YALL REMEMBER THAT ONE TIME I WAS LIKE ‘i really want mack and will to go on a podcast together’? AND THEN I ALSO MENTIONED IT BEING THE NEVER OFFSIDE PODCAST? WELL WELL WELL HERE WE ARE
Could I request a fic of Sammy going on never offside where cat and Julie ask how it was growing up in a hockey family, being a star soccer player, dating will?
ooo wait i really like this idea. i feel like samy and will are just big podcast people in general so the idea of having them on one seems really fun and samy would def have a lot of fun with cat and julie
i never really know how to write these kinds of fics so like it will mostly be dialogue as they talk back and forth with one another, so kind of imagine this is how you'd listen to it except it's all in writing with some fan comments at the end :)
au masterlist
"hi everyone, welcome back to never offside with the lovely samy hughes. we've been getting so many requests to have her on the podcast ever since will and macklin were on it, and we finally found a time when she was free to sit down, so we're really excited to have you today," cat began and the younger girl smiled into her camera.
"hi. thanks so much for having me. i've heard and seen a lot of great things about this podcast, so i'm excited to finally be on," samy chuckled.
"i don't think we've had a hockey turned college soccer player on before, so this will be really fun to get to talk about something other than hockey for once, but first we do have to talk about your roots so i guess we will start talking about hockey," the three laughed.
"so i guess let's start with introductions for those who don't know you," julie smiled.
“okay, well, i’m samy hughes. i’m the youngest sister to quinn, jack, and luke hughes—all really big figures in the nhl. i play soccer at the university of michigan too,” samy introduced herself and waved.
"that was beautiful. tell us what it was like growing up with three older brothers. you all aren't originally from michigan, right?"
“no, so i was born in new hampshire but pretty soon after i was born my whole family moved to toronto so i just say i’m from canada because i grew up there until i was 12 and we do have dual citizenship, so i guess i am canadian too."
“why the move to toronto?"
“so my dad was assistant head coach for the toronto marlies which is a professional hockey team in the american hockey league for those who don't know and then he started working with the toronto maple leafs as director of player development for a long time after that.”
"wow, what an extensive history. i'm guessing you met a lot of leaf players then?" cat chuckled and samy quickly nodded.
"ohh, yeah. my brothers loved it when we were younger, so they were always begging my dad to invite them over for dinner or something so they could ask a hundred questions about the nhl," the brunette laughed.
"that sounds like something those three would do. were people ever jealous of you knowing like mitch marner and brady tkachuk?"
"like..kind of? i think quinn and jack's friends were more jealous than any of mine. it was pretty cool though. i got to brag about going to brady's wedding," samy grinned and remembered how jealous some of the boys back at umich were so jealous of her getting to go to that.
"that would be something i'd brag about too. so obviously you come from a huge hockey family, both of your parents playing as well, so can you talk about what that was like? how does it feel coming from such a huge hockey family, especially being the little sister to quinn, jack, and luke?"
"honestly, i really loved it. i mean i was always right there with my brothers when i was younger. we all loved hockey and always itching to play it so that's why our parents built us our own rink, but i loved it. i think it's such a fun sport and i like really fast paced sports, so it helped get my energy out. also with any younger sibling, i always wanted to do what my brothers were doing and keep up with them, so i was always racing to be on the ice and learn their skills."
"that's really sweet. are you all close?" cat wondered and samy nodded.
"we've always been super close. i honestly couldn't imagine my life without them because we all lean on each other a lot and like i love hanging out with them and just doing things together. when we're all home it's super fun."
"who was the most competitive growing up?"
"ha, i don't think i could name just one of us. we were all super competitive and were always trying to start different things like who could eat their bag of chips the fastest or something," samy giggled.
"would you say you're closer to one over the other?"
"i don't think so. i go to them for different things, but i guess if i had to say someone, probably luke just because we are closer in age and it was always like luke and i paired together and then quinn and jack, but i'm close with all three of them in different ways." cat and julie smiled hearing samy say that.
"what was your favorite thing to do together besides play hockey?"
"ooh, tough question because that is honestly all we did. i guess during the summer we love going on the boat together or like going fishing," the soccer player laughed.
"typical. do you ever wish you didn't have brothers or grew up with an older sister? or like did it change anything for you?"
"that's so funny you ask that because i actually get asked that a lot. people think i like missed out on so much not having a sister, but i don't think i've ever felt like..missing in that aspect? since we saw grace and will so frequently during the year, i always saw grace a lot and she was like that big sister i never had, so i still got all of those experiences from her and same with will. he got to experience what having big brothers was like because he had my brothers and our families spent every summer and holiday together for the most part," samy explained.
