Mr. Zajdel is a teacher at Norwalk High School who teaches AP Government and Civics. Out of teaching, he coaches swimming/diving and most recently girls lacrosse. Mr. Zajdel’s passion for swimming started when he was 8 years old and he was looking for something to do. He started swimming with his sister and it ended up becoming his number one hobby. He was on the swimming/diving team in high school and his skills in the sport got noticed by many colleges and was started to get noticed a lot. While being on the swimming/diving team he was studying civics to possibly become a civics teacher at an high school. Once he came to Norwalk High to teach what he was studying in college, he was given the opportunity to be an assistant coach for the swimming/diving team. When he got the news without hesitation, he said yes and became the new assistant coach of the Swimming/Diving team.

So far, he’s been a favorite of all the players on the team and he’s made lots of memories with them too. One of Mr. Zajdel’s swimmers was in her junior year and ever since her freshman year. She was by far the hardest working player on the team and she was finally able to go to FCIACS, a goal she’s been setting up for herself since joining the swimming/diving team. Her dream of making FCIACS Final became true when she was going against other swimmers doing laps and, with the confidence she had, she could win the race. This became one of Mr. Zajdel’s favorite memories as a coach because this showed him how excited his players get after achieving something they’ve been working hard for.

As an athlete, his favorite memory was his freshmen year in college when swam the mile in the conference championship, one of the biggest/important games he’s ever played and he made it memorable. The whole race he stayed consistent, and he ended up getting one of the best times in that race and it became something he’ll never forget. One thing he remembers when being an athlete is how hard all of your hard work you would do in practice would take to get noticed.  He learned from high school to college that it takes a certain amount of time for all the success to come and embrace in the obstacles that come along with the journey.

Since then, Mr. Zajdel became the head coach for the Girls Swim/Dive team and most recently he became the Girls Freshman Lacrosse coach with having no experience of playing the sport. Ms. Martinez was the one that offered the job to Mr. Zajdel and he wanted to try something new. It was obviously a challenge coaching a sport he’s never played before but he with the help of Ms. Martinez he was able to learn the sport and coaching these young athletes with lots of potential. This has been something he’s loved the last couple of years and he wishes to continue. Good luck to Boys Swim/Dive team and support them!