Tiago Ruas Deluca can swim all kinds of strokes well.

Ruas Deluca Signing Photo Gallery

That’s part of what made him “one-of-a-kind” with Missouri Military Academy, according to head coach Matthias McManus. It’s also why he signed to swim for NCAA Division II Rockhurst University in Kansas City in a ceremony on Thursday at Stribling Hall at MMA in Mexico.

Ruas Deluca came to MMA from Brazil three years ago and made an immediate impression on McManus.

“Anthony Melick was the fastest kid on the team,” McManus said. “Ruas and Pereira (De Abreu Donnabella), his friend from Brazil that graduated last year, came and I said, ‘Let’s see what you guys got.’ I got them on the block, and lo and behold, Ruas won right off the bat against Melick. You see a Lamborghini in the water. I don’t see a Pinto here.”

Ruas Deluca continued to impress as he and other Colonels qualified for the 2022 state meet in his first season and won two state medals. He finished second in the 100-yard backstroke and fourth in the 500-yard freestyle. In the next season, Ruas Deluca finished second in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 200 freestyle. 

During all his time in MMA's pool, Ruas Deluca has all but two school records, which are the 500-meter freestyle and 100-meter breaststroke. The 100 breaststroke is held by his Brazilian friend Paulo De Abreu Donnabella. 

Swimming in college is “a dream coming true” for Ruas Deluca as he has been interested since starting high school. He plans to study computer science and said he likes how nice the Rockhurst campus looks and how everything is within walking distance. 

“Their swimming program is new, but they already have some very fast kids,” Ruas Deluca said. “Everyone says good things about the coach (Doug Schranck) there.”

Ruas Deluca said he has been swimming competitively since he was 9 years old but thinks he started swimming lessons when he was two- or three-years-old.

“My mom put me in swim lessons when I was really young,” Ruas Deluca said. “I’ve been swimming basically for my whole life.”

Throughout his whole life, whether it was in his home Brazil or recent years in America, Ruas Deluca said he has had great coaches who have conditioned him to be the swimmer he is today. That applies to when he started at MMA with a different experience. 

Ruas Deluca recalls some cadets were learning how to swim or didn’t swim competitively before, but he remembers having fun practices and good times under coach McManus.

McManus said he has four or five swimmers sign for college, but Ruas Deluca is the first MMA swimmer he’s had to sign for college. College swimmers typically have fun in the water when they’re young, he said, and Ruas Deluca had this quality along with being gifted. 

“We’ve been going to state ever since this man showed up on campus,” McManus said. “He’s motivated kids to do better, come practice and work hard.”

McManus said Ruas Deluca even “outdid” his son, who swam at Arizona State, because his son was good at the breaststroke while Ruas Deluca is well-rounded. Ruas Deluca’s best stroke is the butterfly and his weakest is the breaststroke but is capable in about every stroke. 

Ruas Deluca said the butterfly is his favorite stroke because it’s his best one and “it’s good to win,” saying with a grin. He finds the freestyle fun to swim, too, after improving his technique recently. His versatility started earlier in his life in Brazil.

“It comes from Brazil,” Ruas Deluca said. “They used to put us in the IM (individual medley). It is all strokes during practice so I got used to it. Now I know the technique for every single stroke. For example, I don’t practice backstroke that much, but in swim meets, I can do backstroke because I already practiced in the past.”

McManus said Team Triumph, a USA swimming club in Columbia, helped Ruas Deluca and MMA this season. He said they let the Colonels practice with them, consult their coaches, helped with the Colonels’ practices and gave them a workout schedule, and let the Colonels compete with them. 

Athletics director Brian Meny said Ruas Deluca’s commitment is part of the more than $1 million in athletic scholarships for MMA cadets this year. 

“I’m really happy I decided to come to MMA,” Ruas Deluca said. “It was a very fun three years. I’m ready to go to college and do my best.”