E46 | Samantha Partida: Fueling to Win

[00:00:00] Donnie: Welcome to the team behind the Team podcast. I’m your host, Donnie Maid. This is the monthly show focused on building conversations around the team-based model approach to ethic, performance, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, sports science, mental health and wellness, and sports nutrition.

Hello and welcome back to the team Behind the Team podcast. I’m your host Donny Maib. And we are already well into the summer here on the 40 acres. And I got my trustee sidekick, Joe Krawczyk coach. What is going on?

[00:00:45] Joe: It’s Texas. It’s hot again. It’s June. I lost about five pounds body weight walking into the studio.

That’s right. Um, so no, it’s good. Uh, excited for the summer. Excited to, uh, Uh, get a little time back and, you know, do a little personal growth before fall.

[00:01:00] Donnie: So that’s good. Awesome, coach. How, before we get to our guests here in a minute, how’s the spring been? What’s it been like for you?

[00:01:06] Joe: Busy. It’s actually been a pretty busy spring, uh, busier than I remembered it last year, but that’s good.

I like busy. It makes the summer a little bit more fun when you get that little break.

[00:01:15] Donnie: How’s your little man doing? How’s David?

[00:01:16] Joe: He’s getting oyster. He’s getting huge. Um, funny thing we’re talking about nutrition today. He’s fighting us at dinnertime. I love it. He doesn’t want eat the healthy food. He wants the little snacky food, so, uh, coach him up, Joe.

It’s a battle of the wills with, uh, one and a half year old. It’s good. It’s, it’s interesting.

[00:01:32] Donnie: Well, good stuff. Well, hey, So excited about today. This, uh, our guest. We have a rockstar. I know we may say that sometime, but this truly is a rockstar. UT Athletics. Wanna welcome to the show, miss Sam Partida. Sam, welcome.

[00:01:47] Samantha: Hello. Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here. Yes, ma’am.

[00:01:50] Donnie: Thanks for making time. This is a busy time of the year for all of us, obviously, and so I know your schedule’s packed, so we’re excited to have you on. And, uh, Sam just recently got promoted to assistant director. Uh, in sports, uh, on the Olympic sports as a sports dietician, nutrition.

So, congratulations. Thank you so much. And thank you. That just means she’s gonna be even busier, but super happy for you. You’ve been crushing it and we appreciate all you do for ut. So congrats. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, uh, we’re gonna kick it off, Joe, take it from here. We’re gonna, we got a great topic with Sam Day.

I’m really excited about the content and the, and the talk we’re gonna get into. Let’s go from there.

[00:02:28] Joe: Yeah. So, Sam, normally we talk the show, just, you know, we started the show, sorry. Talking about, uh, kind of how you came up in your career. You mentioned your career wasn’t really linear, you kind of got away from sports nutrition.

Can you kind of take us through that and, you know, why, why you went away and why you came back?

[00:02:41] Samantha: Sure. Yeah. So I graduated from UT in 2013 and my last year at Texas I actually entered for Amy Culp, who has been on this podcast before. Uh, she’s my current boss right now. And. Back then, sports nutrition was very new.

That was 10 years ago. There weren’t very many collegiate sports dieticians in the country. In fact, Amy was one of the first full-time at, in the collegiate setting. She fought really hard to get that position, and at the time, watching her. Essentially run around with a head cut off and she would probably be okay with me saying that.

Cause I’ve told her this story many times. It scared me outta sports nutrition. Initially I knew deep down that’s what I wanted to do, but the jobs weren’t there yet. So I actually went into clinical nutrition right out of college and I was working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities for about five years by the end of it.

And during that time was actually able to get my master’s degree. It was not where my passion was. It was not where my heart was. But I definitely learned a lot during that job. I just turned 22, like right outta college. I was, ended up becoming the department head as a 22 year old. Oh my goodness. At a clinic by myself.

I was the only dietician in the whole facility and I was managing employees. I had about 15 to 20. Kitchen employees at any given time. Again, I was 22 years old. I did not know what I was doing. They were crazy to have hired me for that job, to be honest. But all of that experience was comp. It was invaluable.

It has absolutely gotten to me to where I am today, and I’m very thankful for it. It was definitely the hardest job I’ve ever had. But it was, it was, it was good experience. I’m glad that I did it. And all of it’s translated into sports nutrition thus

[00:04:24] Donnie: far. Just quick sidebar, Joe, real quick. Had a, you, you kind of spurred something 22 as as a director.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. How did you get that job? And I, I just, I know, I wanna just, just curious, how did that happen? Cuz that’s always amazing to

[00:04:38] Samantha: me. So, yes. So it was in my hometown. I’m from New Braunfels, Texas, and there aren’t many dieticians in New Braunfels, Texas. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I applied to the job not thinking I would get it, to be honest, but it was back home.

So I, I applied to make sure and I got it and I think. Part of it was they really, really needed somebody, and it was a state funded institution, so they had to check the box of having a dietician. And I don’t think that they, my boss at the time didn’t fully understand what a dietician did, which I didn’t realize when I was hired had I realized that and understood what that meant for me and how difficult that was going to make my job, I wouldn’t have taken it.

But I was a 22 year old. I wasn’t very smart, so I took it, and again, it taught me a lot and I’m very glad that I had that experience. And wildly enough, again, my boss not really understanding what a dietician did when I said I was moving to Nashville for fun because I needed to get out of my hometown at the time, he was like, okay, great.

You can work remotely from Nashville. And that actually allowed me to get my master’s degree in exercise and nutrition science while I worked remotely during the day I was going in to get my master’s degree at night.

[00:05:52] Donnie: Cool story, I think. Just makes me think cream always rises to the top. You know, that kind of cliche saying of, you know, when you work hard, like those opportunities come.

Curious, just one more question on that. Yeah. Whole topic. Um, biggest lesson you learned from being director? What was, would you, if you could sum just uh, yeah.

[00:06:11] Samantha: Thought of that. Honestly, it was, you have to leave work at work sometimes. Oh, I like that. And it was very, I need that, that was a, that was a lesson that my dad actually had to sit me down and teach me because I was coming home and I was, quite honestly, there were times where I was a miserable human being and I would come home and take it out on my family or whoever I was around at the time.

And it got to the point where I had to figure out how to not carry work with me emotionally. Not just like bringing your laptop home, but the hard stuff that would happen at work doesn’t need to be taken out on the other people later in the day. I just needed to know that I was, when I, when I was walking outta that building.

I was gonna be back tomorrow. There were things that could be addressed tomorrow, and I didn’t need to dwell on it. There was nothing I could do while I was at home to, to fix it. And there was no sense in thinking about it all night long and being mm-hmm. In a negative space.

[00:07:07] Joe: I feel like there’s a lot of positives to all that too, though.

