LU Moment S1 Ep.7: Lost Rings, Comedy of Errors, and Fueling Athletes

Introduction (0:14)

Shelly Vitanza: Thank you for listening to the LU Moment. I'm your host, Shelly Vitanza, the director of public affairs at Lamar University. Each week we highlight the great events, activities, programs, projects, and people at Lamar University. This week, we're going to visit with Brian LeTraunik, Assistant Professor of Theater, about an upcoming performance and with Daniel Darcy, Athletic Strength and Condition Coordinator for our athletics program, Dr. Jill Killough, Department Chair for Family and Consumer Sciences and Angelica Figueroa, both of these ladies are from our College of Education and Human Development, in the Family and Consumer Sciences Department.

Shelly Vitanza: So these folks are here to talk to us about a very unique partnership taking place on campus that brings together nutrition, athletes, education, and includes Market Basket. But first I wanna tell you a little something that took place on the Lamar University campus that I thought was really special and I wanted to pass on the story. Jackie Harris was a 1980s track star. Track and field legend, really, and he was on our track and field championship team in 1980 and got, of course, the championship ring. Jackie went on to graduate from Lamar in 1984 but not before he set a few records that are still held at the school. The 200 and the 400-meter dash are still Jackie Harris' records, have not been beat. But he lost his ring somewhere along the way and although he said he thought about calling the school and seeing if he could get another one, he never had.

Shelly Vitanza: This week, nearly three decades after receiving the ring - and he lost the ring somewhere along the way he thinks, maybe, in the 90s - his ring was found and it's a really neat story. A construction worker was leveling a house, saw something shiny, dug it out of brick and mortar, cleaned it off, and it had the inscription Jackie on it so he began to search, he and his wife began to search. It was Francisco Gudino, a local construction worker, and his wife Alisha. They cleaned the ring off, saw the inscription Jackie, and started looking for Jackie and, of course, came to realize that it was a Lamar ring and we reunited the ring and introduced the Gudinos to Jackie Harris this week and it was a wonderful reunion and just really, really special.

Shelly Vitanza: Now the ring, the ring didn't fit the finger that it originally was made for but it did fit Jackie Harris' pinky. He put it on and said he was gonna show it to his daughter. So just love that story. Thought it was worth passing on some great things going on at Lamar University. And everyone hugged, the Gudinos and Jackie Harris, said they were gonna stay in touch, and Harris is gonna take the Gudinos out to dinner so great union. You can read more about that, of course, on our website at lamar.edu so check it out and get the full story.

Comedy of Errors (3:19)

Shelly Vitanza: Okay. That brings us to our Department of Theater and Dance. We've got a comedy, Comedy of Errors. It's kind of, I think, thanks for being here, by the way.

Brian LeTraunik: Very happy to be!

Shelly Vitanza: Appreciate your time. We've kind of done some classics this season, it seems. We started with the Birds, and now we're doing Comedy of Errors.

Brian LeTraunik: Yes indeed. One of Shakespeare's first comedies. It's probably one of his most madcap comedies. It's kind of a mistaken identity, two sets of identical twins. One has been in search of the other and they happen to find themselves in the same day at the same time and so, of course, they get mistaken for one another and all kinds of hilarity and mischief and-

Shelly Vitanza: Mayhem.

Brian LeTraunik: Mayhem ensues but, of course, being a comedy it all turns out right in the end. But the madcapness is still quite madcap.

Shelly Vitanza: Now, most times people in literature, theater, have opinions about Shakespeare. I mean do you have a strong opinion about Shakespeare and kind of his background?

Brian LeTraunik: Oh absolutely. I love Shakespeare. I always have. I've always been a huge, huge fan of Shakespeare. Did a lot of it in my undergraduate and my graduate school, professionally, and one of the things I always tell students when I lecture about Shakespeare, one of the things I always hear is, you know, we don't understand it. It's hard to understand. But when you kind of pare away the language which once you really get an ear for it, it's fairly easy to understand but when you realize that the things that he was writing about 400 and some odd years ago are the same things that we all deal with today. Love and parents and children and husbands and wives and-

Shelly Vitanza: The issues are the same.

Brian LeTraunik: Exactly. We have changed so little in 400 years that the things that were important then are still important now so when you pare away everything and just look at the same basic story, there's really a lot there that's relatable and so I know that's what my cast and I have been very-

Shelly Vitanza: Focused on that.

Brian LeTraunik: Exactly. Just telling the story and just making sure that the audience understands what's going on. They may not understand, you know, all the obscure jokes and references but they'll still understand the story and the cast are doing a really bang up job and I think anyone who comes will have a really fantastic time.

Shelly Vitanza: And when is this production? It's not until mid-March, correct? Right after spring break?

Brian LeTraunik: Correct. March 21st to the 24th. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and that will be in the University Theater which is on Lamar's campus.

Shelly Vitanza: Yeah, our big theater. A lot of opportunity to see it lots of times.

Brian LeTraunik: Oh yes.

Shelly Vitanza: And lots of places. The prices are so reasonable, I mean you really can't beat it.

Brian LeTraunik: Oh no, not at all. General admission is $15 if you are Lamar University faculty or staff. A high school or college student at another university, or a senior citizen it's $10 and then if you are a Lamar student and you buy the tickets through our website, it's only $7 so it's cheaper than a movie.

Shelly Vitanza: Oh my gosh, that's great. Yeah, cheaper than a movie these days. I gotta ask you this, do students roll their eyes when you say Shakespeare and you're gonna do a Shakespeare play?

Brian LeTraunik: Some do. Some do. Our majors are very excited about it. We only do Shakespeare every two or three years so when one of those comes around in our season, our students are very excited but a lot of the non-theater students, they do kind of go oh, Shakespeare. We had to read that in high school, bla, bla, bla, but that's when I always say well, you had to read Shakespeare. Shakespeare was never meant to be read. Shakespeare was meant to be seen and heard.

Shelly Vitanza: Acted.

Brian LeTraunik: Exactly. So I say, reserve judgment until you actually come and see the show and then if you still don't like it, okay, but at least give it a shot.

Shelly Vitanza: Well it's gotta be a little more challenging, too. I mean I would think that a student who performs Shakespeare, that looks good on a resume.

Brian LeTraunik: Oh sure!

Shelly Vitanza: Because it's a little bit harder to learn, right? The lines?

Brian LeTraunik: Oh absolutely. It's definitely a challenge to learn. It's kind of like, I don't wanna say performing in a foreign language but it does have it's own peculiarities. It has it's own kind of way of performing and of course, but the proliferation of Shakespeare festivals, probably every state in this country has a yearly Shakespeare festival of some kind so it prepares students for a great professional career doing classical theater. Almost every professional theater in the country does some kind of classical theater and that's something we always try to do in our season is try to do at least one classical play. If not Shakespeare then something with a heightened language to it so that are students are that much more prepared.

Shelly Vitanza: Get that experience. Exactly. Yeah, I love it. Our department...you're not from here. I mean you came here to be in the department at Lamar...

Brian LeTraunik: Correct.

Shelly Vitanza: ...the theater department. Why? What do you think's unique about our department here?

Brian LeTraunik: Well our particular department, we are growing but it's still a very small department. We only have around 50 or 60 majors and it's really great because as a faculty we get to know our students very well. We get to really work with them closely. We get to really see what it is that they are excelling at, what it is that they really need work on.

Shelly Vitanza: Their challenges.

Brian LeTraunik: Exactly. So our students, in the larger programs you can become a number and you might go four years and never get on stage in a play. Here we have students who might be doing a play every semester so there's lots of opportunity for them to get on stage. There's lots of opportunity for them to work with us as faculty. We bring in professional guest artists from Houston almost every year to direct so when they graduate, not only have they worked with us as faculty but they also have professional contacts in the industry as opposed to someone who they maybe met once or took a master class with. These are people they've worked closely with for weeks, and weeks, and weeks who can attest to their skill and their work ethic so that when they graduate, they can go right into the professional world. We just had one of our students who graduated last year just performed in Twelfth Night at the Alley Theater in Houston.

