Friday, March 29, 2024
Home » News » Penn State Sports » The Women of Penn State Football, Part 2: Nutrition and Fitness

The Women of Penn State Football, Part 2: Nutrition and Fitness

You hear a lot about head coaches, assistant coaches and the idea of ever-growing support staffs across college athletics. Football is as much an arms race to collect actual on-field talent as it is growing a small army behind that talent. Walk into Penn State’s Lasch Building and you’re just as likely to see someone who doesn’t play football as you are someone who does.

In most cases, when talking about the nuts and bolts of a football program the conversation steers toward men. That’s not anything nefarious; it’s how the demographics of the sport play out. But for Penn State football — like many college football programs across America — women are rising through the ranks to positions of more and more power.

StateCollege.com sat down with 10 women with key roles throughout the Nittany Lion program. From nutrition and recruiting to James Franklin’s right hand [wo]man, the fabric and success of Penn State football is woven as much by the women in the building as the men. Here are their stories. 

This is the second in a three part series covering women within the Penn State football program. Broken into three parts the series will feature operations, strength/nutrition and recruiting. Today’s part two in the series will focus on strength and nutrition: Leanne Louden, Performance Dietitian and Athletic Trainer Tesa Johns-Bostick.

StateCollege.com: How would you describe your role within the program?

Leanne Louden: As a dietitian for the team I’m focusing on fueling education, performance on the field and how it is most effective to them view through fueling. We work with supplementation as far as different supplements if they’re injured, the prevention of injuries, anything with food and relating to food – that’s kind of the area we try and help them with. What I’ve taken a larger step and role in this year is educating my students and not just the student athletes, but our nutrition students on campus. So having them help with more hands at our fuel station or to help things go right during practice or games and educating them if they’ll be in this role one day.

Tesa Johns-Bostick: I’m an assistant athletic trainer so my roles have to do with injury prevention, injury diagnosis, all those things, kind of maintaining [student athletes’] athletic ability while they’re here.

SC: Your job didn’t exist until recently and was made with you in mind. How did that make you feel?

Louden: It definitely meant a lot and to hear that Coach Franklin valued and saw potential [in the position] and seeing him invest in nutrition and in me helped me want to give back more too. I think he builds a good environment for that, he invests a lot in his staff so it was cool. It was almost like a tunnel vision and that sense. I know we might not want to have tunnel vision but it’s just like, okay, I’m gonna do this. I was there just to work and contribute and I love what I do. And it was kind of one of the things that it was like, wow this is real.

SC: You grew up in Williamsport, is this surreal at all? Did you ever imagine you’d be part of Penn State football?

Johns-Bostick: This was the dream job. I thought I would hopefully get this job later in life, but it hit me pretty early in life, which I can’t be more happy for. So I did not imagine I would get this but here I am. I was a student under Coach Franklin and I left and got my masters at LSU and worked there with their football program. An opportunity opened back up here for kind of a 10 month job with football. I took that and then right away that transitioned me into applying for the assistant position once that opened and then I’ve been in this role ever since.

SC: What’s the hardest part of your job on a daily basis?

Louden: It’s honestly sometimes multitasking because my area is such a high traffic area. I’m talking to someone and then someone else is talking to me. So I’m trying to balance two conversations and then at the same time someone is yelling my name across this way. So it’s almost just like splitting my brain and like making sure my attention is in different spots to make sure that everyone is getting the answer that they need from whether it is.

Johns-Bostick: I guess my biggest challenge on a daily basis is making sure that players are heard, and that they’re not just a number, that they’re an individual and their needs are being met because you never know what they’re going through or how they’re perceiving their injury issue. So I think making sure that they’re communicating appropriately to us about what they’re feeling, what they need, and then we have to communicate that out to the masses. That’s a big reason why I do what I do, to be there with them through the whole process, even if it is, like you said just a bump and bruise. It’s the sport of football, they’re all dealing with something. … the impact I can make on them or helping them get through it. Are they playing through it? Are we going to have to take a new measure to help them play through it? It’s just the impact I can make on them and helping them understand their injury. And going back to what I was saying earlier, what they’re feeling that they need to be able to return to play.

Leanne Louden, photo via Penn State Athletics

SC: What’s it like seeing guys through a strength and nutrition program and come out the other side?

Louden: [So this senior class] and the year before, that was the first class I was really able to see [go all the way through] because I graduated college in 2017. So that’s when they all showed up. So seeing them mature and seeing them take leadership roles and seeing them ask more questions and become invested, seeing them through some of their highs and some of their lows. I remember Tariq Castro-Fields, when he was at his first like camp. He was like, oh my gosh, I don’t know about this. And then I just remember all these years later he’s like, I’m a vet now I got this. But I still remember that because of the way he grew up the way he learned and the way he had his highs and lows. I don’t have children but I feel like that’s what satisfaction parents get is like. I’m not trying to compare myself to their parents, I’m just saying seeing their growth [is rewarding].

I’m so happy for them. It’s not just the nutrition piece it’s everyone who had a part in that – it’s everyone who helped to get them there. The interdisciplinary team that helps like the strength coaches who they have great relationships with because they are with them just as much as the coaches are and sometimes even more in some cases. It’s that everyone is on your side kind of working together to get them to where they want to go. I’m happy for everyone who was a part of it.

