Building Champions With Life Habits
3/9/2016 2:36:00 PM | Athletics, Bearkat Champions Fund
Brian Hess, who along with his assistant Trevor Williams, coordinates the strength and conditioning programs for the more than 400 student-athletes who compete for Sam Houston's 17 intercollegiate sports teams, sees his job as more than just making each individual stronger and faster.
At Sam Houston, Hess directs a program that seeks to help each student-athlete be successful in all facets of their college life.
“We're concerned with the 22 hours a day we don't impact each student-athlete during workouts and practice,” Hess said. “How can we help them set up their schedule and build good habits as they can maximize sleep, be properly hydrated and eat right.”
Hess and Williams are not your grandfather's strength coaches. At Sam Houston, they are implementing programs that can help the student-athlete 24 hours a day in the class room as well as in competition.
“One of the biggest things we can teach them is how to maximize sleep,” Hess said. “We want them to make good decisions about their sleep habits. Eight hours a night is what we're looking for. But that's not eight hours from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. We're looking for eight hours going from 10 o'clock at night. Go to bed at a decent hour and wake up at a decent hour. We want them moving with the sun.”
Another key area the staff emphasizes is nutrition.
“Nutrition is key to being able to train with great energy and to maximize their studying and their class time,” Hess said. “It's also important to recovery from practice. If the student-athlete is not eating properly, they're not recovering properly. They're wasting time.”
Recipes, shopping tips and suggested meal schedules are one of the ways the strength and conditioning staff seeks to help Bearkat student-athletes.
“With Instagram, we're giving them 'recipes of the week' and other nutrition ideas,” Hess said. “We help them with shopping lists. Earlier in the semester we gave them a sheet that outlines a week of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack ideas. We gave them an example that showed how your dinner on Monday night should be an element of your lunch or snack on Tuesday. If you cook chicken on Monday, have a Caesar salad with chicken on Tuesday for lunch.
“Helping the student-athletes make as many meals as possible with as few things as possible helps them to maximize their time. Shopping in bulk and cooking in bulk saves both time and money.”
The Bearkat student-athletes have found the program helpful and fun.
“The athletes are doing a great job,” Hess said. “We'll get comments about recipes they like and what's on the shopping list this week. It's helping them.”
Another important nutritional area is helping student-athletes who are seeking to gain weight and size.
“You don't want guys trying to get bigger by eating huge meals but not making great decisions on what they're eating,” Hess said. “You don't want them eating mac and cheese or hot dogs or snack like a kid would eat. We help them eat three substantial healthy meals a day.”
The programs to maximize sleep, good nutrition and hydration are paying dividends not only on the playing field but in the class room as well. During the fall semester in 2015, Sam Houston's student-athletes produced a record high department grade point average of 3.22. The Bearkats' total of 115 students honored from fall sports on the Southland Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll (3.0 GPA for the semester in which their team competes) was the highest in the league.
“Absolutely it's a team effort with the athletes, the coaches and the staff,” Hess said. “Nutrition, hydration and sleep is going to dictate almost every aspect of your life. If you want to be retaining the information you're learning and to be alert be present in classes, you have to have sleep. Proper nutrition is where you're energy is coming from so, if you want to be present in class you need energy from eating properly. You get a headache if you're dehydrated so it's clearly impacting your brain and body. We stress these things.
“In going to class we don't want the student-athletes fighting off exhaustion. We want to go to class with energy and the ability to retain all the work they're doing.”
Hess and Williams always have their eye on what the programs at the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 level are doing. The strength and conditioning staff continues to seek ways to enhance the Bearkat student-athlete experience at Sam Houston.
“Our next two goals are redoing some of the areas of our strength and conditioning areas to maximize our efforts here and starting fueling stations,” Hess said. “Fueling stations provide shakes, bars, fruit, trail mix and hydration for the student-athletes as they head to class or to study. Sleep, nutrition and hydration are key. What you eat and drink literally makes your body. We want to do what can to provide for our athletes in every way possible.”
Sam Houston's sports teams have combined to win five Southland Conference Commissioner's Cup All-Sports championships and 23 Southland individual sports team titles since 2005.
The support of Sam Houston alumni and friends through the Bearkat Champions Fund has been a major factor in this success. Bearkat Champion annual fund dollars go toward enhancing the student-athlete experience specifically in the areas of academic, athletic training and medical and strength and conditioning services as well as helping with the rising costs of tuition, room and board, equipment and travel and facilities.
Individuals may contribute directly to the Strength and Conditioning Enrichment Fund to support at Sam Houston student-athletes through the Bearkat Champions Fund.
