By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
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Though Verdis Brown didn't log a single play in a game for the University of Illinois football team this past season, he and a team of Illini sports dietitians still consider the redshirt freshman's past 12 months in Champaign-Urbana to have been highly successful.
You see, the six-foot-four redshirt freshman offensive lineman from Chicago now tips the scales at a "svelte" 313, some 40 pounds less than he weighed before he first was introduced to healthy eating.
The "old" Verdis would regularly consume a 10-piece plate full of boneless wings and a large helping of macaroni and cheese. A year later, the "new" Verdis enjoys a healthy diet of chicken or turkey and lots of vegetables and fruits.
It's made a huge impact on his performance on the field and his lifestyle in general.
"Now I look on the label and notice the calories and the sodium and stuff like that," Brown said. "If those are too high, I'll put it back. What you put in your body relates to what you get out of it."
Illini football team sports dietitian Sebastian Zorn calls Brown "a success story."
"Verdis has done a really good job of taking his nutrition seriously," he said.
Brown is just one of more than 500 Illini student-athletes who have been educated by Director of Sports Nutrition Brittany Perry and her staff.
"Our goal is to fuel all of our athletes for academic and athletic success, but also to lay a foundation for a lifetime of health," Perry said.
(Left) Personalized shakes and supplements await student-athletes after a workout. (Right) Student-athletes, including football player Verdis Brown (far right), learn how to cook healthy meals.Â
The former Brittany Francis was a standout ice hockey player for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. She says she and her athletic siblings learned to eat nutritious foods from her health-conscious mother, Bev, a national-level downhill skier.
"She was making yogurt and bread from scratch when I was young," Perry said. "That was way before it was a popular thing to do."
Perry initially studied marketing at Minnesota, but she went on to earn a Master's degree in nutrition while serving an internship with then Gopher sports medicine director Moira Novak. With the help of Novak, her thesis was based upon the benefits of a sports dietician in college athletics. Perry's proposal and "great timing" ultimately landed her a job as Minnesota football's first nutritionist.
In January of 2017, Perry joined Illinois's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics as Director of Sports Nutrition. Her program focuses on performance fueling strategies, hydration, proper supplementation, on-site and travel meal management, and body composition analysis.
Perry particularly appreciates the cooperative effort between her nutrition staff and the support it receives from UI's sports medicine and strength and conditioning personnel.
"For the most part, each Illini team has its own performance team—their own athletic trainer, a strength coach, and a dietician—and we all meet with the coaches regularly," she said. "Having that strong communication is so important because we're able to make sure that our plans support the student athletes in their training phases.
"The trainers update us about the injuries so that we can nutritionally help them heal properly and as quickly as possible. With the strength coaches, we discuss what their goals are for each training phase, what time and how long their workouts are, then we can tailor their nutrition, meal plans, and goals."
Perry says that each Illini student-athlete receives individualized nutrition recommendations.
"Generally, we like our student-athletes to front-load their day," she said. "They're putting food in their bodies that they're going to be using for energy that day in class and at practice. We want protein intake to be spread out every three hours, consuming 15-to-30 grams, depending on their sport or their size. Athletes have extremely high calorie needs, so it's very difficult to get all of the nutrients they need in two or three sittings. They'll also be more comfortable because they won't be overly full. Their bodies will be able to absorb it and utilize those nutrients if they spread them out throughout the day. In most cases, that's a big change for our athletes."
Though Illinois's Varsity Room in the northeast corner of Memorial Stadium serves three meals a day, not every athlete is able to take advantage of those opportunities. So, in addition, Perry's staff and about 30 volunteer interns stock a variety of fuel stations at athletic facilities across UI's campus.
"For example, the one at Irwin is grab-and-go is for those athletes who don't have time to stop and have lunch," Perry said. "Sandwiches, roll-ups, sushi, salads, fruits, oatmeal, cereal … proteins like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, beef jerky … plus quick digesting carbs that are more specific to pre-practice."
"The fueling stations that are in the weight rooms are especially focused on protein options such as protein shakes, chocolate milk, and soy milk for athletes who can't tolerate dairy."
Zorn, who joined Perry's staff in April of 2018 following stints at Ohio State and with the Chicago Bears, is particularly busy when the Illini football team is playing a road contest.
""It really starts the night before the game," Zorn said. "Around 9 to 9:30, we'll give the players a snack before they go to bed. Then we'll have a breakfast available to them in the early morning, then we'll provide the pre-game meal about four hours before. We'll have fuel available to them throughout the whole pre-game process."
On days of competition, Illini players receive nutritious snacks at halftime and even during the game.
"In between plays, while the offense is on the field, we'll be fueling the defense," Zorn said. "Football is an intermittent sport, so they have a good amount of time to recover when they're off the field. We've got a lot of instances when we can fuel them with fast-digesting gummies and fruit."
The Illini nutrition staff's primary objective is to lay a foundation for a lifetime of good health.
"We want our student-athletes to learn healthy habits and skills that they can take with them when they leave here," Perry said. "We do a lot of cooking classes and grocery store tours, and we take them to restaurant outings and teach them how to make healthy choices."
Will the "new" Verdis Brown take his healthy food habits into his post-football future?
"Most definitely," Brown says. "I want to live as long as I can to help as many people as I can. I want to help others, just like I was helped."
