Sammi Ryan | Seeking Golden Opportunities

Early-career coaches have to learn fast, adapt faster, and still earn trust. Sammi Ryan, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Boston University, shares how seeking golden opportunities led her across the country and into unfamiliar sports. After an early training experience deterred her from the field, Ryan found her way in through graduate experience and a support system she still maintains today. When coaching sports she has not played, Ryan starts with research, trusted peers, and relationships with sport coaches. She stresses that coaches cannot “copy and paste” what worked at a previous stop because every team, athlete, and setting is different. For Ryan, athlete questions are a chance to clarify the plan or change course. She also discusses staff coverage and sport science integration at Boston University. Ryan reflects on helping college athletes grow and develop as humans, not just athletes. Listen to learn how to strengthen your support system, adapt across teams, and guide athletes beyond sport.

Connect with Sammi on Instagram: @sammiryann or by email: sryan95@bu.edu | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

Join the NSCA College Coaches Professional Development Group (PDG) to build your network, share ideas, and navigate challenges in college strength and conditioning.

“I think a lot of times we can kind of get a little narrow focus on the way we're doing things or the way that things are happening at whatever spot we're at. So, I think being able to lean on different support systems, mentors, other people that were in my cohort at my different grad programs to be able to reach out and lean on them and see how are you dealing with this, not just kind of the X's and O's, but maybe dealing with sport coaches or navigating how to train different teams, or working with sport science or just anything that kind of we deal with on the day to day... I think has been a huge one.” 7:10 

“I feel like athletes nowadays, especially with the social media climb, they want to know the reason behind everything. So, I think being able to take a step back and [...] making sure I mean everything I program always has a why behind it. And I told my athletes, if they ask me why and I don't have a reason, I'm more than happy to take a step back and change it.” 14:45 

“We get kids that are 17/18 years old and then we can take them and see them grow and develop into not just athletes, but grow and develop as humans as well. [...] I think a big part is being part of their life and helping them develop as humans, not just athletes. And to see that development throughout the years is definitely one of my favorite parts about this field.” 19:20 

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:03 

This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahan, NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager. Today we have an assistant strength and conditioning coach from Boston University, Sammi Ryan joining us from the northeast. Sami, welcome. Thank you Eric. Happy to be here. Yeah I was just out that way visiting a few different schools and programs. And BU is always a fun visit for me. 

00:00:25:09 - 00:00:39:24 

Coming to check out the weight room. That New England feel and, Yeah. Really enjoy getting to know you out there. So. Wanted to dig into your background a little bit. What was your career path to BU at this point? 

00:00:39:24 - 00:00:49:19 

I think I always think it's funny. I like any college athlete, thought, okay, I'm going to stay in sport, but never once did I think it was going to be strength and conditioning. 

00:00:49:21 - 00:01:00:24 

I didn't have the best strength and conditioning coach in college and kind of deterred me away from wanting to be in this field. So I thought, okay, I'll go athletic training, sports, psych, something along those lines. 

00:01:00:24 - 00:01:11:05 

From there, though, I did my internship hours within athletic training and sports psych and just wasn't really for me. And, with the grad program, I was. 

00:01:11:05 - 00:01:19:04 

And through University of Denver, we did kind of ours with all field. So when it got to the point of doing my hours within strength and conditioning, I was like, 

00:01:19:04 - 00:01:30:03 

all right, let's do it. And so I ended up getting a full time position at Mass Maritime Academy instead of an internship position, and worked with football and a lot of their other sports there. 

00:01:30:03 - 00:01:53:08 

And I think that was just kind of the doors open from there. And I realized, wow, I really do like this field. But from there, too, I realized I didn't know much about it. And I realized, okay, if I want to be good in this field, if I want to be the best that I can be for the athletes to help them out, had to kind of take a step back educationally and kind of get ours within interning within it. 