I mean, you gotta grow up fast for one fast and, and two, it’s like, I mean, you look at yourself as you’re, you know, you’re 22. I mean, I could think back when I was 22 and look at what, like a lot of my friends were doing outta college. They weren’t really doing all that much. You know, they graduated college maybe, and, you know, maybe got entry level job, but I mean, not nearly as impressive probably what you were doing.

So I’m sure like in perspective you could be like, no, I’m, I’m still killing it though. Like, I’m still, I’m still out here doing it and I’m, I’m stressed for the right reasons, you

[00:07:40] Samantha: know? Yeah. And at the time I didn’t realize that I was killing it. Yeah, I’m sure. I really felt like I was barely keeping my head above water, but looking back, Again, I’m so grateful for that experience.

While it was hard and while I was, there were days I would come home and it’d be five o’clock and I’d be in bed cuz I was emotionally drained. The hardest part about the job for me was actually managing employees. Um, the residents were, it’s a challenging population to work with. It’s also a very rewarding population to work with.

But managing a kitchen and managing kitchen staff, that was very difficult for me because I was younger than all of them. By sometimes I was the same age as their grandchildren. And that was hard to walk into. Yeah. Initially.

[00:08:26] Donnie: Yeah. Like, um, I’d always say I think what I’ve learned too, Sam, over the years, like the biggest and the most hardest problems you’ll face and deal with are people.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But guess what? The greatest and best answer to a lot of your problems to solving them is getting people. Mm-hmm. And so, man, whether you like it or not, You gotta work with people and you gotta be really good at it to do a great job. So good stuff. Um, well transition, uh, topic. So your passion is, uh, working with and advocating for female athletes.

Mm-hmm. Very near and dear to my heart. One because I have four daughters, so thank you for all you do for women athletes. And then secondly, I’ve worked with women, uh, from day one as a young intern back in Colorado in, in the early nineties. Uh, so few, my athletes, they have to deal with a lot of media, right?

Coaches expectations. Mm-hmm. Have to lurk, look a certain way, but their sport requires them to look differently at a way they, at their performance. Mm-hmm. Um, how do you help them, um, how you cope with disconnect between. What they think their bodies should look like and what they, or how they look to perform on their sport.

Yeah,

[00:09:46] Samantha: so we have a lot of external influences that our athletes don’t realize have affected them their entire lives. Whether that’s, nowadays it’s social media, all the different TikTok, Instagram, influencer, influencers, you name it, are all posting things that they don’t realize are affecting the way that they perceive themselves.

And it can be very unintentional. It’s the same thing with tv. It used to be magazines, less so magazines now, but there’s all of these influences that they haven’t realized are showing them that they need to look a certain way as a female, that we idolize the way a female should look. And that’s typically.

Very photoshopped and it changes over the years what the fat is. I mean, right now it’s Kim Kardashian or whoever it may be, but helping them realize that those subtle influences have infiltrated their subconscious in some way and how that isn’t realistic for their sport. You cannot put Kim Kardashian on an ERG machine and have her perform.

It’s that right. It’s very different. So helping them first realize those differences is huge because it’s been so subconscious for as long as they can, they haven’t, they can remember and it’s even, maybe it’s something that their sister used to say about their food or their mom has made comments or anyone in their family ex-coach, even unintentionally mentioning things that have slowly slipped into the back of their head and.

They don’t really know where the influence is coming from, but helping them figure out where that influence is, the first step’s, acknowledging it. And then the second step is helping them challenge it and helping them figure out, I don’t care what Kim Kardashian eats, I care what you eat, what do you need to be the best?

Mm-hmm human, the best athlete, the best student that you can be. And that’s part of the learning process. Initially. Sometimes before we ever talk about nutrition, it’s trying to figure out where those thoughts are coming from that influence them in a way. This isn’t exclusive to females either. This is very much a male Right.

Um, issue as well. But part of what I do is helping them realize where those triggers are so that I can help them then realize that their needs are different. We gotta figure out how to be the best division one collegiate athlete that you can be. And at this level, specifically at Texas, they wouldn’t be here.

If they weren’t good, like we know that they’re all very good athletes, what can we do as professionals to help make them great? And sometimes it is the little things of acknowledging where all those little influences are coming from and then working on challenging them and then working on the nutrition behind, what do you need?

I

[00:12:29] Donnie: know I can attest to that, you know, with my daughters, um, just through the years of them growing up, they’re all getting older now, but they’ve played, all my girls have played sports in high school and club. But I can attest to what you’re saying because there have been actual moments where my daughters would say something about them, you know, being overweight or whatever, and I’ll look at my wife and go, what is she talking about?

Like, she looks great. I mean, I, you know, no, nobody’s like perfectly ripped like a cheater or whatever, right? Like, but they’re not overweight or anything. So to your point, There’s those voices and those messages, subliminal or whatever, media or from friends or other people that they’re just carrying on the inside of ’em and they’re battling all the time.

But you’re right, I mean, I think part of your job a lot of times is just giving them the truth of what’s gonna keep ’em healthy and keep ’em performing and not, you know, battling that message is where whatever it’s coming from. So that’s huge.

[00:13:23] Joe: Yeah. I think it’s funny, like social media produces the most unrealistic expectations of Yeah, I mean, I’ll go as far as performance, like, I, I was talking to a couple athletes yesterday about this.

Uh, they’re asking me if I know who Andrew Huberman is and like his whole wake up routine or something like that. I’m like, Hey, in the fall we have a track that starts at 6:00 AM Clint and I show up at 5 45. There’s no sunlight. We’re not, we’re not doing this whole sunlight wake up journal, uh, cold shower routine.

Like, I’m not getting up at 3:00 AM to do this whole thing and then I’m gonna have sunlight. So it’s like, you know, it’s, it’s just funny how. There’s so much on social media that like, you can have this perfect lifestyle if you just do this or you can just look like this. And, and so much of that is just so unrealistic because like doing those things, like that’s their life.

Totally. But I’d say for, I’d say for 90% of the average person, that’s unrealistic. Totally. Not even, not even athletes, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s just crazy. And even at

[00:14:18] Samantha: the collegiate level, they have two full-time jobs. They have to be students and they have to be athletes. Mm-hmm. And what you see on social media, that is the full-time job, whatever they put on social media is probably their entire full-time job.

So there’s so many more factors to it.

[00:14:33] Donnie: I had a side question to this topic wrong cause I think this is so powerful. Um, so you’re working with females. The other piece that as you start to give them advice for performance nutrition, right? There’s so many different and fads out there and, and different sources of information.

So my question to you would be, cuz I think from what I can do, you just done an excellent job. How do you. Win their trust and get them to start to listen to you and kind of buy in mm-hmm. To the council and direction you’re leading them. How do you kind of do that? What’s your kind of Yeah. Sweet spot

[00:15:06] Samantha: on that.

Yeah, so part of it is I. I can’t keep up with all the latest fads, so when they bring one to me, I wanna know more about it and I wanna figure out what pulled them in. Exactly. There was something that was Oh, that’s good. Said, that’s good. In the fad diet, whatever was being promoted, they baited them. That really pulled them in.

