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For the fourth year in a row, Westminster Christian senior Saskia Hernandez is a first-team All Miami-Dade volleyball player.
Last year, she was named the All Miami-Dade Player of the Year and The All Miami-Dade Athlete of the Year by the Miami Herald.
She’s played on the varsity team since she was in seventh grade.
She and one of her sisters won the state championship in 2016. This school year, the Westminster team was 22-0 and hadn’t lost a set in the playoffs going into the state championship final game but didn’t get the result they wanted.
When she was 12, she won the U.S.A. Beach Nationals, and again at 14. She’s played in the High-Performance Beach nationals for the 18 and under division representing Florida and won the National Gold medal and she’s also won to two Indoor High-Performance National Championships for Team Florida.
Her skills have earned her a scholarship at North Carolina State University where she will major in business. She’s thrilled to be attending NC State.
“The head coach at NC State is the assistant for the U.S.A. Olympics women’s team,” she says.
Hernandez says she’d love to be on the women’s team.
“Maybe one day, I hope to say that. That would be such a cool opportunity,” she says.
Becoming a professional volleyball player is a possibility for her.
Hernandez comes from a talented family of volleyball players. In 2011, the family established Bimini Buds to equipment and sports instruction to the children of Bimini. The organization expanded to the Dominican Republic and now helps an orphanage outside Santo Domingo.
“It’s changed my life,” she says.
The first time they went to the orphanage, they met with a bunch of children. The second time they went, they were surprised that the children remembered their names.
“You realize how much impact you have on their lives,” she says.
It’s a contrast from what Hernandez has and working with the kids makes her appreciate the life she has.
She speaks to one of the girls at the orphanage almost every day.
“We gave them an iPad so they could listen to music,” Hernandez says.
The kids then downloaded programs that allow them to speak to Hernandez, her sisters and brother.
“They always want us to go back and visit,” she says. “We played volleyball with them, and played soccer. It’s great.”
COVID has kept Hernandez from returning, otherwise they’d go as often as possible.
“We love them and we know how much they love us, too,” she says.
Hernandez and her family have a company called The Good Stuff Global that sells jackets and hats. A portion of the profits go to Bimini Buds so they can continue their good works, including their plan to build a basketball court for the kids in the Dominican Republic.
They still go to Bimini and continue to give the kids children sports gear. One year they donated jerseys for the girl’s team and the girls qualified for the National Championships.
They expanded to other parts of the globe, including Serbia, where they sent mostly baseball gear to a new league.
“I do want to go other places to help a lot of kids,” she says. “In the DR, once I saw the need that these children have for so many things that we take for granted… wow! I want to change their lives, because they changed mine forever.”
At school she’s treasurer for the Be the Light Foundation. It was founded for her friend Ari Arteaga who passed away in a tragic car accident.
Linda Rodriquez Bernfeld