00:01:53:10 - 00:01:58:08 

So from there, did an internship out at Siu Boulder within their Olympic side. 

00:01:58:08 - 00:02:09:01 

That kind of got interrupted because of Covid, but fell in love with kind of this field even more doing that. So then from there, finished off my grad program with University of Denver. 

00:02:09:01 - 00:02:14:07 

Kind of got a little lost during Covid. There wasn't really opportunities to be coaching at that point. 

00:02:14:07 - 00:02:30:13 

So I reached out to Dr. T out at Springfield just for some life advice and kind of how to navigate that, like weird time that there was after a phone call with him, ended up going into their master's program. There. 

00:02:30:13 - 00:02:41:09 

Couldn't really turn that down. So I went to Springfield for grad school, and while I was there, I actually got an internship and sport performance fellowship opportunity out at University of Denver. 

00:02:41:09 - 00:02:42:01 

So 

00:02:42:01 - 00:03:07:04 

kind of left Springfield a little bit earlier than expected, but went out there and got to intern there over the summer and then did the Sport Performance Fellow with them, working with golf, with tennis, soccer and kind of helping out with a bunch of other sports out there. And, just kind of fell in love with the field more, but continued on that path and then ended up getting a full time position at UC San Diego. 

00:03:07:06 - 00:03:15:23 

So I was out there for a little over a year, primarily working with women's soccer. But then I had swimming, dive track and field and women's rowing. 

00:03:15:23 - 00:03:32:15 

And so from there kind of missed my family back on the East Coast. I'm originally from Cape Cod, so was missing my family a little bit, so came back and luckily there was the opportunity here at Boston University for me to come back and one stay in the field to be close to family. 

00:03:32:15 - 00:03:42:12 

So couldn't really turn that down. And now here we are. I'm in year three, work with women's lacrosse, field hockey and women's rowing here and absolutely love it. 

00:03:42:12 - 00:03:54:09 

Wow. Yeah. So we're going to have to talk airline miles after this episode just because I'm hearing a lot of okay, East coast, West coast back to the East Coast and then back to the West coast. 

00:03:54:09 - 00:03:56:11 

And here you are on the East Coast again. 

00:03:56:11 - 00:03:58:18 

It shows 

00:03:58:18 - 00:04:21:00 

a pretty common path we see, and strength and conditioning that to get your feet wet in the field, you really got to go where the opportunities are at. Did was this a little bit you just like, hey, I want to get up and out and go experience the world and see where it takes me or where were you looking at programs all over the country. 

00:04:21:00 - 00:04:23:02 

Like, what kind of led you on that 

00:04:23:02 - 00:04:25:09 

really wide search of programs? 

00:04:25:09 - 00:04:34:16 

I think a little of both. I think I've always taken opportunities as they come and not kind of narrowed down to a specific region, a specific state. 

00:04:34:16 - 00:04:45:14 

I think even college, I went to college in South Carolina, so also far away from home. But again, that was a golden opportunity that I had to go play soccer in college and be in warm weather. 

00:04:45:14 - 00:05:09:13 

So I took that. And then same kind of with the other opportunities too. And I think networking has kind of led to those opportunities. And thankfully it's been in some pretty amazing places. I know some of my friends end up in some other states that might not be as good as Denver and Massachusetts and San Diego, but I think the opportunities during the grad program at Denver led for a lot of opportunities out in that state. 

00:05:09:13 - 00:05:32:13 

And then I think from there, even a previous fellow from Denver was working at UC San Diego. So having a network kind of out there on the West Coast and then having the Springfield Connection and other connections along the way, got me back here to Boston. So I think both taking advantage of good opportunities and also having networks in some good places, too, is all kind of 

00:05:32:13 - 00:05:34:04 

finding that golden opportunity. 

00:05:34:04 - 00:05:38:17 

You mentioned the teams you worked with and 

00:05:38:17 - 00:05:45:20 

are those sports you were really familiar with, but how did your athletic background play into, what you're doing in the field today? 

