EAS Teams with High School Coaches on Nutrition Alliance

Abbott’s Ross Products Division’s EAS brand has entered into a partnership with the National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA) to educate high school coaches and their student-athletes on the proper diet/nutrition and fitness strategies to enhance performance.

With steroid awareness and prevention a key priority, this partnership will build on NHSACA’s commitment to meeting the changing educational needs of athletic directors, coaches, and athletes. EAS is also utilizing the expertise of Athletes’ Performance, widely recognized as the world leader in training the top champions in professional sports, to provide its impressive world-class training and nutrition know-how to help get the right message to our nation’s high school athletes.

EAS, NHSACA and Athletes’ Performance have partnered together to create a sports nutrition ‘Center of Excellence’ to drive appropriate sports nutrition education and product offerings among student-athletes, coaches and parents. Founded in 1965, NHSACA supports more than 50,000 high school athletic directors, coaches and assistant coaches nationwide and the 5 million student-athletes they represent. The primary goal of the partnership is to empower coaches and their student athletes and fill the knowledge gap that exists between proper nutrition and enhanced performance. According to NHSACA’s Executive Director, Gary Makowicki, “the alliance goes beyond improving performance on the field; it’s also about improving lifestyle habits. Sure, we want our athletes to play longer and stronger; but we want them to live longer, stronger and healthier as well.”

Since its founding in 1990, EAS has prided itself on delivering high-quality, science-based sports nutrition shakes, bars and supplements that are safe and effective for athletes and fitness lifestylers to use to help enhance their physical performance. Additionally, EAS is the only company whose products have been certified as safe and free of banned substances by the National Football League and National Football League Players Association's (NFL/NFLPA) comprehensive supplement certification program. More than 1,200 professional football players in the United States, representing all the NFL’s 32 teams, use EAS-certified nutrition bars, shakes and other products to help achieve their nutrition goals. It is for these reasons that EAS has been named the exclusive sports nutrition partner of NHSACA.

As we know, healthy, balanced nutrition – combined with an appropriate exercise and training regimen – is the foundation for success in sports. Sports nutrition products can play a critical role in helping athletes meet required daily nutritional needs. These products contain the same macronutrients and micronutrients as conventional foods, including protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. In addition, some sports nutrition products provide convenient access to a wide spectrum of other dietary constituents – such as glucosamine or green tea extracts – enabling consumers to tailor their intake to meet individual endurance, strength, fitness or other goals.

Regulation for sports nutrition products falls under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Specifically, these products are a subcategory of foods covered under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), passed in 1994. EAS consistently works with the FDA to ensure appropriate standards for food safety and products meet or exceed FDA requirements.

Now more than ever, it is important to help athletes understand that they can achieve equally superior athletic results through proper nutrition and conditioning as they could achieve through steroid abuse – without risking their long-term health. Although high school-age athletes can best meet their nutritional needs through a balanced diet of whole foods, achieving a properly balanced diet can be difficult for many young athletes—due to their busy school schedules, the timing of their athletic practices, and, in some sports, the need for significant weight control. In these situations, sports nutrition bars and shakes—such as the EAS AdvantEdge brand—can provide high-quality, nutrient-dense, convenient nutrition on the go.

The partnership between EAS, NHSACA and Athletes’ Performance creates a unique opportunity to educate the public about the importance of proper nutrition for success in sports – and to explain why high-quality, science-based sports nutrition bars, shakes and related products can play an important role in achieving fitness and nutrition goals. “When it comes to making wise choices,” says Chris Scoggins, VP of Marketing EAS, “we need to take the proper message in to the locker room because that’s where the dialogue and decisions take place; and it is there that we can make a positive impact.”

Key marketing tactics will include live educational events at prominent athletic training facilities across the country; downloadable nutrition tips for coaches and their athletes on the NHSACA website (www.hscoaches.org); an “Ask the Expert” column; customized meal plans for in-season, off-season, pre-game and recovery for students and their parents; and other tools to measure nutritional needs and goals. The EAS materials will focus only on the brands’ complete nutrition line—AdvantEdge bars and shakes—not powders or supplements. NHSACA’s Director of Professional Sponsorships, Bill Purdy feels: “The nutritional commitment EAS and Athletes’ Performance has made to NHSACA will be far-reaching in its impact, both with X’s and O’s on the field, as well as overall, off-the-field health and lifestyle behavior.”

Athletes’ Performance will offer targeted tips, programs and other content through the NHSACA website, and will provide preferred access to NHSACA members to its Core Performance sport training programs, offered on its www.coreperformance.com website. Athletes’ Performance located in Tempe, Arizona and at the Home Depot National Training Center in Carson, California, trains top athletes and organizations including 8 NFL 2005 1st-round draft picks, numerous All-Stars across all major sports, the German Men’s National Soccer team, the US Women’s Olympic Soccer team, and other top professional teams. Athletes’ Performance president and founder Mark Verstegen also serves as the Director of Performance for the NFL Players Association, where he led the creation of the Accuracy in Labeling and Banned Substance Free process that has set the highest standard in sport for ethical training.

“We’re excited to partner with the NHSACA and EAS to offer our breakthrough and proven ethical solutions to high school coaches and athletes,” said Verstegen. “Many of our concepts are becoming widely known and practiced at the highest level of sport, but where they are needed most is at the high school level, where coaches lay the foundation for young athletes It is part of our organization’s heritage and mission to deliver ethical solutions and systems to high school athletes so they can make great decisions to achieve all of their goals.”