By Roy Hess Excerpted from The Brownsville Herald Ryan Maza made the right choice.

At the beginning of his junior year at Pace High School in Brownsville, Texas in 1987, Maza decided to concentrate on swimming at the expense of playing football and basketball.

Maza, who stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 210 pounds at the time, recognized that swimming was the sport that best offered him an opportunity for a college scholarship.

"I remember my (swimming) coach, Brian Wild, telling me that I could be a jack-of-all trades and a master of none or choose one (sport) and focus on it," said Maza, now 33 and a Department of Public Safety (DPS) trooper in the Brownsville area.

Opting for swimming was a decision he has never regretted.

"I appreciate the advice that he (Wild) gave me," Maza said. "He was right. If I had practiced only three days a week or just one hour a day, it wouldn’t have cut it to get a scholarship to the college level. If you don’t practice four hours a day or more, you’re not going to get there (college). Pool time is very, very important.

"He prepared me for the next level," said Maza of his high school coach. "I had to make sure that swimming was my ticket (to college).

"Some swimmers may have an Olympic dream, but mine was to get to college. When I saw those (college) campuses (on recruiting trips), I told myself, ‘Man, I’ve got to be part of this.’"

He went on to earn an NCAA Division I scholarship to Nebraska, choosing the Huskers over the University of Miami and Texas A&M.

The Cornhuskers won the Big Eight title all four years that Maza swam and Maza was a member of a Nebraska relay team in 1992.

"Ryan was the only swimmer we’ve ever had (in Brownsville) to become a high school All-American," said Wild, Pace’s longtime swimming coach. "He went to an NCAA school on scholarship and stuck it out all four years, so I think that probably makes him the most successful (Brownsville) swimmer we’ve ever had."

The price for success didn’t come easy for Maza.

He said swimming is one of the most demanding sports and yet one of the sports that hardly receives any recognition or news coverage except at Olympic time.

Maza said it was through the encouragement and prodding of his parents, Emilio and Rosie Maza of Brownsville, that he began swimming. He followed his brother Royce, who is 9 years older, into the sport.

"My dad was very big on swimming and I think he had us in the pool before we knew how to walk," Maza said. "My dad might not have been the most knowledgeable swim coach, but he was strict with us. Around my house, it was basically either sink or swim.

"I used to go to my brother’s practices, and before long, it was my turn," he added. "There was the Blue Dolphins (swimming club) and the Brownsville Swim Club. I remember there were always about 50 or 60 kids at practice. I was a little kid, hung around it and eventually got mixed into it.

"From the time I was 7 or 8, I was practicing (swimming) four to five hours a day six days a week," Maza said. "I didn’t think anything of it because that was my life back then. I just stayed with it and stayed with it.

Maza said his training increased to six or seven hours a day when he arrived at Nebraska.

"You have to put in that kind of time if you want to be competitive," Maza said.

He said swimming at Nebraska allowed him to meet teammates and opponents from across the United States and from around the world.

"We did a lot of traveling and that helped create a lot of camaraderie on the team," Maza said. "One week you’d be competing at UCLA and the next week you’d be in Florida or at LSU. Those were some of the best experiences of my life.

"It (swimming career) was great, but it was all over in a blink, at least that’s the way it seems," he added.