On Monday, April 25, 2016, Pennsbury senior Deanna Shuster was recognized for signing a letter of intent to continue her swimming career at Bloomsburg University. To view photos of the signing event, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Deanna Shuster – Bloomsburg University (Swimming)
Major: Health Sciences in the Pre-Physician’s Assistant program
Reasons for choosing Bloomsburg: “I visited Bloom, and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m meant to be here.’ I applied to IUP and Pitt, but Bloomsburg was the perfect fit for me. Honestly, once I met the coach and the team – it was just a great family atmosphere. Also, my grandfather lives in the Poconos, and once you walk on the campus – it’s up on the mountain and you see all the other mountains. I don’t mind the city, but I’m not a huge city person. I just loved looking out and seeing the mountains instead of skyscrapers. It was just a very beautiful campus.”
What was the progression that led you to competing in swimming at the collegiate level? “I remember I was talking to my mom when I was little, and I said, ‘If I get a full ride to college, will you buy me a car?’ I’ve always known I wanted to swim in college because I’ve been swimming since first grade, so this is going on to 11-12 years now. It was never an option for me not to swim. I honestly couldn’t imagine not swimming. You have four more years that you can (swim), so take advantage of that.”
Coach Greg Stolski says: “Deanna is three-time District One qualifier. She’s a captain of the swim team and is a four-year varsity letter winner. She was one of two female athletes that qualified in two individual events in districts, and she’s number two all-time on our fastest 100 backstrokers in Pennsbury history.
“Deanna is a really driven athlete. She’s very determined, and she’s very good at goal setting. She works exceedingly hard to accomplish those things. She takes her athletics very seriously. She won’t let herself down – she’ll push through adversity, she’ll push through bad experiences and come out the other side generally achieving what she wanted to in that year. This was a really hard year to get into districts with the automatic times. It took until the end of the year to get us there, but she was really pleased with the times in the end, and lot of that comes down to her determination in practice and every meet.
“Deanna always had a really great personality. She was really funny and enjoys the social aspect of the team. She and her fellow captains have been three very close teammates, and they made a really great dynamic in terms of leading the team. Deanna as a leader really helped pick up especially the newer athletes to the team. She could get them to sort of rise to the challenge of hard meets or to push themselves in practice. She was often the one leading the team, especially the girls’ team in the water just day to day and oftentimes in the pool at meets as well.”
About Deanna:
Favorite food: McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes "They’re my good luck charm. I drank them before SOLs, and I got first in the 100 backstroke. It’s only a seasonal food. It comes out during championship season. That’s when all of our big meets are, and I was like, ‘I have to get one before I swim.’ It’s happened before when I drank it, and I won my race the next day. I had one on the bus ride to districts, and then I went a best time at districts. It works for me.”
Favorite movie: Pirates of the Caribbean
Favorite music: Pop or Country
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