Does the name Alan Hirahara sound familiar? It did to P.E. teacher Michelle Myers. Hirahara was a senior in 1986, the first year Myers worked as a PE teacher at Country Day.

In 2009, he was her knee surgeon at Sutter General Hospital.

Myers tore her meniscus while training for the California International Marathon in 2008. The meniscus helps reduce friction in the knee joint during movement.

When Myers’s regular doctor referred her to “Dr. Hirahara,” she said she recognized the name.

Although Hirahara didn’t instantly recognize her with her new last name, he soon realized who she was.

“When I was filling out the consent form I said to him that if he wasn’t successful, I would take his diploma straight back to Country Day,” Myers joked.

However, Myers was satisfied with his work after the knee surgery and felt Hirahara did a great job.

Hirahara enrolled his daughter, Chloe, in the pre-kindergarten just three weeks ago.

Chloe is one of three Chips, or children of former students of SCDS that attend the school, in the pre-kindergarten, along with Phifey Boyers and Sophia Dunmore.

There was talk from teachers that Myers had convinced Hirahara to send his daughter here. But Myers contradicted that.

“I didn’t actually convince him,” Myers said. “When you see a former student, you want to remind them of all their experiences at Country Day. That’s what I did.”

“I was very well prepared for the next level of my education,” Hirahara said. “Even the few things I might have not been prepared for, [SCDS] gave me a taste of what was to come.”

After finishing high school, Hirahara attended UCLA and the UCSF School of Medicine.

Although Hirahara said there were many great teachers when he attended, his favorite was history teacher Daniel Neukom.

“I don’t want to give him a big head, but Neukom always had the best stories,” Hirahara said. “His classes were entertaining and interesting.”

Myers is very excited to have Chloe in her PE class and is interested in how she will grow up.

“We always hope that the kids will get their parents’ genes, but everyone is individual,” Myers said.

Myers had surgery in December done by Dr. Gregory Graves, father of Alex,’11, and Hayley ’12, and returned to school in the first week of February after six weeks off.

Even though Myers was supposed to be out for six-to-eight weeks, she specifically asked her doctor if she could come back and teach PE early.

Dr. Graves said yes, but Myers isn’t allowed to carry anything heavier than 10 pounds.

“That will be my purse and my coffee,” Myers said. “That’s all.”