Although training and competition experience seem to play the most important role in becoming a top athlete, it is the elements beneath the surface that allow athletes to truly excel.
In December 2023, Ithaca College's athletics department announced that it had hired Shira Evans '06 as a sports nutrition consultant. Since her introduction to the program, Evans has worked with nearly every varsity team on campus on cooking workshops and sport-specific nutrition programming.
Susan Bassett '79, associate vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics, said sports nutrition is an area of performance she has pursued since her own return to the athletic department. Similar to the Leadership Academy curriculum offered to student-athletes in college, Bassett said Evans will be a readily available resource.
"It's similar to Greg Shelley being a leadership consultant," Bassett said. "Now Shira Evans is a consultant in the field of nutrition and sports performance. A few things were similar and I think this was an area I thought we needed to improve on. So we decided to give Shira a try and so far the feedback has been so positive."
Evans' hiring is a relatively rare occurrence in collegiate sports. Evans is the first officially listed nutrition consultant on the Liberty League staff. What makes this even more striking is that hiring a nutrition specialist isn't even universal in Division I. Of the 65 Power Five schools in Division I, 61 have a sports dietitian, while only 31 schools outside the Power Five employ one .
Evans is an expert in the field of relative energy deficit in sports (RED-S), eating disorders and care for eating disorders. She said that beyond the workshops she has conducted with teams, she is also a resource for individual athletes.
"I will be able to support student-athletes with any type of nutrition-related issue," Evans said. "Suppose an athlete undergoes reconstructive surgery on the cruciate ligament, then nutrition has a major impact. Or perhaps it is an athlete who is struggling with many nutrient deficiencies or RED-S and needs support. For any nutritional problem, they can meet with me one-on-one in confidence."
Before Evans was hired, the athletic department hosted a nutrition webinar for athletes at the beginning of each semester. Bassett said that while many of the meetings were helpful, the material was becoming dated and that Evans' practice will keep the programming more current.
A former collegiate athlete herself, Evans has competed for the Bombers' cross country and track and field teams. She said being able to give back to the athletics community is what she enjoys most about her job.
"I've also been through the trials and tribulations of learning how to figure out what works best for me when it comes to driving performance, and I think it's so fun to support athletes from all different backgrounds and sports," Evans said. "Being able to educate and empower them, whether it's for a performance-related goal or to help improve their own relationship with food or their bodies as an athlete. It's just super rewarding to be able to work with student-athletes."
Jennifer Potter '92, head coach of the women's track and field team, coached Evans during her tenure as an athlete. The two reconnected in June 2023 when Potter and Erin Dinan, head coach of the women's cross country team, attended a women's sports conference in Boston, Massachusetts.
There, Potter said she and Dinan started mulling over Evans' brain about how she might interact with the student-athletes at the university and the specific problems they have noticed.
"We went to lunch with her and were more like, 'Hey, how would you like to do this for us?' And so the conversation began," Potter said. "At one point we thought maybe we could bring her in, maybe someone else, but the more we met Shira, the more we thought, 'Wow, if we could get her on board with our department, that would be her. a huge asset. "
From there, Potter said the men's and women's cross country teams, track and field teams and swimming and diving teams collaborated in fundraising to have Evans visit campus late in the fall semester. Upon her arrival, she met with the six teams, the athletic training staff, the medical staff, the head coaches and the strength and conditioning team.
Potter said Evans' programming was both sport and event specific, which is especially important in a sport like track and field.
"I think that makes her very unique," Potter said. "We did a session with our endurance athletes and then we did a separate session with our strength athletes. There are so many great topics she can cover.
Starting in January, Evans began conducting sport-specific workshops with more varsity teams on campus. Freshman Ainsley Grant, a member of the university's field hockey team, said her team joined Evans for a cooking workshop and nutrition presentation. She said the workshops allowed her team to become more comfortable talking about and working with food.
"We were given a number of breakfast recipes to choose from and we chose pancakes and smoothies," Grant said. "Shira was there to guide us, but it was mainly student-led. The intention was for it to be a recipe that we could bring back into our lives and cook for ourselves."
The transition from high school to collegiate athletics can mean a big jump in workload for many athletes. As a freshman, Grant said the workshops with Evans helped her find the fuel she needs for the amount of training she endures.
"I find myself in the dining hall thinking, 'What will this meal do for my body and what can I add to it to better fuel my body?'" Grant said. "We've been in the dining room picking out meals and thinking, 'This has good protein, this has good fats,' so I think we're all just more conscious because of her."
As disordered eating becomes more common among female athletes, Grant said Evans' professionalism around the topics helped her teammates feel more comfortable asking questions about how to adequately fuel themselves for training and competition.
"I know it can be a difficult topic with female athletes," Grant said. "There are a lot of body image issues and there is a standard for what a female student athlete should look like, and [Evans] really emphasized that you can eat whatever you want. She emphasized real snacking and fueling before training, and my team really bought into that. We are all very grateful to her."
Returning to her alma mater, Evans said she feels a personal connection to the university's athletics program and is most looking forward to giving back to athletes like herself.
"When I was a student-athlete, I think these types of resources were so needed for the general student-athlete population for so many reasons," Evans said. "It feels super exciting to be able to give back in that capacity, to get to work with current student-athletes and give them these kinds of tools. I think this is something that is needed in every school."
