{"id":10503,"date":"2019-02-06T18:19:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T18:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=10503"},"modified":"2019-02-06T18:19:17","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T18:19:17","slug":"zachary-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/06\/zachary-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"ZACHARY DEAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emilee Mae Struss<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
WRHS senior Zachary Deal is a four-year boys\u2019 swimming state competitor and will continue to compete at a NCAA Division 1 level. Courtesy photo by Kim Jacobs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>he Wood River Valley can lay claim to the State of Idaho\u2019s best boy swimmer. <\/span><\/p>\n

Zachary Deal won the Twin Falls Times-News newspaper\u2019s Boys\u2019 Swimmer of the Year in 2017 and has competed at the 4A state championships in boys\u2019 swimming all four years while attending Wood River High School.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI find a lot of meditation in it [swimming],\u201d Deal said. \u201cI also really like the physical aspect of it and enjoy working to improve myself every day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Deal\u2019s best event is the 100-meter breaststroke. He took first place at the state competition in both 2017 and 2018. But his favorite event to talk about is the 2018 medley relay.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a group of us that sat down before the season and said, \u2018There is a possibility for this group of guys to go to state\u2019,\u201d Deal said. \u201cAnd around here that\u2019s a big deal and a cool opportunity to represent our school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The event was the 200-meter freestyle relay and the pre-race analysis predicted the boys to come in about fifth or sixth at the district level. They would need to finish at least fourth to qualify for state. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe huddled up before the race,\u201d Deal said. \u201cThere was a lot of hype, and then right before the race, it was complete calm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Deal was the last swimmer in the relay\u2014the anchor. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI saw we were in fifth or sixth place during the race,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so I realized I needed to pull off the swim of a lifetime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His teammates lined the pool deck in Wolverine gear, screaming for Deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

He put his head down and swam his best time, bringing the team in at third place and qualifying for state.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was easily the most impactful moment for me,\u201d Deal said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deal started swimming around age 5 and now spends anywhere from 20-30 hours a week in the pool. All of this time has paid off and he is now talking to several NCAA Division I colleges about competing at a whole new level.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s between University of Maryland – Baltimore County, Penn State University or the University of Denver. <\/span><\/p>\n

Deal has found the greatest interest in math and science classes and plans to pursue a degree in engineering. His interest in engineering, similar to his interest in swimming, started at a young age. He joined the robotics program in middle school and participated in the club up until high school.<\/span><\/p>\n

His classes right now include A.P. Calculus, A.P. Physics, College English and American Government. The D-1 schools are interested in Deal for more than just athletic performance; with a 4.2 GPA, he has also been offered academic scholarships.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe number one person who has inspired me is my coach, Brian Gallagher,\u201d Deal said. \u201cHe as been coaching me since I was 10 years old and he\u2019s like a second father to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Deal also shared that several teachers from WRHS have also made a big impact on him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have great opportunities as students,\u201d Deal said. \u201cThey [teachers at WRHS] teach me a lot about the way the world works and it shows in the student body.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Deal is ready for new challenges and a greater level of competition. In regards to moving across the country, he says he is excited to experience a place with more people in each class than people that live in his entire hometown.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my mom,\u201d Deal said, \u201cshe has been so supportive of me, even though I am going to be moving far away. She is just so supportive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emilee Mae Struss The Wood River Valley can lay claim to the State of Idaho\u2019s best boy swimmer. Zachary Deal won the Twin Falls Times-News newspaper\u2019s Boys\u2019 Swimmer of the Year in 2017 and has competed at the 4A state championships in boys\u2019 swimming all four years while attending Wood River High School. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sponsored","8":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}