00:05:45:20 - 00:05:53:19 

I play, so I played soccer my whole life, went on to continue playing in college. So I think soccer has always been a big part of my life. 

00:05:53:19 - 00:06:00:19 

So a lot of schools I've worked at, I think that helped work with soccer and continue in that field that I am passionate about. That sport. 

00:06:00:19 - 00:06:10:16 

Rowing is kind of one that just kind of fell in at mass maritime. I had rowing, so I think when people saw rowing on my resume, they were like, great, we have someone that knows of the sport. 

00:06:10:16 - 00:06:41:09 

Let's let's give that one to her, which has actually been a very fun sport to learn and grow with as well. And then I also play tennis in high school. So I think doing the fellowship position, working with tennis and then carrying on like that sport also has been having a background and that has helped. But the other sports kind of were just given and then just had to kind of do some research on my own, reach out to other strength and conditioning coaches, create a good relationship with the sport, coaches themselves to do as much learning on the new sports as I can. 

00:06:41:09 - 00:06:44:13 

And it's been fun learning new sports along the way. 

00:06:44:13 - 00:06:57:21 

What would you say the biggest lessons have been so far in your career? You know you're an assistant strength and conditioning coach, but you've had a number of different positions and stops along the way. Have there been some big learnings for you? 

00:06:57:21 - 00:07:06:06 

Yeah, definitely. I think this field, one of the reasons I love it is because you get to continue to learn and grow along the way, and there's so many people to learn and grow from. 

00:07:06:06 - 00:07:40:01 

I think some of the big ones for me has been relying on my support system. I think a lot of times we can kind of get a little narrow focus on the way we're doing things or the way that things are happening at whatever spot we're at. And so I think being able to lean on different support systems, mentors, other people that were in my cohort at my different grad programs to be able to reach out and lean on them and see how are you dealing with this, not just kind of the X's and O's, but maybe dealing with sport coaches or navigating how to train different teams, or working with sport science or just 

00:07:40:01 - 00:07:58:09 

anything that kind of we deal with on the day to day. But being able to lean on a support system, I think has been a huge one. I think another is that there's not one right way to do things, and that every stop along the way, you get different athletes that you're working with that are prepared to do different things and might work with this one team or this one program. 

00:07:58:09 - 00:08:17:00 

But if you try to copy and paste that to somewhere else, it might not work. So learning to be a little bit more flexible and my approach to things has also been a lesson along the way. And I think also just never quit learning. I like I said, I think that's one thing I really love about this field is that you do have to constantly be learning. 

00:08:17:00 - 00:08:32:06 

Every class that comes in, every sport you go to, every new stop along the way that you do have to continue to, whether it's reading, podcasts, networking, whatever it might be. But you do kind of have to adjust with the kind of flows of this field. 

00:08:32:06 - 00:08:35:17 

how do you go about building that support system? I really like that advice. 

00:08:35:17 - 00:08:49:22 

You know, leaning on your support system. You obviously have a a coast to coast network to rely on. How do you work to stay in touch with those people, and add new people to the mix? I 

00:08:49:22 - 00:08:58:20 

think staying in touch with people has. I don't want to say it's been easy for me, but I think the I grew up in a very big family that also lives all over the country. 

00:08:58:20 - 00:09:22:07 

And so we've always made a point, even growing up, that it's important to stay in touch with people. So I think, you know, whether it was back in the day sending mail letter, snail mail letters, or whether it's planning vacations or trips or if we're in the same town grabbing coffee. But I think one, it's kind of a two way street if you're continuously reaching out and no one's reaching out back to you, then that's a little harder to keep that support system. 

00:09:22:07 - 00:09:48:24 

But I think for me at making a point like once a week to reach out to someone within my network, maybe it's not the same person every week, but a lot of people that I've met along the way, whether it's, hey, I'm in your town traveling with my team, like might have a few minutes or a few hours to go grab coffee or go for a walk and catch up, or maybe a phone call or a FaceTime call here and there, or sending articles to my friends from that I met through along the way and be like, what do you think about this? 

