. She played lacrosse until sixth grade when she switched to softball. She returned to lacrosse her freshman year of high school to play alongside her twin sister Allyson.

She played lacrosse at Syracuse University, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in health and exercise science.

Hogan doesn't plan on trying out for the Olympics in 2024, although she really hasn't tapered her training yet.

"My mom would love that, but seems more out of reach," she said. "My focus is on other things, like traveling and getting to use my free weekends for once."

Hogan said she is pleased that there is more gender parity in the sport, but there’s still room for it to improve.

She helped grow lacrosse programming at Sacred Heart, offering it to middle schoolers.

"We want to bring it to as many young girls as we can; we've really been able to get a lot of sticks in a lot of hands," she said.

Her advice for aspiring lacrosse players?

"Follow their passion and put in the work in but still have fun doing it," she said. "Some kids specialize early; my hope for them is to enjoy the whole process. Your sport doesn't define you."

Watch Hogan's Q&A with Sacred Heart Schools here: