SAN ANTONIO – The impact that a supporter can make in a UTSA student-athlete’s life has the potential to change their trajectory long-term.
That’s exactly what Christie Waterman, a long-time UTSA Athletics supporter, is committed to doing. Waterman, a nurse practitioner, and her husband Andrew, President of Waterman Construction, are members of the Spurs Club at the Victory Capital Performance Center and that gave her the idea of helping student-athletes in a more holistic way.
“My husband and I attended the opening event for that facility when it opened,” Waterman said. “They talked about how they had a desire to build community partnerships. The chef came out and talked to us. He told us how they were prioritizing nutrition and wellness for their athletes, and having a space to gather and talk as teammates. It has become the intersection between all the different parts that make a team work.”
Shortly after, Waterman attended a speaking event with UTSA coaches and she heard several mention how they were prioritizing student-athlete nutrition. The Roadrunners in May 2023 hired Jordan Murrin as the program’s first-ever full-time Director of Sports Nutrition.
Waterman had the idea of bringing together UTSA student-athletes in the Victory Capital Performance Center. This summer, players from UTSA’s volleyball and women’s basketball teams gathered to learn from the center’s staff about nutrition and mental health in an event called Nourish to Flourish.
“I saw it as an opportunity to give the athletes a really great experience to show them that good nutrition and prioritizing health are accessible for student-athletes, it just requires time and teaching,” Waterman said. “Mental health is also so important with how much they have on their plates. Often mental health is siloed off as some other part of health, but it’s just as important as what we put in our physical bodies. Our brain is not separate from the rest of our body.”
Waterman, who works as a nurse practitioner in emergency medicine within the Christus Healthcare System, knows first-hand the importance of putting one’s health first. She is a graduate of both UTSA and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.
“I work in the ER and I unfortunately see what happens when people neglect their health over time,” she said. “Eventually the body screams at you. It might be mental health or it might be physical health. For me, it’s important to take care and steward the body and mind I’ve been given.”
Waterman hopes to use her perspective as both a medical professional and a UTSA Athletics supporter to help the Roadrunners’ student-athletes in a unique manner.
“I saw a way we could invest in athletes as whole people,” she said. “A lot of times, people view athletes in terms of performance. They do so much for our university in terms of being our brand our face. The student-athlete experience ends after four years and I want to give them valuable tools to take care of themselves and build them up as people even after they leave UTSA. This is a long-term investment in them as people.”
The experience with student-athletes at Victory Capital Performance Center was one they greatly enjoyed and appreciated, accomplishing Waterman’s goal for the event.
“They seemed truly happy and enjoyed gathering together,” Waterman said. “I saw in them a true interest and intrigue in cooking and good nutrition. Each skill that you master, you build off that, just like as an athlete. This is helping them invest in themselves in a holistic way. It’s not about performance or pressure.”