00:09:48:24 - 00:10:13:06 

Or just reaching out in some way throughout the week and making sure to keep those connections alive and making sure they also know I'm there for them. So maybe my mentors, I don't need to be there for them as much, and that's just kind of kindling in a different way. But my classmates that I had throughout my career, other strength coaches that are kind of on the same level as me right now in our career path, making sure we reach out to each other and be like, hey, what are you dealing with? 

00:10:13:06 - 00:10:29:22 

Or what are you doing at your university or your program? And trying to figure out what we're doing and just stay in touch that way? I think I also have a lot of friends that are in other fields or as like training or sports psych or sport science or reaching out to them to to be like, what's new in your world? 

00:10:29:22 - 00:10:37:05 

Like, what are you seeing with different things and just making sure that it's just small point of contact throughout the week to keep that up. 

00:10:37:05 - 00:10:51:05 

So when I was at BYU, I got to see the department in action be used. The big hockey school. You have some really cool sports like like rowing. There's a rowing room, right, connected to the weight room. 

00:10:51:07 - 00:11:12:02 

And you guys manage sort of a split shift with your staff that, of just covering different teams throughout the day. Explain that a little bit how your staff operates to manage all the different teams. I know that's really common in the northeast to have a lot of sports programs that at colleges in university. How does how does your staff operate? 

00:11:12:04 - 00:11:27:10 

I think one, we do a really good job of helping each other out when needed. So if we're on anyone's on the road traveling, we're always all of us are first to kind of step in line and ask each other how we can help in certain ways. We have two weight rooms here, so we have a hockey weight room that's over in the hockey rink. 

00:11:27:10 - 00:11:42:09 

So hockey's just over there. And then our other Olympic sports are all in kind of our main weight room. And then our main weight room also has an erg room attached to it. So we do get to see a lot of the rowing. We have three rowing teams here men's light weight and open weight, so we get to see them also train throughout the day. 

00:11:42:11 - 00:12:00:02 

But then our staff in general, we kind of split it up, so none of us are here for 12 or 15 hours a day. So we try to do a really good job of kind of managing our schedule and making sure we're not just here for long hours. So a lot of us, our teams are kind of scheduled either in the morning or in the afternoon. 

00:12:00:02 - 00:12:28:09 

So one of us might be here from 6 to 2, and another one might be from like 2 to 6. So we have open hours in the gym too, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week, and also open hours on Saturdays for different teams to come in as well. But we kind of block off our teams that okay, maybe I'm here from 2 to 6, so my teams are scheduled to lift within kind of that time frame, or someone else's might be scheduled to lift in that midday range or someone's scheduled to lift in the morning. 

00:12:28:09 - 00:12:37:20 

So then if anything comes up, we're always happy to help out too. So if a team's all of a sudden in the evening and that person can't stay for that, we're always kind of there to help each other out to. 

00:12:37:20 - 00:12:49:02 

Yeah, oh, it's an interesting dynamic, but it was fun to watch that. You know, we had multiple teams training at a time and number of coaches in there. 

00:12:49:02 - 00:13:15:04 

But you were kind of the point of contact and you were jumping into a warm up, and then you were over on the racks and you were just doing a lot of different things all at once, which maybe that's just a true Olympic strength and conditioning department in action and just how you make it happen. But I think it's really good that we think about how departments operate, because every school you go to, every program is going to run slightly different. 

00:13:15:06 - 00:13:47:09 

So it's good for coaches, especially young coaches, to hear, hey, there's there's different types of programs out there. There's different types of opportunities. I know when you're at some of these northeast schools, you get a lot of coaching opportunities and exposure early on in a number of different sports that you may or may not have had a background in, rather than maybe the traditional football model that you're working with one sport all the time, different position groups, and it's just a very focused environment. 

