This week’s Pioneer Personality is forward Andre Shinyashiki, a senior co-captain on the Men’s Soccer team from São Paulo, Brazil. Shinyashiki’s passion for soccer began as a child in Brazil as it was standard for everybody to play and as one becomes a better player, they just continue with the sport. He chose DU due to the recruiting of former Assistant Coach Ryan Hopkins, now an assistant coach at the University of Virginia, where Shinyashiki fell in love with the staff and DU’s honesty. He also saw the potential to take the program to the next level. The team in the past four years of Shinyashiki presence on the team has seen DU go a combined 56-9-10 and capture two Summit League titles and a trip to the NCAA Final Four in 2016. His two favorite memories in his entire soccer career were winning the National High School Tournament with Montverde Academy and capturing the Summit League title his sophomore year.
On a normal day, Shinyashiki will wake up early to head to the Ritchie Center for treatment for any bumps and bruises still remaining. Their practice starts around 8:30 a.m. where the team will work on the pitch and finish in the weight room. After classes, you might find him eating at his favorite restaurant, Tokyo Bowl, or headed back home to finish homework and watch his favorite show, “Shark Tank” before the next day. To prepare for games, Shinyashiki watches soccer videos to help get him focused on the game ahead.
Shinyashiki’s favorite professional soccer team is S.C. Corinthians Paulista, which is the local team in São Paulo, Brazil. The Brazilian legend Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima is Shinyashiki favorite player and whom he says is the greatest forward he has ever seen. If given the opportunity to have an all-expense paid trip anywhere in the world, Shinyashiki would choose to go back home to São Paulo because “You can do a couple of fun stuff there and it is always cool.”
When not on the pitch, Shinyashiki is majoring in marketing at DU. He has taken many interesting classes while at DU, but International Marketing with Dr. Pallab Paul was his favorite. He stated, “It was a really good class where I really thought the professor really excelled.”
Outside of soccer, Shinyashiki, along with the entire Men’s soccer program, go out to serve the greater Denver area any way they can. Through this community service, especially at the Children’s Hospital, he has experienced some of his most meaningful experiences outside of soccer at DU. He explained, “The visits are really fulfilling because you really get to help people that need help and appreciate you.”
When asked what advice he might have for the next generation of soccer players, he emphasized, “To just work super hard and work harder than everyone else because when you think you are working hard, there is someone on the other side of the world working harder than you. You want to put in as much effort as you can.” Through the hard work he preaches, Shinyashiki strives to play professional soccer.
Shinyashiki has scored 21 goals on the season, broken multiple records at DU and has more goals than many other D1 programs. When questioned on how he felt about all of this, he stated, “It feels good and it is great that people recognize the success and hard work that you put in, but I know as a team and as a player, we have not accomplished anything yet. There is still games to be won and goals to be scored. It feels good but definitely not satisfied yet until we get that Summit League trophy.” Shinyashiki looks forward to finishing the season with his teammates and chasing down every last ball with his unprecedented work ethic.