Yeah. Right. So I need to figure out what that thing was and then myth Bust that one piece. Or maybe validate that one piece. For example, game Changers, that documentary that came out on Netflix a few years back. Mm-hmm. It essentially promoted a vegetarian vegan diet. For me, if you watch Game Changers and it motivates you to eat more vegetables, great win.

Now, if it motivates you to suddenly ch uproot your entire lifestyle and change and become vegan when you’ve never been vegan before in your life, then we need to talk about that a little bit more. But I wanna figure out what part of Game Changers was it that pulled them in and really dig into that one piece.

And it might be, That, that everyone on game changers had a lot of lean mass. Okay. Let’s talk about lean mass and how mm-hmm. You can build lean mass in other ways. Some of the research in game changers, you’ll, we’ll see this a lot in performance nutrition, one little tiny study and every other study around, it’s proven it otherwise, but they’ve blown up that one line of research into something that it’s not and figuring out what that one thing was and, and trying to educate the athlete on it.

But I do, I never wanna say, don’t watch Game Changers cuz they’re going to it. There’s Yeah. Make them watch it. Yeah. It’s more than that. It’s Okay, watch Game Changers and let’s talk about it and let’s figure out what resonated with you and figure out why it resonated. It’s the why behind it that I’m really

[00:16:55] Joe: looking at.

That’s, that’s funny you mentioned the research because I feel like that’s how the fads, you’ve kind of evolved now too. Yeah. Is like, At first, it started out with just like a lot of like ideas and like, kind of like general qualitative research. And then now they’ve kind of like thrown some quantitative research, but they’re all like a lot of, um, very, very specific, if not bias studies, like, to, to back up that fact.

Like if you actually read this study, it’s like, it’s like a very small instant, it’s just a piece of a piece. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That they’re, they’re proving that and then they’re taking that and carrying this whole fad with it and you’re like, oh boy. You know? And Right. If you really look into like, how research has done these days too, it’s, I mean, you, you kind of have to do your homework on your own articles that you try to use to back up your, your position because you could be using some very biased research and For sure.

Um, a lot of stuff, stuff is motivated to get out on time, motivated for money. Some people do it cause they’re on contracts for a while. It’s, it’s crazy. But, sorry, a little tangent on research, but Yeah.

[00:17:53] Samantha: Well, to your point, like who’s actually digging into the research that’s being put on? Right. Everything that we’re seeing.

Yeah. Not very many people. Scary. It’s part of our job to, to do a little digging for everyone and make sure that, yes, I try to stay up to date as much as possible, but I’m not gonna be able to keep up with everything. So I do appreciate it when someone brings me something that I hadn’t heard of and I can look into it a little bit more

[00:18:17] Donnie: Curious.

So kind of reading through some notes on you today, you definitely, this is your niche. You, you really enjoy working with females. Mm-hmm. That’s not gonna be everybody, Sam. Yeah. Right. And not, not to to knock on the ladies, but sometimes it can be very difficult, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Especially the, this conversation we ha we’re having around eating and like weight and body image and a lot of people just can’t handle it cuz it’s, it’s gotta be addressed in a certain way so you don’t mess it up, right?

Mm-hmm. Why is it so important to you?

[00:18:50] Samantha: I think that’s part of the reason why it’s so important to me is it’s, it’s not for everybody. And I do feel like our female athletes, all the female athletes that I’ve ever worked with, even before Texas, I was at NC State, they, there’s so complex and there’s so many different factors that go into being a female just in the world, not in athletics.

It brings me a lot of joy to work with people who are complex and challenging and you start to break down those walls and you really start to get into what, who they are, uh, female athletes. In my experience, and this is my experience. Solely are a lot harder to connect with. Male athletes have will welcome you with open arms sometimes and it’s like, oh, you want me to eat more?

Okay. That’s the conversation. Whereas female athletes wanna know why will are better at advocating for themselves sometimes and will really challenge you in a different way. And that once you get to a place with a female athlete where you, you feel like you’ve really got to ’em and you can really help ’em and you can really make a difference for the rest of their lives, that’s so rewarding to me.

[00:20:07] Donnie: That’s good

[00:20:08] Joe: stuff. Yeah, and I think, you know, speaking of studies and things like that, you know, one of the scary things out there is you, you mentioned a study I found out 45% of female athletes and 19% of male athletes struggle with eating disorders and in prevalence is higher in athletes and non-athletes.

So what, you know, what advice do you give coaches, strength coaches and other professionals in sports, uh, you know, when approaching female athletes, um, you know, would, who may not know or understand what the kids are struggling

[00:20:36] Samantha: with? Yeah, I think the first step is realizing you don’t know what everyone’s struggling with.

And if you as a coach, as a strength coach, it’s one of my favorite things to tell strength interns. And I’m so glad that I get to talk to strength interns when they come through y’all’s program because if you mention anything about an athlete’s body, let’s say you even feel like you told them you look fit today, that you don’t know what’s going on with the athlete behind the scene.

And that could backfire because what if that athlete didn’t eat breakfast this morning and their strength coach just told ’em they look fit? And now all of a sudden we’re associating not eating breakfast with looking fit, and we’ve created an unhealthy habit. You just don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and it can have the best intention, the best intention.

Oh, that’s so good. And. It, you just don’t know. The other comment that you might hear a lot is you need to gain weight. And we are all pretty aware that we don’t comment and tell somebody you need to lose weight. That’s always, well, I don’t wanna say always, but a lot of times we’ll have a negative effect.

But most people feel safe saying You need to gain weight. Same thing. You don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and how that athlete’s going to interpret what you’re saying. You could have the best intentions, but you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. And at that point, if you’re a strength coach or if you’re a coach and you have concerns referring to your dietician, referring to your athletic trainer in a setting where you may not have a dietician, that can help approach that from a more medical side, from a more, more than just a side comment, it’s not so easy to just PA in passing, tell somebody they need to gain weight.

There’s so much more to it, and giving context and giving education around it is very, very, very important.

[00:22:23] Joe: Yeah. And what are some advice you’d give coaches to refer athletes to dieticians if they suspect, you know, something’s off with that female athlete?

[00:22:30] Samantha: Yeah. I really heavily rely on coaches and strength coaches to be ears to the ground.

And you’re gonna hear things at practice or in the weight room that I’m not gonna be privy to. So being curious and asking questions if, if you feel like somebody says something, like what? Where’d you hear that information? Or being curious about it without having to give advice per se, but then also saying, Hey, I know somebody who can help you with that.

Referring to a dietician, referring to somebody who has some expertise. But the more context that you can give when referring somebody the best, because that helps me on my end figure out. What might be going on, like what the why might be behind a comment or behind anything that an athlete is saying or doing.