00:13:47:09 - 00:13:52:19 

Obviously, there's a very focused environment around your hockey programs at BU, and, 

00:13:52:19 - 00:14:01:21 

it's a really good thing as a field that we understand the dynamics of different departments. And, I just thought you guys did a great job of, 

00:14:01:21 - 00:14:12:05 

sharing responsibilities across your staff. And it was fun to watch that. What are some of the big changes you're seeing in college athletics right now? 

00:14:12:05 - 00:14:20:08 

I know technology is a big one. You know, there's nil. And some of these other things that we hear. Are there any others that you're, 

00:14:20:08 - 00:14:22:17 

experiencing on a day to day 

00:14:22:17 - 00:14:32:17 

one of the I mean, technology, I think is a huge one. I think like when I was going through as an athlete in college and even in my early years, sport tech wasn't really as big of a thing. 

00:14:32:17 - 00:14:55:18 

And we didn't even learn it in grad school much. So I think that's one thing, learning that and that's growing in different departments in different ways. I think another one too, is I don't know if this is a huge change, but from my days in athletics and then just within the field, I feel like athletes nowadays too, especially with social media climb, they want to know kind of the reason behind everything. 

00:14:55:20 - 00:15:13:16 

And so I think being able to take a step back and be like, okay, like, let me explain absolutely everything I'm doing in the best way possible so they can understand it. And making sure I mean everything. I program always has a why behind it. And I told my athletes, if they ask me why and I don't have a reason, I'm more than happy to take a step back and change it. 

00:15:13:16 - 00:15:14:21 

But I think 

00:15:14:21 - 00:15:29:04 

that's one change I've been seeing, too, is athletes no longer. At least when I was in school, as my coach told me to do something, I didn't question it, I just did it. And now I feel like a lot of places I go. The athletes want to know why, and I love that because it makes me think about things as well. 

00:15:29:04 - 00:15:33:21 

But that sport science, I think, are the biggest things I've seen changing over the years. 

00:15:33:21 - 00:15:40:04 

Yeah, no, that makes sense. I think there's, there's a big push for technology. Would you say that 

00:15:40:04 - 00:15:41:19 

at BYU anyway, 

00:15:41:19 - 00:15:48:05 

the strength conditioning department drives that, or does that come from the individual sport programs and the coaches? 

00:15:48:05 - 00:15:49:15 

I think I'd be you right now. 

00:15:49:15 - 00:15:52:10 

It's a little bit of both. So we had 

00:15:52:10 - 00:16:11:16 

units for some of the teams here, which were mainly driven by sport coaches. Basketball had connects on soccer, I think, just meant to catapult the women to switch to a new system. I'm not sure what. And then field hockey, we use catapult as well. And each team kind of uses those in a different sense. 

00:16:11:16 - 00:16:33:17 

So field hockey, we really rely on the different things that we get from catapult and how that navigates our day to day and week to week and month by month. And then we just got force plate units, I think a year and a half ago. We've had them now. So we're integrating that and kind of as a staff, figuring out kind of the best practice for having those within the department. 

00:16:33:19 - 00:16:44:02 

We're looking into getting some DBT units here too. We don't have them yet, but looking into hopefully adding that to our collection. So hopefully our sport science is growing. 

00:16:44:02 - 00:17:03:20 

Yeah. That's exciting. You also have a really awesome nutrition room connected, next to the weight room. So your athletes get access to, shakes and smoothies and, and protein bars, all the different types of nutrition that, that are out there. 

00:17:03:20 - 00:17:09:23 

What was that process of getting, getting that installed? 

00:17:09:23 - 00:17:12:13 

I think a huge process. We have a nutrition 

00:17:12:13 - 00:17:30:08 

like education health department here. So our nutrition department within the education, I think we have a good relationship with them. And so they kind of manage that nutrition center for us. So a lot of the nutrition students within the you are our interns within our nutrition rooms. 