"that's actually really sweet you all had each other growing up. what was that dynamic like? will didn't talk much on it when we had him on?" julie asked.
"well it became like quinn, jack, and grace watching over luke, will, and i. we always split ourselves like that in the summer or like will would ditch and go hang out with my brothers while grace and i did something. it honestly felt like having 5 siblings. we definitely got into some hefty arguments over the summer."
"oh, i'm sure that house was loud every summer. i don't know how your parents did that when you were all so young."
"me neither. i think they just like..let us work it out most of the time which actually worked better and made us more like..stronger because we worked out our own arguments a lot or like grace and quinn would help mediate instead," samy laughed.
"ah, i see. so instead of the parents disappointment you had your siblings disappointment instead," cat and julie laughed too.
"yeah that lowkey felt worse than my parents disapproval because i hated disappointing quinn and all of my brothers for that matter because of how much i looked up to them."
"being so young still when quinn started making a name for himself and becoming more popular online, was it hard to navigate that kind of stuff? how did you handle the immediate popularity?"
"i think i was about...14 or 15 when quinn really started getting noticed for his talent and that was when i was getting close to choosing soccer over hockey, so i definitely faced some backlash from fans when i announced that, but i was also kind of already in that spotlight for hockey, so it wasn't that hard? i went through some media training and i brushed the comments off fairly quickly i think?" the brunette shrugged a little.
"wow, that is pretty young. unfortunately, there is a lot of comparison between all of you still from people, so how do you navigate that?" julie asked.
"at first, it was hard to hear so many people comparing me to my brothers when i didn't even play the same sport as them anymore. i've heard a lot about me only getting into umich because of my brothers. when i used to play hockey a lot of people told me i was only good because of my brothers which was crazy to say because like..yeah i was good because of them? they taught me almost everything on the ice."
"wow, i had no idea people said that to you about umich. that's so crazy to say?" cat exclaimed and the younger girl nodded.
"it does not bother me anymore to hear that kind of stuff, but back when it was just starting it was hard..i mean with any siblings it's not nice to be compared to each other, but we're all secure in our relationships with one another that it really doesn't bother us. i mean..quinn is 25 years old now and he's been hearing all of it since he was like 20, so it really does not bother us as much anymore."
"well, that's good i'm glad. it makes us happy to hear how close you and your brothers are because i know a lot of people who are not close with their brothers, especially if they're the only girl."
"yeah, i love them. i look up to them a lot and they're always there for me when i need them so i can't really complain. they really shaped me into the person i am today," smay grinned and hoped her brothers smiled when they heard that after watching the podcast.
"so kind of shifting away from hockey, tell us how this road to soccer started. what got you into it?" julie shifted the subject and samy chuckled.
"it's literally like every other preteen who was looking to fit in which sounds so corny, but it's true. we were in michigan by the time i started middle school and all of my friends played soccer because that was like the sport and so i felt kind of out of place saying i had hockey practice and couldn't hang out with them, so to hang out with them more i decided to try out for soccer which i had never really played before. i ended up making the team and my first year i just had a lot of fun with it. i was fast and the coaches liked that as well as my hand-eye-foot coordination, so that season it was just like getting to hang out with my friends and kick a ball around for two hours."
"damn, i get that. if you aren't doing what everyone else is doing, girls will outcast you," cat laughed.
"no seriously. i felt so out of place with them and i literally just wanted to fit in and be cool, so i joined soccer. no plans to quit hockey just yet, but i started thinking about soccer more than hockey," samy agreed. middle school were very primitive years in deciding who you were gonna be in high school.
"when did it start getting serious for you?" julie asked.
"well my 2nd year in 8th grade i had played and practiced all summer so i ended up improving my skill a lot so when tryouts rolled around again i was like flying on the field. my coach started me every single game which is a high honor to be able to start every game and we like killed that season. i started realizing that okay maybe i was good my first year of high school. we merged schools with another middle school so it was a bunch of new people i'd never met before. we went through tryouts and i was literally shitting my pants thinking i wouldn't make the team. after the last day of tryouts, the varsity coaches, which for those who don't know are the coaches for the older girls in 11th and 12th grade, pulled me aside and told me they wanted to pull me up to varsity to play with the older girls because of how much i proved myself in tryouts. that's a super high honor to be a 14 year-old playing up with 17-18 year old girls, so that's when i realized that i actually might be better than i thought."
"freshman on varsity is a super high honor, i can attest to that. that's actually super awesome, i did not know you were pulled up your freshman year. i'm guessing you played up for the rest of high school?"