Shelly Vitanza: Really?

Brian LeTraunik: Yeah, Sydney Haygood who just graduated last May and she got a small part in that and so literally almost the entire department went to go see that .

Shelly Vitanza: I bet. So, I mean that's gotta be like one of the most exciting things that happens when you see a student succeed like that and be elevated to that kind of position.

Brian LeTraunik: Absolutely. There's nothing better.

Shelly Vitanza: Very rewarding.

Brian LeTraunik: Nothing better. You prepare them as best you can and once they kind of go out into the world you just kind of have to let them go and be there to support and help but it's kind of up to them to make it happen and when you see a student make it happen on their own, there's nothing more rewarding.

Shelly Vitanza: That is really, really cool. How can we get tickets again, and give us the dates and times one more time.

Brian LeTraunik: Absolutely. March 21st through the 24th and its Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in the University theater and you can purchase ticket through our website. Just go to lamar.edu/theatredance. All one word - theatre with an 're' - T-H-E-A-T-R-E dance and then there'll be a button on our webpage, it'll say purchase tickets, and click on that and you can buy your tickets online.

Shelly Vitanza: The Comedy of Errors. I would think that that would be a great thing to take, my son's in high school. It's something that he needs to see.

Brian LeTraunik: Absolutely.

Shelly Vitanza: But be good for high schoolers and very wonderful opportunity for our community to come out and support theater and the students at Lamar University.

Fueling Athletes (10:45)

Shelly Vitanza: And Brian makes a great point. Lamar is small enough where we can really give individual attention to students and we can really get in and we can pull our programs together and we can find out how we can serve the community, how we can better serve the students there on campus. And a program began, Dr. Jill Killough is here to talk about this program, that brings together nutrition, education, learning opportunities, and our athletics department.

Shelly Vitanza: So this is really a neat kind of marriage. Tell us about it.

Jill Killough: Yeah. It was about two years ago that Dan and I started working together along with Dr. Amy Shows and giving the students and opportunity to work with athletes. There was a need. Dan approached us and said hey, we need help over here. What can y'all do?

Shelly Vitanza: With food. They didn't have any good food, right?

Jill Killough: Well, I don't know if it was food as much as it was education at first.

Shelly Vitanza: Ah, education.

Jill Killough: Yeah. Doing a little bit of education with the athletes.

Shelly Vitanza: Those french fries are not building your muscles. That kind of what was going on?

Jill Killough: Yeah, yeah. And we started out just, they were doing education materials, bulletin boards, and that happened last year. So after that year, Dan and I talked more about him becoming a preceptor for our dietetic internship which that's the program where they do supervised practice and then become eligible to become a registered dietician. He said yes. We then also started talking about ways the undergrad students could get experience 'cause they have to have experience to get into an internship and it's a great opportunity and the athletes are a unique population for our students.

Shelly Vitanza: In more ways than one, right?

Jill Killough: Yes, yes, yes. Well, they're dealing with their peers. The students learn how to communicate with their peers and then they're dealing with individuals who often are trying to gain weight. They're very active which is opposite, a lot of times, with what we deal with in healthcare.

Shelly Vitanza: I was gonna say, I have never wanted to gain weight. That's just amazing.

Jill Killough: Right, right. That's right. And so it was a good opportunity for both our undergrad and our graduate students to get in, help the athletes in the way of education, they're doing one on ones, the interns are doing one on one consultations. They're doing bulletin boards, they're available to do group education, and then the undergrads are really helping with the nutrition center and I don't know if Dan, you wanna talk a little bit about the nutrition center.

Shelly Vitanza: So Dan Darcy, you've been working with our athletes in strength training?

