{"id":49904,"date":"2011-12-06T08:07:49","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T13:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=49904"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:14:53","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:14:53","slug":"devinney-finds-husky-swim-team-a-family-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/12\/devinney-finds-husky-swim-team-a-family-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"DeVinney Finds Husky Swim Team a Family Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Erin<\/a>
Erin DeVinney '13 (NUR). (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Erin DeVinney \u201912 (NUR) is a student-athlete who exemplifies Husky pride, both individually and as part of a team.<\/p>\n

A Big East Academic All-Star with a 3.3 GPA, she is captain of the women\u2019s swimming team. She also leads weekly learning groups \u2013 six-hour study halls that are required for freshman members of the swimming and diving teams.<\/p>\n

Her team enjoyed a winning season last year (7-2) \u2013 with the College Swimming Coaches Association of America honoring the Husky men\u2019s and women\u2019s swimming and diving teams as Scholar All-American Teams for maintaining an overall team GPA of 3.0. \u201cWinning helps,\u201d DeVinney says, \u201cbut more important is being part of the swim team family.\u201d<\/p>\n

When DeVinney was being recruited by head coach Bob Goldberg, he told her she would have 27 friends on the swim team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really was like that,\u201d DeVinney says. \u201cIn fact, I was just invited to a former teammate\u2019s wedding who graduated a couple of years ago. The swim teams are like one big family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swimming and Huskymania are part of DeVinney\u2019s own family as well. Her older sister, Katie DeVinney \u201909 (ED), \u201910 MA, graduated with an Integrated Bachelor\u2019s\/Master\u2019s degree from the Neag School of Education and also was on the swim team.<\/p>\n

\u201cKatie swam for four years and during her fifth year, which was my sophomore year, she was an assistant coach,\u201d DeVinney says. \u201cI will be here for a fifth year, too, so hopefully I\u2019ll coach as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offering encouragement as team captain and perhaps assistant coach is valuable preparation for DeVinney\u2019s goal of becoming a nurse. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a high school freshman, DeVinney says, \u201cEver since I\u2019ve had diabetes I\u2019ve wanted to be a nurse. I like being in the hospital setting. I\u2019d like to see if there\u2019s a way to help other people like me, who have juvenile diabetes.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Arizona native who hopes to launch her nursing career in her home state\u2019s Mayo Clinic, DeVinney came to Storrs on a recruiting trip for the swim team. \u201cI fell in love with UConn\u2019s swim program and was really impressed by UConn\u2019s School of Nursing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As a nursing major and student-athlete, DeVinney manages a grueling schedule. In addition to carrying five classes each semester, weekly swim meets last three to four hours \u2013 plus travel time \u2013 and she practices 20 hours a week during swim season.<\/p>\n

Not that life is all work. \u201cUConn is a great University \u2013 there are always exciting games to go to, and I\u2019ve met tons of people,\u201d DeVinney says, adding that being a nursing major is one of the best aspects of being a Husky. \u201cI learn something new every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith her training and hard work, Erin has overcome some difficulties with diabetes because it affects everything she does,\u201d says Goldberg. \u201cShe\u2019s taking a really tough major and opted to go five years so she can give her all to both school and swimming. She\u2019s an unsung hero. She is what intercollegiate athletics is supposed to be all about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior Erin DeVinney, a Big East Academic All-Star, has excelled as a nursing major and top-level athlete who has Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":51813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-49904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 06:30:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51569,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49904\/revisions\/51569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/51813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49904"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=49904"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}