Again, in the weight room too, if they’re not gaining when it comes to putting more weights on the bar or whatever it might be. Putting that into context for me as well, cuz I’m, I’m a dietician, the strength world, I don’t, I’m not gonna say is my expertise, but helping me figure out what that means from a performance standpoint, so then I can use that in a consult when I’m talking to the athlete.

[00:23:46] Donnie: So I’m curious too, to add to that, um, you mentioned like maybe not putting the gains on in the weight room, whatever, but like what would be, what would be some kind of like warning signs that we would notice if a female, and again, what I’ve noticed too, right, that. A lot of times they just don’t go full blown eating disorder.

Mm-hmm. Typically. Mm-hmm. Not from my experience. I’m sure there’s some that do, but what are some warning signs that coaches can look for, or strength coaches or athletic trainers, or even a professional that’s working with a female that you just kind of need to keep paying attention to? What kind of comes to mind?

The

[00:24:23] Samantha: first thing I can think of is fatigue. If you notice somebody’s easily fatiguing. It may not be food, it could be hydration as well, which again, I’m happy to talk to an athlete about. But first thing would be, is this athlete fatiguing? I hate to use the eye test because it’s not a real valid quantitative measurement of anything, but sometimes that does help us figure out how an athlete’s doing, or at least something that you can keep an eye on.

Never again, mentioning to the athlete, but something that you’ve noticed like, hey, especially, particularly in athletes with injury, if you. Notice one leg being significantly smaller than the other, that’s very helpful. Mm-hmm. Information as far as maybe we need to check on their nutrition and see if there’s anything that we can do coming back from injury.

But also the comments that are made and the things that are said, even in jest, can tell us a lot about what’s going through an athlete’s head. Cuz typically the weight room or practice they feel like is their safe space and may not have all the filters on that they would normally have. So anything that you hear as well.

Yeah.

[00:25:36] Joe: We’re working, like with a cheer population, um, some of them will want to use a treadmill after wait session and Oh, that’s a good one. And it’s definitely not one of the girls that needs a treadmill at all. Mm-hmm. Um, she’s, she’s fine. Um, so I’m, sometimes I’m like, why do you wanna go run the treadmill?

You know? Right. It’s, you know, and, and you know, typically if, if they have a good answer, you know, if they prefer it over, um, A different type of conditioning. If they wanna use it in lieu of something else, it’s fine. I think it’s fine. But yeah, it always, it always like makes me curious and I always kinda have to bring that up to coaching stuff like, Hey, so-and-sos really want to do like a lot of extra conditioning, or, or sometimes I’ll overhear them doing like, extra sessions at night, you know?

Mm-hmm. Going to do extra stuff. I’m like, why are you doing so much extra? You know? Yeah. Um, that always kind of sets a red light off

[00:26:23] Samantha: for me. Yeah. And that’s a great example of being curious as well.

[00:26:26] Donnie: Yeah. You know, I, I kind of like what you said though about the eye test. Um, I do think that’s kinda like a common, you know, my years of working with athletes, I’ve definitely seen females.

I mean, you’ll, you’ll see it, I think in their eyes, kind of in their face a little bit. Mm-hmm. I mean, you obviously can tell when somebody loses a lot of weight. Mm-hmm. But when you start to see like, whether it’s maybe the. Just, even the cheekbones get a little bit more protruded cuz they’re just dropping too much weight too fast.

Or even, uh, what’s the other one? I, I mean, I think extreme, like sometimes even their teeth. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, so just little things that just look a little off. Mm-hmm. I think the eye test, even like you said, even if they’re, if they’re energy levels like super low consistently, like what’s going on there?

You know? And so I think, yeah, I think those are, but again, if you just don’t pay attention mm-hmm And you just kind of stay busy, you can kind of overlook some of that stuff, you know? Yeah. So, definitely it’s good stuff. So just again, looking at your resume a little bit here, you’ve worked with basketball players?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And male and female. So how much of the sport do you think you need to understand to work with athletes? What’s your thoughts on that, Sam?

[00:27:34] Samantha: Yeah, so this is one that, growing up I. We were a baseball family. We watched a lot of baseball. I grew up in Texas, so then football was the next thing that my family would watch.

We were a big sports family, but it was typically baseball. So when I got into sports nutrition, I thought, oh, I’m gonna work with baseball. Like that’s the sport that I know the most. So that makes sense in my head. What happened was at the position I was filling in, ended up being women’s basketball, and I couldn’t tell you at the time what a charge was versus moving screen.

I didn’t have the basketball knowledge. I didn’t play basketball. I played volleyball and softball growing up, but it actually allowed me to approach the sport from a completely different perspective. I wasn’t trying to learn the game of basketball. I was trying to learn how the game of BA of basketball affected the athletes, and even in the case of soccer, still learning that sport as well.

However, What matters more to me is the catapult data, telling me how many kilometers they ran in a game so I can then figure out what kind of recovery they need. I need to understand the sport from a physiological perspective, not from a point scoring perspective, which has actually been very beneficial for me when I’m figuring out nutrition plans and meal plans and recovery plans.

And yes, it does help to understand the sport and I am working to understand all the sports that I work with more, cuz that makes games more fun. But it wasn’t necessary for me in the beginning. You do have a deeper level of understanding of what it’s like to have to train like a basketball player, and I don’t quite have that level of understanding.

However, I am able to observe what they’re training and look at the sport from a anaerobic versus an aerobic perspective. Mm-hmm. Or basketball’s a stop and go sport. And that helps me come up with their calorie needs, their protein needs, whatever it might be, instead of looking at just the perspective of points or plays.

[00:29:43] Donnie: Yeah. I got a quick little sidebar on this one. I like this. This is a good topic. Yeah. So random. This is random question here for Coach Joe. And again, just go like high level themes of how you, so two scenarios, right? Mm-hmm. Metabolic demands. Mm-hmm. For basketball. Okay. Okay. Just basketball. Apply this to any sport if you want to, but maybe an athlete, male or female.

Little out shape, little caring, a little too much weight. Not playing as much though. What advice for that scenario nutritionally in your B situation, if somebody’s playing a ton, can’t keep weight on in season, go what you got. Yes.

[00:30:22] Samantha: So that’s actually very interesting because to me, those are almost athletes on two different teams.

If you have an athlete that isn’t work, isn’t getting that high intensity demand that comes in a game, and that’s typically when our athletes get the most high intense exercise, the biggest player load versus somebody who’s playing and actually getting all of those demands. It becomes two different types of athletes on the same sport.

Mm-hmm. So for those athletes, we do have different protocols for them to help them figure out. What their needs look like. And it’s also a matter of helping those players that aren’t playing as much understand that their needs are not going to look the same as somebody who is playing as much. Yeah, you cannot compares, not cookie cutter, right?

You can’t compare what you need if you’re not playing at that high intensity to someone who is starting and playing the entire game. That’s a big piece of what I do, is helping those athletes understand the differences because it comes down to each individual athlete. I gotta figure out what works out for this particular athlete.

