Louis Heberer began his career at Sidwell in November of 1987. Raised on Long Island, New York, he came to the Washington D.C. area to attend George Washington University on a wrestling scholarship. Lou graduated from GWU with a P.E. major. He worked in the Fairfax County School system where he taught physical education and coached wrestling and tennis for several years after college.

Lou then had the opportunity to teach physical education and wrestling at Sidwell and that was the start of a long career during which he coached many sports. However, Lou is particularly remembered for his hard work and skill in developing the wrestling program.

Starting with only a handful of wrestlers, he expanded the wrestling program to one of the strongest in the area. Lou had 15 MAC Championships in the 18 years we were in the MAC League and 41 MAC Champion Wrestlers over the same period. Five wrestlers, Reid Ravin, Gabe Baldinger, Brian Hirsch, Edward Ernst and Peter Grant were four-time champions.

In the National Prep Championships at Lehigh, Pennsylvania, the season-ending tournament for all the prep and private schools in the country, Sidwell had 14 national prep finishers and three second-place winners in the finals: Gabe Cohen in 2003, Reid Ravin in 2003 and Miles Brown in 2015. As a team, Sidwell placed in the top 20 teams in the National Tournament five times. Its highest finish in the Prep Tournament was 10^th in the country. Lou reached a major milestone in his career having 300 wins for his wrestling program. He is the only coach in D.C. to reach this milestone. 18 of Lou’s wrestlers had over 100 wins.

In his time at Sidwell Lou also coached varsity football, soccer, varsity lacrosse and varsity tennis. He has a professional rating with the professional tennis registry.

As the assistant coach to Bill Budke, Lou coached the girls’ and boys’ varsity tennis teams for 11 years. The girls’ varsity team won 9 consecutive ISL championships and was undefeated for 9 years.

Lou and his wife Ann have four grown children, Brian, Tommy, Rachel and Emily and are the proud grandparents of eight grandchildren. In retirement, Lou and Anne intend to settle in the Hampton Lake area of Bluffton, South Carolina.