BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University has teamed up with Market Basket to form the Market Basket Nutrition Center announced Director of Athletics Marco Born Monday morning. The center will be located in the Dauphin Athletics Complex.
 
"I'm very proud to announce our partnership with Market Basket in opening the nutrition center," said Born. "After meeting with our coaches and strength and conditioning staff we realized a need in terms of making sure our student-athletes were doing everything they could to best prepare themselves for competition and the classroom, and that includes their diet.
 
"We've had great support from Dr. Jill Killough and our nutrition and dietetics department on campus. Dr. Killough and her students have done a great job of educating our student-athletes of how to better take care of themselves," added Born.
 
Similar to how student-athletes work with the strength and conditioning staff to get faster and stronger, the Cardinals now also meet with nutrition students to educate athletes on how many calories and the right kind of calories to eat.
 
"Without nutrition you don't have the fuel you need to compete, and athletes need the proper fuel to compete on a high level," said Dr. Killough. "This is a very important part of their training that we didn't want to get overlooked. It is very beneficial for our athletes to see how nutrition can improve their performance."
 
"When I first got here I met with Dr. Amy Shows and Dr. Jill Killough from our nutrition department," said LU strength and conditioning coordinator Dan Darcy. "Those two really helped build the relationship with our department, but at the time we just didn't have a big platform to sell this idea outside of discussions with the athletes. Dr. Killough has since become the chair of the nutrition department and she is adamant about her students getting experience with the athletes. Now, our athletes not only have the proper foods and calories going into their bodies, but Dr.  Killough and her students are really helping us out. They're sharing their knowledge and education with our teams in a way that we just couldn't do in years past."
 
This new initiative really started to take shape after the arrival of Mike Schultz as head football coach. After evaluating his team, Schultz realized the Cards were undersized at several positions and something needed to be done from a nutrition standpoint. After the appointment of Born as Director of Athletics, the idea was fast tracked.
 
"Market Basket has supported Lamar University in many ways over the years through sponsorships and the Market Basket Charitable Foundation Scholarship Program," said Russell Saleme, Market Basket Food Stores Director of Sales and Marketing. "The opportunity to partner with the university, becoming the official grocery store of Lamar athletics was a natural fit and another way to support our community and its student-athletes. We are confident that the new partnership between Market Basket and Lamar University will be mutually beneficial."
 
The formation of the Market Basket Nutrition Center has been beneficial not only for the LU student-athletes, but also for the nutrition students as well.
 
"It has been wonderful to see our athletes put in the commitment to improving their nutrition," said Killough. "It has been equally important to our students as well. This experience gives them more confidence to practice after they graduate and begin their career."