Daniel Darcy: Yes ma'am.

Shelly Vitanza: Is that basically what you do?

Daniel Darcy: Yup.

Shelly Vitanza: Is it football? All athletes? What do you...?

Daniel Darcy: It's all athletes so oversight of 17 teams, nearly 400 athletes and making sure they all get their sports specific needs that they need to compete at a high level.

Shelly Vitanza: So you recognize that nutritionally they were not getting what they needed, uneducated, I mean what were the problems?

Daniel Darcy: Right, so my objective every day, when they come in to when they leave, they're actually worse because they break down. They break down muscle and they need to repair that muscle and we saw, we're gonna train at elite level today, well tomorrow you're gonna train at elite level again and they weren't able to repeat that effort and so we knew that-

Shelly Vitanza: There was no recovery.

Daniel Darcy: Exactly. The recovery wasn't there and so we needed to ramp that up and so that's why I went to Dr. Killough to get, let's get this education going 'cause as our education level is low right now, a couple years ago, and now we're making improvements on that which is phenomenal and we see the difference, every single day.

Shelly Vitanza: Do you?

Daniel Darcy: Absolutely.

Shelly Vitanza: And have they been receptive? The athletes?

Daniel Darcy: Absolutely. They didn't know what they didn't know and then when you put that information in front of them, it becomes, “oh-

Shelly Vitanza: Oh, wow!

Daniel Darcy: “why haven't I been doing this all along?” And so it was kind of a light bulb moment for a lot of our athletes. We wanna keep having those light bulb moments and keep this education going. We're starting to see improvements. Those individuals that wanna gain weight, they're gaining weight now and it's not just weight its muscle mass.

Daniel Darcy: And so we're getting food into them sooner than we were before, more calories than we were before, 'cause they just didn't understand how much they're actually burning by being active. There's a lot of these different types of diets out there, those are not for them, these different types of fad diets. You're a student-athlete at a Division 1 institution. Your regime of training, of diet, of lifestyle is different than anybody else.

Shelly Vitanza: Is this pretty regimented? I mean do you all watch them each day? I mean you can't be there with everything they put in their mouths but you give them diet suggestions?

Daniel Darcy: Right and so, like she was saying, the one on one consultations, we've already had nearly 50 student-athletes meet one on one and get those consultations to talk about “well I don't have energy” or “I want to gain weight, I thought I was doing the right things, but it hasn't happened yet, what do I need to do?” And they take their issues and their challenges to these nutrition students and have these conversations and now these students can take the information from the classroom and apply it in a practical way which is a win win for both sides so it's been tremendous.

Shelly Vitanza: Absolutely. So, Angelica, are you one of the students that they meet with? What do you do with this program?

Angelica: Yes, so I'm an intern right now. This is my first week with them and I've already met with a couple of the athletes so they come and ask questions, really good questions too, and just the same things about losing weight, gaining weight, building that muscle and I think having that one on one consultation with us has really helped them a lot because they see us as professionals and that's what we're trying to be so it helps both of us.

Shelly Vitanza: You're getting there.

Angelica: Yeah, we're getting there. And so, I mean we help each other out in both ways and to me it's really effective and I know I've learned more from them than they've learned from me.

Shelly Vitanza: Really?

Angelica: Yes.

Shelly Vitanza:  Interesting. So what are their main concerns…I guess, are gaining the muscle mass?

Angelica: Right. I had one yesterday that wanted to lose, he felt like he wasn't at the right weight and he wanted to lose a little bit and then there was one that wanted to gain it.

Shelly Vitanza: So it's all over the board which gives you a lot of experience.

Angelica: Right and so they would tell me what they would eat on a daily basis and based on that I would-

Shelly Vitanza: Say yeah and no and give suggestions. You blew it there buddy.

Angelica: And I think they left with a pretty good understanding of what they needed to do next.

Shelly Vitanza: I love it. So where are you in your education?

