Lorreine Castellanos / Roundup
“So you want to be on top?”
This is the slogan used for the hit TV show America’s Next Top Model; but the Women’s Volleyball outside hitter wasn’t the next one in cycle 11.
Samantha Potter has now been attending Los Angeles Pierce College for the past year after a brief stay at Santa Barbara Community College. She is a communications major and is currently on the Brahmas volleyball team.
Potter isn’t your average “girly girl”. Ever since she was a little girl she’s been involved in several sports such as cross-country, soccer, volleyball and motor cross.
“Never into modeling, [she] was always into sports,” said Samantha’s mother, Kristy Potter
Now the 20-year-old spends her time focusing on the Brahmas volleyball team and does some modeling gigs on the side.
“Gigs every now and then and photo shoots; its really hard to do two things at once,” said Potter.
Her most recent projects include a Purple Heart (clothing store) photo shoot, a commercial, and Pierce volleyball games.
At home games you hear cheers and screams for Potter as she smacks down the ball, trying to intimidate her opponents.
She is very much involved with her teammates throughout the game, and before the game she gets her nutrition in order to play hard against the other team.
Sam is very busy between school, sports and modeling but whenever she gets the chance to have some fun, she enjoys motor cross with her family members.
“I like to motor cross with my brothers and my dad,” said Potter.
Just two years ago, the outside hitter was walking down the runway with the hope to win Americas Next Top Model.
The athlete went onto the show never thinking she’d make it past the seven hour wait to audition.
“You go in, then they break you up, get a callback, go back, get a callback,” said Potter.
The then 18-year-old went onto filming cycle 11 of Americas Next Top Model but bursted into tears when the makeovers came along on the show.
Potter then had shoulder length dirty blonde hair, but Tyra Banks and her crew had a completely different vision of what a top model should look like.
Sam was transformed when she stepped into the salon and had her hair dyed to bleach blonde and a short boy cut to go with it.
“Honestly I hated it because it was bleached and hard to maintain,” she said.
Potter made it all the way to the end on the show. It was between her and McKey Sullivan to win the competition.
“It’s a competition, of course you want it, but [Sullivan] deserved it, no hard feelings,” said Potter.