Gus Shuster '17 Recruiting Profile

Throughout my childhood I have always been very athletic and determined. Starting at age 8 I competed in freestyle skiing. Being exposed to competition from and early age lead me to love all aspects of sport. In seventh grade I joined my school modified XC team. That year practice had to be held at a neighboring school because our entire town had been destroyed by hurricane Irene. My parents business, and sole source or income was also destroyed. As if that were not enough my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the start of the school year. Rather then letting this misfortune get the best of me I used it as encouragement. I won many races that season. The following year I finished second at the league championships by .07 of a second. My time over the two mile distance was 12:12 I was only 13 years old. My high school was too small to have a modified track team so I planned to try out for varsity. That winter while at a skiing competition I broke my neck and back. This injury The injury was so severe that my doctor said I would not walk for multiple weeks. In addition to this grim news he said that 95% of the people who sustain the same injury that I did, die or are paralyzed for their entire life. Being a rebellious 14 year old I refused to accept this fate. The next morning I was walking up and down the stairs in a brace that I would remain in for four months. It took six months for me to be able to return to athletics. This injury had weakened me and I had to re-learn basic things like how to run, jump and even turn my head. Despite all this I still joined varsity track the following spring. My high school had no track equipment when I first joined the team. Our only coach was a distance runner who knew next to nothing about sprinting or field events. I taught myself how to high jump, long jump, shot put, and hurdle with the help of fellow competitors and YouTube. I also built my own hurdles and bought a shot from a garage sale. Despite a lack of formal equipment I still qualified for the high jump at the 2014 Section 4 State Qualifiers as a freshmen. This past year I placed third in the pentathlon at the 2015 Section 4 State Qualifiers. That was only the second pentathlon I had ever done. I intend to compete in the Pentathlon at a college level and promise my best is yet to come.