SC: How do you think the sports science world and sports in general have grown over the years in the area of diet and nutrition.

Louden: I definitely think it’s gone in a positive way. And I think nationwide you see a lot more teams hiring football specific dietitians. And even just like other sports specific dietitians as far as like basketballs or baseball. Having someone like myself for this specific team and all the students that we help allows us to do more and coach is very supportive of nutrition. He’s very he’s invested in sees its potential and how it can help us on the field. And I think that’s very lucky, I guess on my own in my position to have a coach who supports you and wants the best for the players.

Tesa Johns-Bostick. Photo via Penn State Kinesiology

SC: Sean Clifford got hit pretty good at Auburn this year, what are trainers looking at every play or after a big hit like that?

Johns-Bostick: The immediate is watching them how they’re getting up, how they’re reacting. We’re staring at every hit. Our head athletic trainer always watches the line and us assistants rotate whether we’re offense, defense or special teams. So I’m watching everyone back to the sidelines. So mostly skill guys and stuff like that, but obviously you’re still catching those late hits. So I guess the first thing that runs through my mind is how are they getting up if they can get up? We have to wait for a ref to let us on the field but sometimes I’m not waiting because I’m seeing what’s going on. But as far as like, slow to get up, or you’re worried about maybe a concussion or something like that, there is someone in the press box that’s a third party entity that also radios down if they see anything that’s doesn’t look right. And luckily we are with these players so much and we know them very well that the moment something’s off about them, we’re on it and we can react.

SC: A favorite story?

Louden: We were in Florida at the Citrus Bowl and I was helping get the postgame snack which was pizza and supposedly it was in the stadium. This was before the game but when I was still transitioning [out of college prior to her current job]. I remember literally running around the stadium and trying to find this pizza place and this is the hottest day of Florida weather. Like I remember, we were giving our guys [hydration] out the wazoo. Everyone was sweating [the pizza place on the phone] was like, we need you to pay for this or we can’t do it. And I’m like, what? So I’m literally running around in my khaki shorts, my credential, looking lost and I’m like running sweating and trying to find this place. I finally found it.

SC: A favorite injury recovery process?

Johns-Bostick: PJ [Mustipher] I will continue to say has been one of my favorite athletes to rehab, his drive and just work ethic was amazing. He set the expectations so high, pushed me every day to make him better, telling me like, hey, this is easy, we gotta go. Some people may not have that drive and they just do what’s on their card and they go through it. He was an active participant in his rehab. The nature of his injury is really, really hard to come back from and the size of human that he is also makes that a challenge in itself. So being able to watch him go through the entire roller coaster of an injury. There’s so many times doubt hits an athlete and they’re like, I’m never gonna be able to play again, or am I gonna be able to play at the same level? They just start running these doubt through their minds and watching him hit that and then get up the next day because he’s like, nope [I’m going to power through]. To have the season he had and now he’s hoping for the NFL, he is just an example of what a guy should do and needs to do and he set the bar very, very high.

SC: How do we advance the role of women in sports and in your particular field. Nutrition and recovery seems to have more women than other areas in sports, but still, how do we take those next steps?

Johns-Bostick: I think it kind of starts with your your higher ups and your admin, and I believe that we do a phenomenal job here of diversifying our staff. Athletic training specifically, is a female profession. There’s a lot more females than males in the profession. Back in the day, it made sense for a male to be with a male sport because of locker rooms and the spaces weren’t as big and the amount of times a female has to be right in a locker room. Us as a society have changed a lot in some views on stuff like that, but I think now, there’s definitely an opportunity for inclusion. Our facility is completely separate from their locker room – things like that on the road, it can be challenging. We have to kind of have makeshift areas sometimes for myself…I do think it takes the right female to be in this setting. You have to have not a tougher skin, but you’ve got to have an open mindset with working with young males in a male heavy workplace. I think I personally feel that I’m needed in this space. I think that our guys are surrounded by males so much and they have to be a male dominant, you know, macho man, high testosterone, that some of these guys were a single mother and or you know, and they might relate to me more or they might feel that I hear them more. I personally think one female athletic trainer should always kind of be involved in professional college male athletics. But to make this a more open space, I think it just starts with admin and making sure that it is a safe space and that all needs are being met. But it’s just it’s just you got to work. Anything is about work ethic. And it doesn’t matter about gender at that point. If, if you’re not working hard enough, you’re never gonna get the job. I’ve never been a part of a program that hasn’t been inclusive for females though. So it’s kind of hard for me to say the negatives that some programs may have.

Louden: I see it in two ways. I feel like nutrition is a more female driven area. So in that aspect when I talk to other dietitians at other universities or we have breakouts, I’m used to having more of the female presence there. But then again, coming into football, that’s mostly male. So it’s interesting because the field I’m in is more female driven, but the subgroup I’m in is more male driven. So I would I would probably say more like just the networking and kind of working towards – some of our groups that I’ve been involved in we’ve talked about how to help support each other and how like to advocate for each other