Paying It Forward on the Sidelines and Beyond

Hector Lopez ’00, M.D., didn’t plan on becoming a doctor. In fact, it was the last thing he thought he’d do for a career.

“My dad was the kind of family doctor who did everything, from delivering babies to performing surgeries. He was always very busy, and I wasn’t sure I wanted that kind of demanding schedule,” Dr. Lopez explains.

The foundation for hard work and perseverance, however, had been instilled in Dr. Lopez by the generations that came before him.

“My dad is an immigrant from Mexico; he and his family were migrant farm workers growing up,” Dr. Lopez says. “In our family, education was not optional. My grandparents maintained that getting an education meant bettering yourself. My parents and aunts and uncles came from humble beginnings, were first-generation college attendees, and became successful professionals. This example provided the recipe for success.”

Growing up in El Paso, Dr. Lopez attended Cathedral High School, an all-boys high school with small class sizes. When a basketball road trip to San Antonio brought Dr. Lopez onto the campus of Trinity University, something clicked.

“I knew Trinity had a good reputation, and it was far enough away from El Paso that I felt like I could be independent while still being somewhat close to home,” Dr. Lopez says. “Trinity checked all of the right boxes in terms of academics, and its small class sizes were a good fit for me.”

The transition to Trinity’s academic rigor didn’t come easily for Dr. Lopez, though. “I was really overwhelmed in some of my courses because I was not at the level that some of my peers were. I actually failed my first-year chemistry course; I was too proud to ask for help,” Dr. Lopez remembers.

Dr. Lopez did not let failure discourage him. “The more you tell me I can’t do something,” he says, “the more determined I am to succeed.” He turned to his professors for help, and several became mentors for him. “Without support from my professors, I wouldn’t have succeeded. You need one person to believe in you, another to push you,” he admits. He credits people like Arturo Madrid, Ph.D., Robert Blystone P’96, Ph.D., the late Coach Jim Potter ’63, M’67, and Jacob Tingle ’95, Ed.D., as mentors who also became dear friends.

Taking advantage of Trinity’s liberal arts curriculum, Dr. Lopez explored a variety of disciplines, but he discovered that the sciences came most naturally to him. After graduating from Trinity with a bachelor’s in biology and from The University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio, Dr. Lopez trained in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he served as chief resident, was named an “Emerging Leader” by the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians, and gained valuable experience working with Arizona State University and the Oakland Athletics. He returned to San Antonio for his Sports Medicine Fellowship in 2009, when he first served as a team physician for Trinity Athletics. He then returned to practice alongside his father in El Paso until returning to San Antonio in 2014.

Board-certified in family medicine with a Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) in sports medicine, Dr. Lopez has volunteered as a team physician for Trinity Athletics since 2014. He treats student-athletes from each of Trinity’s teams at the Bell Center every week, and he is on the sideline at several football games throughout the season.

“I have enjoyed working with the Trinity students because I can serve as a sounding board for them and be a mentor like the ones I had,” Dr. Lopez says.

In addition to serving Trinity, Dr. Lopez is a partner at his private practice, Sports Medicine Associates of San Antonio. He has had the pleasure of countless sports medicine experiences, including serving on the medical staff for San Antonio FC, the San Antonio Spurs, the San Antonio Brahmas, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, the University of Texas at San Antonio, the Valero Open, Ballet San Antonio, and the San Antonio Marathon. He continues to help train two new primary care sports medicine physicians yearly through the TIGMER Sports Medicine Fellowship.

Dr. Lopez has been recognized as one of San Antonio’s Top Doctors by San Antonio Magazine based on peer nominations from physicians. While he is grateful for the recognition, he cares more about doing right by his patients and earning their trust.

“Physicians want to be known for our skill and expertise,” he says. “There’s a satisfaction that comes from patients trusting you. I cannot think of a better recommendation than when they bring their families and friends to you.”

Dr. Lopez sees parallels between the player-coach relationship in sports and the patient-doctor relationship in medicine.

“We want to have good outcomes and be good advisers for patients because ultimately, as a physician, you don't just treat disease or injury, you’re a teacher. You have to educate people about their condition, how to understand and manage it, and then improve their condition,” Dr. Lopez says.

Because the medical world can be extremely complex, Dr. Lopez stresses the importance of communication skills when he is teaching sports medicine fellows and medical residents and students.

“If you’re not familiar with medical terminology or even how to navigate the system, it can be very daunting and overwhelming, unfortunately,” he says. “There’s an art to communicating information. I have an ability to read and connect with people and make sure that I’m providing information in a way that they can actually digest.”

Extending beyond sports medicine, Dr. Lopez is equally passionate about supporting Trinity students off the field. He has mentored several Trinity student-athletes and has connected with Elseke Membreño-Zenteno, program associate for the Mexico, the Americas, and Spain (MAS) program, to sit in on some of the MAS student gatherings to lend alumni support and guidance.

Looking back, Dr. Lopez is quick to credit those who have helped him along the way.

“You don’t get very far without a helping hand, and I’ve always made it a point to pay it forward,” he says.

On the sidelines, in the clinic, and in every conversation with a student, he’s doing that and more as a proud Trinity alumnus.