00:17:30:08 - 00:17:47:00 

We have at least two of them in there all the time. And we have two full time nutritionists on staff as well ones mainly virtual ones in person. So they can do different talks with the athletes as well. And then they also do a really good job on taking feedback from the athletes and from the performance staff here. 

00:17:47:00 - 00:18:03:03 

So we've shifted from different snacks or different getting the shakes and has been a huge addition to it, and that's been here as long as I've been here. So that's been going on for a while. But I think having access right here in the weight room to all those different snacks and smoothies has been huge. 

00:18:03:03 - 00:18:09:16 

Awesome. Yeah, it's a big thing having access to nutrition and just thinking about different facilities. 

00:18:09:16 - 00:18:11:19 

I know you're building 

00:18:11:19 - 00:18:34:23 

there's there's no kitchen right there. There's no restaurant or dining hall that athletes have access to right next door. And so it's important that you have access to those, those resources. And it's also cool that you have a nutrition program at BU. They can pour into that and provide some expertise. And that is representative. 

00:18:34:23 - 00:18:49:08 

We see that across the field as a whole. So it's really exciting to see that growth. In your opinion, what's the best part of being in college athletics? What do you love about being a college strength and conditioning coach? 

00:18:49:08 - 00:18:55:22 

I think I love all of it. I think that one, like I said earlier, 

00:18:55:22 - 00:18:57:15 

I don't like being complacent. 

00:18:57:15 - 00:19:20:00 

So I think one of the main reasons that drove me towards this field was it didn't come easy, and I had to step outside my comfort zone and I needed to keep learning. And I think I've always been a lifetime learner. So I think that's a huge thing. I love about it, is that you do have to continue to learn and grow within the field, and as the field grows, then another part is just the connections you get to make. 

00:19:20:00 - 00:19:42:08 

I think we get to in college athletics. It's a very unique kind of world within training, conditioning, where we get kids that are 17, 18 years old and then we can take them and see them grow and develop into not just athletes, but grow and develop as humans as well. And now they're leaving you at 23 years old, and you see these kids come in that are now little adults, and they're leaving to go do their world, world. 

00:19:42:08 - 00:20:08:14 

And I think a big part is being part of their life and helping them develop as humans, not just athletes. And to to see that development throughout the years is definitely one of my favorite parts about this field. Yeah. College years, it's an exciting time of growth. We've experienced that, and we're a young profession. A lot of young professionals that really connect and still identify through their college years and experiences. 

00:20:08:16 - 00:20:27:07 

So to be able to see that and pour into athletes going through that during their strength and conditioning experience, yeah, that's really powerful. And I'm really glad you shared that. So for coaches that want to reach out, learn more, from you about you, what's the best way to do that? 

00:20:27:07 - 00:20:38:11 

And Instagram or email is fine. My Instagram is @ Sammi Ryan with two n’s and then email is just my BU email that you can find on the website too. 

00:20:38:13 - 00:20:57:09 

Awesome. I will add those to the show notes. Thanks so much for being on today and to all our listeners. Thank you as well for tuning in lots of great episodes coming out on the NSCA Coaching Podcast. If you have a topic you're interested in and you want us to cover on the podcast, or a guest, please reach out. 

00:20:57:09 - 00:21:03:24 

Let us know. We're always open to your feedback. Special thanks to Sorinex Exercise Equipment. We appreciate their support. 

Reporting Errors: To report errors in a podcast episode requiring correction or clarification, email the editor at publications@nsca.com or write to NSCA, attn: Publications Dept., 1885 Bob Johnson Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80906. Your letter should be clearly marked as a letter of complaint. Please (a) identify in writing the precise factual errors in the published podcast episode (every false, factual assertion allegedly contained therein), (b) explain with specificity what the true facts are, and (c) include your full name and contact information.