On top of that, every single athlete’s got different goals. Maybe some have body comp goals, maybe some have speed and agility goals. It all plays into what their demands. And what their needs are. Yeah. Especially if they’re eating meals together. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Pre-game meal is going to look different for somebody who we know is starting and who we know is going to play a full 40 minutes in basketball than somebody who isn’t For sure.

And even from a recovery perspective, the day before leading into the game, the day after, recovery’s going to look different for somebody who played the full game or someone who didn’t. Um, but that’s two buckets. And then within those two buckets, it’s completely individualized for each athlete.

[00:32:17] Joe: Yeah, I was always interested too.

I feel like just the style of play too could, would probably play a role in it, right? Like you might have like some of the That’s good. Some of the kids that play, you know, more in the paint, they’re not cover as much ground, but the physical battle, you know, you know, um, pushing around for position and things like that, it still takes a toll and they’re gonna be in and out.

They’re probably getting followed a little bit more for sure. Following a little bit more, but they’re still playing an awful lot and they’re, their role is, is still, uh, um, takes a physical toll. So I’d, I’d be interested to see the differences in that. Absolutely. Seeing them all, I, I imagine they’re all pretty individualistic, huh?

Yeah.

[00:32:51] Samantha: And on the basketball side, you have somebody who defensively, let’s say like they’re probably not shooting the ball a ton, but they’re down in a squat stance, activating their quads or hamstrings, the whole game, and really trying to be agile. That is going to be a different level of soreness. You’re gonna feel that in a different way the next day than somebody who, yeah, maybe as your point guard trying to move the ball around a little bit more.

Um, and understanding those nuances in the sport is actually very beneficial to figuring out. How their nutrition should change from after games and even after practices too. Cause you practice all of that stuff as

[00:33:30] Joe: well. Yeah. I imagine that being like a defensive, like that’s like your, your thing is being the defensive player mm-hmm.

On the team and just takes a ton cuz you’re just reacting and chasing hustle all game. That’s gotta take a toll.

[00:33:44] Donnie: Yeah. High tied to bands. Dang. I’m curious too, Sam, you got me thinking now a little bit on this, uh, different little bit of a change on this question here. Think anti-inflammation. Mm-hmm. So basketball, I’m assuming very high workloads on court.

Mm-hmm. Right? Travel, stress, academics. Probably not the best nutrition. So what would you recommend for like, What’s the best thing athletes can do or coaches can tell their athletes to kinda lower that inflammation from what they’re putting in their body nutritionally? Yeah,

[00:34:22] Samantha: totally. The biggest thing you wanna look at what you can add to your diet.

So adding in anti-inflammatories, like fruits and veggies, adding in anti-inflammatory fats, peanut butter, salmon, avocado. Not just focusing on what to take out. So a lot of times we say no fried food. Fried food will increase inflammation. However, what can we replace it with? So it’s not just a bunch of saying no, it’s also what can we add in to.

Mm-hmm. Help. What’s your number

[00:34:52] Donnie: one recommendation? Anti, this is more for me. Anti-inflammation. What you got? Fruits and veggies. Okay. Fruits okay. Yeah. Yeah. I need to work on that

[00:34:59] Samantha: a little bit. Yeah. Those, your body can use all the different antioxidants, ice cream. Is that it now? Yeah.

[00:35:05] Joe: I wish. I thought I saw somewhere I was.

Yeah. Yeah. Right,

[00:35:08] Samantha: right. I’m sure that’s a fad diet we haven’t found out about yet. I was experimenting.

[00:35:15] Donnie: Uh, what’s it like to work with male and female athletes? What’s that like?

[00:35:19] Samantha: It’s fun. It’s, it’s, uh, challenging in their own ways. A lot of times just the energy demands of males are a lot higher, so it’s keeping up with those energy demands.

Females, you get to dig more into figuring out what their energy demands are and meeting them where they are. Um, the personality change is actually something that I love bouncing back and forth between teams with different personalities, right? It keeps things fresh. You’re not just in one sport, but every team’s got their own personality.

True. So being able to just switch up the personalities for a day is really fun. It, I. My favorite thing about being a sports dietician is I don’t sit behind the desk and I get to interact with people and be out at practice and do different things. So getting the different personalities switches is great, but from a nutrition perspective, it is fun to also not be working in the silo of, and maybe all of one team needs to gain weight.

Great. Now let’s go do something else and get to work on cooking. Mm-hmm. Like really get to switch it up. And

[00:36:26] Donnie: now we’re talking females a lot today, but how do you like with, with, with guys? Mm-hmm. Like somebody needs to put on weight. Like how do you get that guy to. Buy into putting on weight. How do you get that to lots

[00:36:39] Samantha: of reminders.

[00:36:40] Donnie: I knew she was gonna say, guys need a lot of guidance. Right. Coach Joe. Just need like little, little chin up heads,

[00:36:47] Joe: little sticky notes here and there. Right, right.

[00:36:50] Samantha: Lots of accountability, lots of reminding them. It’s, it’s hard to be on top of putting on good weight. Cause you have to be so consistent and you have to make sure that you’re not just eating one massive meal a day.

Like it’s gotta be multiple meals, multiple snacks, make sure you’re, get in your protein shake. Uh, lots of reminders.

[00:37:14] Donnie: And I think, yeah, at the end of the day, right, you gotta have, there’s gotta be a, a strong desire, healthy desire to either gain or lose weight. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But then you gotta have a roadmap.

You know, and that’s where you come into play of like, to do it the right way and not do some extreme swing either way. So yeah, it’s good advice. The hardest

[00:37:30] Samantha: thing is I’m not there for all meals. Mm-hmm. I’m not going to be there for all their meals. So they’ve really, they do have to be bought in. They have to be ready to, to put in a little bit of work on their end as well.

Does

[00:37:41] Joe: anyone help you with that? Like strength

[00:37:42] Samantha: staff or? Absolutely. Okay. We, the best thing I could do is get the whole performance staff on board and really also have them pressure the athlete of, Hey, have you met with Sam? Have you talked to Sam today? Have you checked in? Uh, so that it, their athletes getting it from all angles.

Cuz really everything that I do with nutrition is gonna affect them in the weight room. It’s all connected. This is

[00:38:06] Donnie: crazy. Um, I just, you’re making me think when I was in college many moons ago, but our weight game plan, we had nobody like Sam. It was awesome. If you wanna gain weight as a guy, Or if you wanna lose weight, it’s a female, you need to have a plan.

You had to kind of like do your own thing. I remember my weight game plan, Sam was Wendy’s Taco Bell, mega Bar. Um, I think we’d go all the horrible places, but we just needed calories cuz we were so, like you said, we were, so, we were running and lifting and practicing all time. So if you didn’t get calories from somewhere, you were no way gonna put weight on.