"i did, yes. at first, i was like oh, yeah i'm on varsity, but she'll probably have me sit the bench for most of the game and i'd play the last like 2 minutes or something, so i was very pleasantly surprised when she started me during our home opener and for every game after that as a freshman," samy chuckled.
"woah, that is super cool. i'm sure you made a lot of girls jealous," cat said.
"i mean, probably, i don't really know. i was falling more in love with the sport and i just felt super lucky getting to play."
"so that talent has always been there for you that's awesome. how did that decision come to play soccer full time?" cat asked.
"it came after winning the state title for my school my sophomore year. it was the first time we won in like..a long time and after the season ended i started realizing how serious this may be for me and how much i loved getting to win that title with my team and how i just wanna feel that joy all the time. i was super nervous to talk to my parents about the idea of quitting hockey even though they've always told us that if we ever wanted to do something different we could. i think it was more about how much they've done for all of us to play hockey that i felt so bad that i was leaving it, but they were super supportive of the idea. they wanted me to be in something that made me happy and they saw how much soccer made me happy. i was also nervous to tell my brothers, but they were all super supportive too and wanted me to be happy in a sport that made me as happy as soccer did."
"aw, that's super sweet, samy. how crazy is it that you'd become one of the best collegiate soccer players and lead your team to a national title and basically rebuild the entire program," cat mentioned making the girl flush.
"i relive that moment like everyday. it was so, so special to all of us to win that title after so many years," samy grinned.
"do you have plans to go pro?"
"i would love to if a team wants to have me. this sport has brought me a lot, so i'd love to keep playing it until i can't."
"when we had will and mack on they talked about how exciting that moment was watching you score that last goal to win the game. what were you feeling in those final moments?" julie wondered.
"well, one of the other plays collided into me moments before which really shook me up more than i led on. my head was like pounding after that and my rings were ringing, but i knew i couldn't get off the field with the amount of time we had left and how close we were."
"oh my god, yeah. that hit was insane," cat exclaimed.
"she came out of nowhere and i just remember suddenly being on the ground."
"props to you for getting up to finish it out," julie said and cat nodded.
"i don't know how i did, but i just knew i needed to get up and finish it. i was so nervous that i was too shook up but watching that ball fly through the air felt like time was going in slow motion. i was so scared it wasn't going to go in."
"will said it was a very surreal moment in the stands."
"i bet. i like went into shock when the ball went into the net and the whole arena erupted into cheers and my team stormed the field. it was great redemption after last season," samy smiled.
"i mean even as an 18 year old freshman last year, you still led the team to the finals. you better be patting yourself on the back," julie said and samy laughed.
"i am, i am. will tells me that a lot whenever i get doubtful."
"do you ever feel like it's too much sometimes? being this huge soccer start and everyone watching you?"
"honestly, yeah, it has been a lot at times. this past year i've definitely learned a lot about my boundaries and my limits. it's always been quinn and jack at the center of attention that when it's finally on me i have no idea how to react. i've never been the sibling who's being critiqued for everything she's doing, so it was definitely hard to learn how to balance at all," samy admitted for the first time to people that weren't her friends and family.
"i know you recently mentioned some of your struggles on instagram a few weeks ago in hopes of being support and an outlet for girls going through something similar. you can say as much as you're comfortable with about it but i wanted to know what this has all meant to you," cat said gently.
"yeah, i don't mind. i think i've definitely learned to not be afraid to reach out when i'm struggling. i'm in recovery for a pretty hard eating disorder and mental health struggles i went through this past year which was not easy for me to admit in the beginning. i grew up as someone who was very independent and hated reaching out for help, so i kind of thought i could sweep it all under the rug, but i quickly learned i could not do that if i wanted to get better. i basically scared myself into not eating and fell into this mindset that if i wasn't playing soccer, i couldn't eat because i would gain weight and i was scared to gain "unnecessary" weight. jack was the one who noticed first when i came home a few months ago and honestly, if my brothers didn't find the courage to say something to me i would probably be in the same mindset or worse," samy admitted which made the older women frown.
"any particular triggers?"
"not really. it kind happened freshman year, too but not as bad. being in the offseason has always been really hard for me, but not to the point where i couldn't eat. i don't really know what happened this year, but i think it was a lot of taking on the alternate captain position, harder classes, reconciling things with will after our breakup last summer..it just kind of all piled itself on."
"well, we're happy to hear you've been working through it. thank you for sharing, it's never easy," cat sympathized and samy smiled.
"i just hope other girls will know they're not alone and i am always willing to answer dms about it if they ever need someone to talk to. i was so scared to talk to someone because i didn't know anyone going through this."