Angelica: I am about to graduate with my masters degree in August.

Shelly Vitanza: Awesome, congratulations, that's awesome.

Angelica: Thank you. Once I'm done with that I will hopefully be in my career.

Shelly Vitanza: That's wonderful. And this is good experience to take into that career.

Angelica: Oh definitely. Not only just like nutrition knowledge but just professionalism and learning how to-

Shelly Vitanza: Well, how to interact with people and visit with different types of people, I would think, would be really advantageous.

Angelica: Definitely. I love it.

Shelly Vitanza: So how does Market Basket play into this? Are we feeding them at the same time? I guess we do, we have to feed our athletes, right?

Daniel Darcy: Right and so this is something that came about this last year. We were really making a push from a lot of sports but especially football and our new football coach Mike Schultz and then that tied in with our new athletic director at the same time, Marco Born, saying we need to feed these athletes. We need to make more progress and we all got on the same page so we started catering food in and we got to the point where we were able to have Market Basket set up deliveries three days a week and so they'll bring us bread, peanut butter, jelly, and you better believe we're making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day.

Shelly Vitanza: Is that how to gain weight? Peanut butter and jelly?

Daniel Darcy: That's certainly one of the ways and that's one of the simplest, most foundational ways you can do it and that's how we've attacked it. Just good old fashioned peanut butter and jellys.

Shelly Vitanza: Oh my gosh.

Daniel Darcy: And, I'll tell you what, they're delicious. They do a phenomenal job and they don't get old to me and I'm there every day. We've had great feedback from those. We've also done oranges. We'll cut oranges, we'll have bananas, we'll have cereal bars or a different type of protein bar, and then we also have Core Powers from Coke, as well, so they're helping us out and so that nutrition center that we've named after Market Basket because they've contributed so much, that's the start for us. We want to keep growing and keep evolving our options. This is just the starting point in our eyes.

Shelly Vitanza: Well it sounds like a great program in the way that the university is really benefiting so many different facets all at the same time.

Jill Killough: Absolutely.

Shelly Vitanza: So, you see sending more students over there and continuing to work within the program?

Jill Killough: Yes, yes, absolutely. We are constantly encouraging our students to get out, volunteer, go over there, help with the student-athletes. It's a great experience for them. Like Angelica said, they're gonna learn as much, or more. from the athletes-

Shelly Vitanza: - than the athletes.

Jill Killough: Yes. Absolutely. It's a good practical learning experience. Kind of gets them out of their shell, too, a little bit. One thing about becoming a registered dietician or a nutritionist is that we do education. That's part of our foundation in our profession is education. Well the only way you can educate is to talk to people so you have to get over that fear of interacting and what a great way to start in your undergrad with that interaction with your peers.

Shelly Vitanza: It's a great program. All right. How many programs do y'all have in your department?

Jill Killough: We actually have several programs. We have Nutrition and Dietetics, we have Hospitality, Administration, and Culinary, we have Fashion merchandising, we have Family Studies, and we have Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher Education.

Shelly Vitanza: And the ratio, teacher to student, is really good?

Jill Killough: Oh, it is very good, yes.

Shelly Vitanza: So you're getting that hands on, that one on one.

Jill Killough: Yes.

Shelly Vitanza: That's fabulous. [It’s] one thing that Lamar can offer that other big colleges can't and it really makes us unique. So, thank you all for being here.

Shelly Vitanza: Really appreciate you sharing this LU moment and all the great information going on at Lamar. Hope you get to come out and see Lamar University. Come just tour the campus. Don't know if you know this or not but we've got beautiful public art all over the campus. Our quad is redone. This next week is spring break, if you've got a high schooler, come on out, take a tour. You will love it and love what you see. We've got a Starbucks on campus which is one of my favorite things, and there are lots of great things. Starbucks is a great thing though, right there on campus.

Shelly Vitanza: So, thanks for listening to the LU Moment. Have a great week and we'll see you next week.