So we had to, we had to kind of scrap and, and grind back then. So,

[00:38:45] Joe: yeah. What, what does emotional intelligence look like for you as a sport dietician? Yeah.

[00:38:50] Samantha: So that is something that I’ve had to learn over the years and I can speak to, yeah, what that has looked like for me personally. I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert in emotional intelligence by any means, but a couple of things that I’ve learned over the years is I have to show up very consistent for my athletes.

And by that I mean, I’m gonna greet them the same way. I’m gonna walk in with the same energy to the weight room as I’m gonna walk into practice. I’m, because if they don’t know what to expect from me, they might not approach me. And nutrition’s one of those things where I can force myself on them to a certain degree.

I’ll do team talks to try to plant the seed of maybe you do need to think about your protein intake throughout the day. And then they’ll come talk to me about their individual needs. But if I don’t show up in a way that the athletes know what to expect from me, they’re way less likely to approach me.

So I try to be consistent for them every day. That also means that I need to realize on my end when maybe I’m not having the best day. Okay, maybe that’s a great day for me to stay in my office and chart and not go to practice and work on stuff by my computer until I can show up for the best way for them.

And I know as strength coaches, y’all don’t quite have the luxury of. Just saying, today’s not my day. We’re not gonna, we’re not gonna run lift today. But I do have a little bit of flexibility there. And then if I game day for example, there’s nothing I can do about that. Pulling from the energy from the athletes, like being totally willing to go vibe off the athletes and read the room and figure out how they are all interacting with each other.

And sometimes that’s just observing that and just being present. And sometimes that’s interacting back and talking to them and relating with them in every way that I can. Um, I think the other thing that I’ve realized is I do way better talking to people in person, text messages. Email is not my favorite way to communicate.

I’ve been able to interact with people. You get a chance to read body language and you get to, you get to get off social cues when you talk to somebody in person versus a text message where you’re freaking out because. It was a period at the end and not an exclamation point or whatever it might be. And then along those lines, not in not assigning intent to anything, like you don’t know what that person’s intention was like, don’t assign that intent to that message.

Really trying to figure out what that person wanted to say from them, not me guessing what they were intending to say has been a big piece of me figuring out how to communicate with people. Um, and then really just trying to be as self-aware as possible. Really knowing I’m the dietician. I’m not the most important person in this room or any room, but where do I, but I am important.

Where does that fit in? Um, all of that has taken time for sure to find that balance of where does all of it fit in? But I think the biggest thing for me is, Being a very, being as consistent as I can be as a person for the athletes. Yeah. It’s

[00:42:09] Joe: funny you mentioned texting and stuff like that and technology, it feels become such a crutch, you know, it’s so easy just to send a text.

It’s so easy just to send an email. But like, I mean, everything we’ve just talked about, those difficult conversations or those conversations, you have to really choose your words carefully. Like probably the worst idea to send it through a text or something like that. Mm-hmm. Like to be in person and to have that context is, is gotta be so crucial.

Absolutely.

[00:42:35] Donnie: Absolutely. And I think too, I think that’s, that’s good Joe. Good point. And Sam as well, I think early on, right? If, if you don’t have. A lot of rapport with somebody, co coach or an athlete, you probably need to spend a lot more time face to face, or at least in that environment. Mm-hmm. And kind of just study ’em a little bit.

Right. I, I think one of the things I learned early on as a, as a young coach was you need to learn to think like your boss thinks. Right. Kind of just what makes ’em mad. What are their little kind of weird idiosyncrasies they don’t, or their little, you know, pet habits that they like or don’t like. If you can, like you just said, social cues, if you could just pay attention to people and be aware of what they like or dislike, you’ll get a lot more success and win that trust a lot quicker than just texting.

Like you said, Joe, you’re not gonna get that. You know, there’s, I, I think the book is, um, Simon Sinek’s book Leaders Eat Last, but he goes into all the different, uh, neurochemicals that actually transpire when you’re leading people. And I think it’s oxytocin. He talks about an air could be off, but, um, there’s one chemical in in your body that’s released neuro, uh, in your brain, a neurochemical when you interact face to face with people and it actually leaves a positive like vibe, so to speak or feel when the experience is good.

So you need to have a lot of those interactions early on to have that trust rapport and have them credibility with whoever you’re working with. Whether it’s an athlete, like you said, maybe earlier, maybe the athlete doesn’t trust you, they maybe they’ve got their guard up, it may take you longer mm-hmm.

To get that guard down before and it may require more impersonal, or excuse me, personal, uh, face-to-face time. So I think that’s a powerful point.

[00:44:25] Samantha: Yeah. Even the most recent example being. When I started at Texas, it was March 9th, 2020. We got sent home March 12th, 2020. I met the majority of my athletes on Zoom and that was hard.

You miss a lot. Awkward silence. Yeah. Yeah. You miss a lot of connection. Having to interact with somebody for the first time on a Zoom call, so luckily coming out of the pandemic, we don’t use Zoom as much, and relationships are so much stronger because of it. If you are able to be in person and interact with athletes, in person and coaches, support staff, all of the above, we are so much more efficient I feel coming out of the pandemic and there’s a lot of, some good things.

I won’t say a lot of good things that came out of the pandemic, but Right. One of the best things for me in this job, those first few months were rough because I was having to interact and meet everybody on Zoom. But yeah. It’s much better now.

[00:45:31] Donnie: Curious, how would you, uh, go on this same topic, um, personally and professionally?

How would you define success or how would you define a win with your head coach in any sport? Uh, as a dietician, how do you define that? That you’re, you’re making some positive ground?

[00:45:50] Samantha: A big win for me is when the head coach calls me directly. Ooh. And that I’m ready for that. That’s strong. Yeah. That is.

Huge it. A lot of times coaches have a lot to deal with and typically I find an assistant that is kind of my nutrition liaison, someone that I’m gonna go to, and the head coach has a lot to deal with. I’m not gonna bother them with all the nuances of what I’m trying to do or what I’m trying to educate the team on.

So I will talk to an assistant coach to make sure that the coaches know that nutrition is being taken care of. But when a coach calls me directly with something, then I know, okay, the coach actually knows what I’m doing here, knows what I’m ab, what I’m capable of doing. We’ve had a lot of coaching changes and I’ve moved sports a few times since I’ve been at Texas.

And when that happens, you have to try to get used to a new coach every time and once. The coach understands what a dietician does, just in case they’ve never worked with a dietician before. For example, we have one coach here at Texas, which at their prior institution only used a dietician when an athlete needed to lose weight or they had an eating disorders, two ex two very extremes, not for performance.

Those are big problems. Yeah. Yeah. So put the fire out. I get it. When I was around practice the first time, they were looking at me like, what is she doing here? And then they started to catch on to, oh, she’s actually here to help me win. And once a coach understands that you’re there to help them win and be better, you gain a lot of trust.