"it can be so hard to talk about something so vulnerable and sometimes scary like an eating disorder. if you or someone you know is struggling, please check out the resources in the caption and the description of this episode. reaching out is the first step," cat encouraged and samy and julie nodded.
"well again, thank you for sharing that with us, samy. i know it's never easy to open up about that, about all of this. it definitely is a lot of pressure going from a new rookie to a girl who everyone is counting on to win the season. how do you feel about next season?" julie continued.
"i'm feeling really good about it, actually. i think it will be a really good season and we're all hoping for another national title," the girl grinned.
"i'm sure it will be. will told us he has full confidence in the team," cat laughed while samy blushed at the mention of her boyfriend.
"speaking of which if you don't mind, we'd like to shift to talking about him. we got him talking but mack chirped a lot at him, so we didn't get to hear too much," julie shifted to their last topic. samy quickly grinned.
"oh, of course. i love getting to talk about him."
"so we know the backstory that you and him grew up together and that you got together when he was in michigan for usntdp. how did that play out? what changed for you?"
"i honestly don't really know myself. we started hanging out a lot more as we got older because we started maturing and could tolerate one another. i just started seeing him as something more than a friend, but it seemed really crazy to me because like that's will. he was like fourth brother to me, so it was kind of hard for me to come to terms with my feelings at first," samy admitted.
"i mean i bet. you two were best friends before the relationship started, that's definitely gotta be kind of weird," cat nodded.
"it's funny because like everyone used to tease us about it, but we always brushed them off and were like no, no we don't like each other. even our parents knew before we did which is so funny to me."
"did your relationship change at all as will started getting more popular with everyone?"
"no, not really. i think it helps that we were best friends before this, so we're already secure for the most part in our relationship. we've been through media so it's not like it's something we need to explain to one another."
"he talked to us on the podcast about how he really wants you to move in with him once you're done with school," julie chuckled.
"oh my god, yeah. he talks about that all the time and i'm just like i would love to, but i don't want you to be the sole support of us. i would wanna get my feet on the ground before thinking about something as big as moving in together and living together full time," samy explained.
"that makes sense. it's a good thing to know because moving in with someone is a big deal and it takes a lot of work on both ends, so i'm glad you know that. obviously, long distance is really hard but how have you guys made it work?"
"we like to do a lot of movie nights together where we do a watch party kind of thing. we send each other things a lot like legos and we build them together on call. mostly a lot of facetiming whenever we're free and just catching up about our days and what's been going on," the soccer player smiled.
"i give you props because it is not easy, especially so young. you two jumped right into long distance as soon as you started dating, right? was that hard?" cat asked.
"i mean, yeah it was hard, but again because we already had established our relationship because of our friendship, it made it a lot easier. he knows me, i know him and it was basically just the same except we were dating and we got to kiss anytime we saw each other," samy giggled and blushed again.
"when and if you do decide to do this for the long run, where do you think you'd wanna settle down?"
"i talk a lot about moving back to toronto. i loved it there and i'd love to go back and be there for awhile. it's such a great city and great people and it reminds me childhood."
"we asked will where he thinks you two would wanna be and he also said toronto, so he knows you well. how much do your friends chirp on you both?" cat laughed.
"they did a lot when we were younger and honestly still do sometimes. it's funny though and we always all laugh about it. ethan edwards and mark estapa love to harp on will sometimes and it's so funny seeing him get all red and flustered whenever they do."
"we've heard they're like big brothers to you?"
"oh yeah, they are. i mean all of my brothers' hockey friends are like big brothers to me, but mark and eth especially. they looked out for me at umich, so i have no idea what i'm gonna do without them next year," the brunette frowned a bit.
"well, i think that just about wraps up this episode, it was so lovely getting to talk with you, samy. thank you again for coming on," cat started wrapping it up. samy grinned.
"thank you so much for having me, this was really fun and i hope i can do it again," the girl waved to the camera while cat and julie did their outro.
comments
user1 this is sooo cutie aww i love how well they all got along
user2 wait i had no idea samy went through all of that this year, that makes me so sad. i'm so glad she's doing better tho
user3 her and will are sooo similar it's so cute
user4 i love how respectful cat and julie were talking with samy about her ed and mental health struggles
user5 i love the way samy lights up when she talks about will
user6 my favorite hughes fr
user7 her opening up about her brothers too awww
user8 now we need will and samy on the podcast together where they talk more in depth about their relationship and growing up together
user9 i loveeee her and this
user10 soo glad julie and cat were able to get samy on
one of the most unfortunately relatable mack moments is when he made the tariffs joke on never offside and everyone proceeded to take it literally and clown him for it
