Persevere when life is tough and don’t give up. That is the mentality that the basketball program at the State University of New York at New Paltz taught Ed Shuster ’68.
Shuster’s basketball career began at New Paltz but previously he had only played basketball for recreation. He admittedly began with some humiliating games, but he could not wait to play in the next game to improve his skills. Shuster feels like this directly relates to his teaching career.
“Coming home from a day of a bad class is difficult, but each night I want to get back as soon as possible to get better,” said Shuster. “I believe my athletic career taught me that perseverance of not giving up.”
Shuster started working in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., and after three years he went to Temple University to get his master’s. He ended up teaching in Wappingers Falls for 33 years. Shuster is married with a son who attends Virginia Tech, and a daughter who is a graduate of Union College.
For the past twelve years, Shuster has worked as an adjunct at Marist College; he is involved in student-teacher supervision. He loves the job, which he believes is no longer a career because he enjoys it so much. The job forces him to keeps in touch with what is going on in college and public education. He realizes that the students are much more prepared than he ever was and that they have a much better idea of what they want to do at that point.
“The program at Marist College is very special,” said Shuster. “The program involves both special education and elementary education, so there is no wiggle room. With this dual certification, students can’t miss a course or sequence, so therefore, they have to know that this is what they want to do.”
When Shuster attended New Paltz, the enrollment was only 2,000 students and the school had a very different social context.
“At that time there weren’t women’s athletic teams, which is a strange concept to think of today,” Shuster remembers. “You never thought about it, but you were aware of it. It’s hard to imagine that Title IX came out around 1972, which allowed women’s athletics to grow. Women’s athletic successes are better now than it was during the time I attended school.”
New Paltz was a smaller school with a lot less diversity, but with very good support from the public. “The basketball games were the only things going on during cold winter nights, so there was nothing to ever compete with them,” said Shuster.
The smaller campus also allowed for a sense of intimacy with housing close to campus.
“You basically knew everyone or knew of them,” said Shuster. “If you didn’t know them personally, there was some sort of overlap in which you could connect.”
He enjoyed this size because of the cherished relationships he was able to establish, which helped him throughout his academic career.
The school assisted him in developing as a better student and athlete. One of those special relationships was with his former basketball coach, Doug Sheppard, a long time golf coach and faculty member in the physical education department.
“There are people who have a lasting impact on your life and he was one of them for me,” Shuster explains. “In too many ways to detail, his interest, care and concern for me beyond basketball was something I always appreciated and really understood much later on.”
Shuster remembers that the basketball team was not particularly good, but he loved traveling to the games, the practices and the relationships with the teammates. He still keeps in contact with some of his teammates through email or sometimes face-to-face. Because he lives in the Hudson Valley, he is able to enjoy the chance to network with his former teammates who live in the area.
“We took basketball seriously back then, but at the same time realized it wasn’t a serious endeavor, so therefore could enjoy it fully and have fun doing it, which helped strengthen the relationships,” he said.