But it takes time and it depends on where the coach is. I gotta meet the coach where they are initially. Maybe showing up to practice is not the move. And I’ve been in those situations as well. But once a coach calls me and IS, is able to tell me directly, I. What their issues are or where they’re at.

That’s, that’s, no, that’s big time. Yeah.

[00:47:45] Donnie: That’s a big deal. They value you. Right. That means you, you’re important to their success. Mm-hmm. And their team’s success. That’s huge. Mm-hmm. I had one more little side question on that one, so take that a little higher level. Right. Um, and this is something that we talk about, um, in our profession.

Strength conditioning, nutrition, um, mental health, sports science, whatever you can, you name the, the, the area of expertise and the, the team. How in your, from what you’ve seen, do you two things. How do you explain to administration, you know, what you do. Mm-hmm. Right? So, but then secondly, most importantly, how do you help them understand the value?

Of the job you do. So curious, I know this really is off script a little bit. Yeah. So we’d just love to hear your, your thoughts cuz we talk about this a lot, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, and I know it’s, it’s challenging depending on, you know, the sport and all that stuff, but just kind of love to hear your thoughts.

[00:48:52] Samantha: So that’s such a tough question because typically administratively it’s about dollars and pennies. It’s right, it’s about the money. And how do you show that nutrition somehow impacts money? Aside from they know that we’re spending a lot of money on food and snacks, that’s what they know. So what’s the return on investment there?

We do a lot of tracking, absolutely everything we’re doing, the number of consults we’re doing, the number of team talks we’re doing, the number of recruits we’re talking to, to show at the end of the year, a big snapshot of how many athletes we were able to come in contact with and impact in different ways, because those numbers.

Can show a lot to administration. It’s very hard for me to explain to someone who doesn’t have a health professional background at all about how I worked with an athlete with an eating disorder and it took 25 sessions to get them to even. Agree to make a change or whatever. Like all of that seems like very behind the scenes stuff that administration’s not gonna respond to as well, in my experience.

But the biggest thing that’s been beneficial for me is actually traveling on the road with a team and administrators being that’s it on the road trip and seeing what I’m doing every single day. Like seeing me handing out vitamins at breakfast, seeing me walking through the line with athletes and figuring out what their plates should be, and then talking to them about it afterwards.

It’s really funny too, being on the road and talking to donors that might be traveling with the team and they’re looking at me like, what are you doing? Like this is, this is wild. Nobody knows that this behind the scenes stuff happens and getting to explain to them as well what I do and mm-hmm. It’s not even about telling them what I do, it’s about showing them what I do has been very beneficial to me when I’m.

In front of an administrator. Also, my relationships with athletes and athletes approaching me and talking to me and knowing who I am even is very beneficial from administrators.

[00:51:03] Donnie: This is so good because I remember years ago, it’s been a long time, I took a, a leadership class, um, Walt Disney and I’ll, I’ll never forget that.

It was so powerful because to your point about everything you do for your teams, think about, so just think for a minute, Walt Disney, you go to one of these theme parks, right? And this is, this is so true when I, when I tell you, this is crazy what I’m gonna tell you. But they’ve trained their employees, first of all, they don’t wanna call ’em employees, they call ’em cast members.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Which is cool. So if you sweep the streets, you’re still a cast member. Mm-hmm. Just like the most important people in the show, you’re still same title. What they’re trained to do though, like, let’s say the, let’s say little Johnny’s, you know, they’re about to have the big fireworks they have every day at the end of the the park, you know, and he’s had a great day and he drops his ice cream cone.

Hits the ground and he’s just in tears. And at any moment, like one of the people that the janitors or whatever, cleaning up everything, they see that happen. They’re, they have been trained to go get him another ice cream comb, get into this like mode of this character and help them get happy again. Put him in the right place, right where he knows the firework’s gonna go off so he can have this experience while he is in the park.

Also that, guess what? When they leave there, guess what they wanna do next time they wanna come back. Mm-hmm. And so, I know that’s an extreme example, that’s not college sports, but to your point, Sam, our athletes gotta have a great experience. And if you don’t have these different service lines, strength, nutrition, sports perform, or sports science, whatever you keep going, then the experience of why they’re here at the 40.

Cuz you’re not just trying to win, you’re trying to build brand. Loyalty for years to come, so they’ll want to give back and help ut continue to prosper. And so I always feel like there’s more to it than just dollars and cents. Mm-hmm. With the administrators, they’re so, like, I know, and they got that pressure on them, but the, but it’s the long game Simon Sinek talks about, it’s not the short game.

The companies, they’ve done the research that can play the long game really well have less downturns. And so if you take good care of people totally. You take good care of athletes, great experiences they wanna keep, just like Walt Disney, they wanna keep coming back. Mm-hmm. And so I think that’s a huge, huge piece.

[00:53:26] Joe: Definitely. Yeah. And kind of going in the opposite direction, you know, mentoring future sports dieticians, what advice do you have for someone trying to come up into, you know, collegiate sports nutrition?

[00:53:36] Samantha: Yeah. My biggest advice is, You gotta get some experience an intern and make sure it’s actually what you wanna do.

Cuz it’s not your typical job. Yeah. It is not your typical job. It is not nine to five. It is nights and weekends cuz games are on nights and weekends. It’s not as glamorous. Like yes we win championships in confetti falls and that’s fun. But the behind the scenes of it is a lot of lifting heavy boxes.

Sometimes there’s, it’s not, the behind the scenes isn’t as as pretty so, Actually getting experience and making sure that it’s something that you wanna do before you get too far into it. I like,

[00:54:14] Donnie: I think early on, I forget, I’m gonna mess this up, but the quote, but like early on, you gotta do a lot of stuff you really don’t enjoy doing.

Mm-hmm. To get to a place where you get to choose what you really love doing. Mm-hmm. And so I think that’s a big part of, and I, I don’t know that. I think maybe growing up, uh, I kind of came through some of the old school, like hardcore, like we broke all kind of labor laws when I was an intern. I probably could sued and retired on that, but I just didn’t know I was just a knuckleheaded, you know, country boy from Tennessee.

But, uh, but yeah, you’ve gotta, you gotta earn stripes, right? You gotta do that stuff you don’t really enjoy doing to get to a place where you’re in a good pla uh, good position to help and do love your job. So it’s good.

[00:54:53] Joe: Yeah. I dunno why I really like that question and I just realized it because we just went full circle when we started this today.

You just said interning scared you away from sports nutrition. I, I think it, I think that it’s that way in strength and conditioning too. It’s like people have no idea what it’s really like and you know, they kind of see the, the million dollar facilities and they think it’s like amazing. But it’s like the work that goes behind it.

It’s just, it’s

[00:55:18] Donnie: tough. Coach. My, my second year in Colorado to Sam’s point, I literally tried to quit, was going to Denver. Uh, in the evenings applying to like private sector, you know, fitness jobs. I was working tons of hours making beans. Couldn’t have, I lived in the shoebox. My boss was chewing my butt out every other day.

