by Although training and competition experience seem to play the most important role in becoming an elite athlete, it is the elements that lie beneath the surface that allow athletes to excel.
In December 2023, the Ithaca College athletic department announced the hiring of Shira Evans ’06 as a sports nutrition consultant. Since being introduced to the program, Evans has worked with nearly every varsity team on campus in culinary workshops and sports-specific nutrition programs.
Susan Bassett ’79, associate vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics, said that sports nutrition is an area of performance that she has been trying to increase since she herself returned to the athletic department. Similar to the Leadership Academy curriculum offered to student-athletes at the college, Bassett said Evans will be a readily available resource.
“It’s like having Greg Shelley as a leadership consultant,” Bassett said. “Now, Shira Evans is a consultant for nutrition and sports performance. A few things were aligned and I think it was an area that I felt we needed to improve, so we decided to give Shira a try and so far the feedback has been so positive.”
Evans’ recruiting is relatively rare in collegiate sports. Evans is the first officially listed nutritionist on any Liberty League team. What is even more remarkable is that the employment of a nutrition specialist is not universal in Department l. Of the 65 Power Five schools in Division l, 61 have a sports dietitian, and only 31 non-Power Five schools have one team.
Evans is an expert in the fields of relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S), disordered eating and eating disorder care. She said that apart from the workshops she has done with teams, she is also a resource available to individual athletes.
“I’ll be able to support student-athletes for any type of nutrition-related concern,” Evans said. “Say an athlete is going through ACL reconstructive surgery, nutrition has a big impact. Or maybe they are an athlete struggling with many nutritional deficiencies or RED-S and need support with that. Any nutrition concerns, they can meet with me one-on-one confidentially.”
Prior to hiring Evans, the athletic department hosted a nutrition webinar for athletes at the beginning of each semester. Bassett said that while many of the meetings were beneficial, the content was becoming outdated and Evans’ practice will keep the program more current.
A former collegiate athlete herself, having competed for the Bombers’ cross country and track and field teams, Evans said being able to give back to the athletic community is what she enjoys most about her job.
“I’ve also had my trials and tribulations in learning how to figure out what works best for me in terms of performance, and I think it’s so fun to support athletes from all different backgrounds and sports,” a Evans said. “Being able to educate and empower them, whether it’s a performance goal or helping improve their own relationship with food or their body as an athlete. Working with student-athletes is incredibly rewarding.”
Jennifer Potter ’92, head coach of the women’s track and field team, coached Evans during her time as an athlete. The two reunited in June 2023 when Potter and Erin Dinan, head coach of the women’s cross country team, attended a women’s in sports conference in Boston, Massachusetts.
Potter then said she and Dinan began picking Evans’ brain about how she might interact with college athletes and the specific issues they noticed.
“We went to lunch with her and put in more like, ‘Hey, how would you do this for us?’ And that’s how the conversation started,” Potter said. “We were thinking at one point maybe we could bring her in, maybe bring someone else in, but the more we met Shira, the more we were like, ‘Wow, if we could get her on board with our section she would. a huge asset.”
From there, Potter said the men’s and women’s cross country, track and field and swimming and diving teams joined together in fundraising efforts to get Evans to visit campus late in the fall semester. When she arrived, she met with those six teams, the athletic training staff, the medical staff, the head trainers and the strength and conditioning staff.
Potter said Evans’ programs were both sport and event specific, which is especially important in a sport like track and field.
“I think that’s what makes her very unique,” Potter said. “We did a session with our endurance athletes and then we did a session with our strength athletes separately. There are so many great topics she can cover.”
Beginning in January, Evans began holding those sport-specific workshops with more varsity teams on campus. First-year student Ainsley Grant, a member of the college’s field hockey team, said her team joined Evans for a cooking workshop and nutrition presentation. She said the workshops allowed her staff to become more comfortable talking about and working with food.
“We were given a few breakfast recipes to choose from and we chose pancakes and smoothies,” Grant said. “Shira was there to guide us, but it was very student led. It was meant 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 be a big jump in workload for many athletes. As a first-year student, Grant said the workshops with Evans have helped her find the fuel she needs for the amount of training she’ll last.
“I’m in the dining hall thinking, ‘What is this meal going to do for my body and what can I add to it to better nourish my body?'” Grant said. “We’ve been in the dining hall picking out meals and thinking, ‘It’s got good proteins, it’s got good fats,’ so I think we’re all more cautious because of her.”
As disordered eating becomes more common among female athletes, Grant said Evans’ professionalism on the subjects has helped her teammates feel more comfortable asking questions about how to fuel adequately for practice and competition.
“I know with female athletes, it can be a complicated matter,” Grant said. “There are a lot of body image issues and there is a standard of what a female athlete should look like, and [Evans] he was really emphasizing that you can eat what you want. She emphasized snacking and really fueling up before practice, and my team really took that to heart. We are all very grateful to her.”
Returning to her alma mater, Evans said she feels a personal connection to the college’s athletic program and looks forward to giving back to athletes like herself.
“When I was a student-athlete, I think the general student-athlete population needed so many resources for so many reasons,” Evans said. “It’s really exciting to be able to give back in that capacity, to work with current athletes and give them this kind of resource. I think this is something that any kind of school needs.”