Like, I hated it. I’m like, why am I doing this again? And man, I tried to quit, but just couldn’t get out of it. End up sticking with it, man. I’m so glad I did. So Just takes a while. Yeah. I’m glad I came back. Right? You made it through the, you made it through the rough. I did. You did it. Yeah. But it, it makes you a better like leader in, in practitioner.

It does, because you’re, you got, do you got some grit to you?

[00:55:59] Joe: Absolutely. It’s good stuff. You now you have a full staff you work with. You don’t have to worry about being, I know like Amy running around

[00:56:06] Samantha: doing it all by yourself. She’s the only one. Now we have five full-time dieticians. Dang.

[00:56:10] Joe: Yeah. Times have changed.

All right. For the better.

[00:56:13] Donnie: Hey, we’re, we’re kind of getting close here to the end. How about some fun questions? You up for that, Sam? Yeah, let’s do it. All right, Joe, let’s see what she’s got. Oh gosh. We, we, uh, we’re gonna talk a little food here in Austin. We’ll wrap it

[00:56:25] Samantha: up. I do love food. Let’s

[00:56:26] Donnie: do this. All right, Sam, so for our listeners ever come to Austin, give me your top 1, 2, 3 spots in Austin.

You got to go eat. No, she does not have a contract with these companies. I don’t even know what she’s gonna say.

[00:56:40] Joe: So

[00:56:40] Donnie: little, little bit of disclaimer there. So we’re protected, but yeah. What you got for us?

[00:56:45] Samantha: Have you been to Verracu? Tacos

[00:56:49] Donnie: have heard, but never been. Ooh. I will make a point right

[00:56:52] Samantha: now. So this is, this is my perfect afternoon.

Are you ready? So there’s a location of Veracruz Tacos right on the Lake, lake Austin Boulevard. Oh, really? Well, I guess Lady Bird Lake, the trail that goes around the lake. You start at one end, you walk to get tacos. It’s beautiful city on one side, trees on the other side, and you get tacos and then you walk back.

It’s the, my favorite part about living in Austin is. The food. Second is just the outdoors. Mm-hmm. Like I, I love being outdoors, walking along the trail. There’s just, there’s so much to see. And the taco spot is on the trail, so you can stop. It’s at the hotel. I’m the name of the hotel’s gonna escape me, but it’s on Congress.

Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:36] Donnie: Bear Cruise. Bear Cruise. Yes. Okay. You got any

food

[00:57:39] Samantha: trucks? So they started as a food truck. Oh, there you go. If that counts. Uh, the other spot that I love is Abba. It’s a Mediterranean spot.

[00:57:51] Donnie: Yeah, that that’s, whoa. I’ve never wait. My wife loves that. What is it called? You?

[00:57:54] Samantha: A bba? Aba. Only one. Only one B.

[00:57:57] Joe: You been, you gotta get on it though. You being Joe? Oh yeah.

[00:58:00] Samantha: Reservations tough to get. Yeah, but you can walk in at, they start the walk. This is a insider tip. They start the wait list to walk in at like three o’clock. So if you’re able, I come over here, I’m starving. Now it’s over on South Congress. So I typically will put my name on the wait list and then they’ll say it’s two hours.

Fine. I’ll go shopping or do other things on South Congress and then come back. It’s a beautiful vibe, beautiful restaurant. The brussel sprouts are the best brussel sprouts found in town.

[00:58:28] Donnie: Another thing, my wife loves Brussels sprouts. You gotta get a recipe. So spell it one more time so I’m clear. A, b, a.

We’ll put that in the show notes.

[00:58:35] Joe: It’s delicious. They have like this pita bread. I don’t, tell me if this is true. I heard they put like cake batter, kind of like in the pita bread and make it

[00:58:42] Samantha: sweeter. I had not heard that, but I would not be surprised. It’s just like a, a little bit, just a sweet, so good.

Yeah. With the bra, short rib hummus.

[00:58:51] Joe: Yes. Yes. I’m all over that. We got two orders of that.

[00:58:55] Samantha: So good. Good

[00:58:56] Donnie: stuff. Um, any other questions, coach, before we wrap up? I wanna hear number three. What’s number three? You got a third one?

[00:59:02] Samantha: I am actually, um, a big breakfast person. I love breakfast. Yeah. What you got? Yes.

What you got Coach? So I’m actually. Big on. I I just like the OG Kirby Lane. Yeah.

[00:59:15] Donnie: No, my, my Kby Lane.

[00:59:17] Samantha: So it’s a family fave. Yeah. Yes. I, that’s where my family loves to go. You have a coffee person? I love coffee. Give us your coffee spot. So right now my coffee spot is Thunderbird, but ask me in. Oh yeah, yeah.

Like a week. It changes like over

[00:59:32] Donnie: by base off, uh, Mainer. It’s off Mainer. Yes. It’s close. That’s a tight spot. Yeah, I like it. Yes. Yeah.

[00:59:37] Samantha: Parking’s kind of rough, but it is. It’s

[00:59:39] Joe: like the worst. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta find somewhere else. Yeah. But especially peak

[00:59:44] Donnie: hours. Yeah. It changes

[00:59:45] Samantha: every

[00:59:45] Donnie: week. Good stuff. Well, last question.

I’ll land playing Coach Cho. If anybody wants to reach out and connect with you and just dig a little deeper, have a conversation. Best way to do that.

[00:59:57] Samantha: I am on Twitter and Instagram. Sam Partita Rd is my handle on both of those. So just slide into my dms. Awesome.

[01:00:09] Donnie: Anything else, coach, before we land it?

[01:00:11] Joe: No, I’m, I’m, it’s Friday.

Great conversation. I’m, I’m thinking about dinner. Thanks a lot, Sam. We’re all hungry. You’re so

[01:00:18] Samantha: welcome. Thanks for having me. I’m about

[01:00:19] Joe: hit up the wife like, we’re like, we got plans now. Good stuff. We’ll make it to avo. It’s too late now, but.

[01:00:25] Donnie: Yeah. Uh, Sam, thank you so much. Thank you for having, it’s been a fun conversation.

Fun, very, very insightful and enlightening, and very helpful. So thank you for all you do for ut. You’re a rockstar. We appreciate you. Thank you, coach Joe. It’s always good getting a booth with you, so, oh, yeah. Uh, after all this talk of food, let’s, uh, go get us something to eat here in a minute. So, hey, I’m Donnie, it’s Sam and Coach Joe from the 40 Acres.

You guys have an awesome summer and thanks for tuning in. Hook em, hook em, hook them.

Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the team Behind the Team podcast. For future episodes, go to iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, or Stitcher. We definitely want to keep having great guests on the show and great content. So if you have a moment, please go to iTunes, leave a rating and review and let us know how we’re doing.

I’m Donnie Mabe, and thanks so much for tuning in.