It is not just about practicing and the  pre-game speeches that athletes need in order to perform well. Nutrition is a key essential for athletes in order to be at the top of their game, especially high school athletes that are still growing.

Playing sports requires a lot of energy, it is important to be eating enough calories in between practice and competition.

According to Livestrong.com, the amount of calories that athletes who exercise consistently every day depends on several factors. The three main factors include an athlete’s metabolic rate, their weight, and their height. The average high school athlete should consume at least 3,000 calories per day.

Senior Andrew Cardozo has played water polo since his freshmen year and takes his nutritional values very seriously.

“I think nutrition is definitely a big factor. What you eat definitely has a big impact on how you play.”

Two days before he has a water polo match, Cardozo eats a heavy protein meal, and then the day before he eats a heavy carbohydrate meal. Cardozo believes that what you eat should never be ignored if you are competitive athlete despite how hard you work.

“It doesn’t  matter how much you practice, if you don’t stay healthy, you’re gonna go downhill.”

Sophomore soccer player Brandon Cushieri is also a firm believer in eating right. He restricts himself from eating a lot of sugar and drinking soda.

“I used to drink soda and eat a lot of candy, then at the beginning of my freshmen year, I started to see if I stopped doing that it would probably reverse a lot of bad things that I noticed when I played.”

Cushieri likes to have pasta and salad before his soccer games.

Freshman track athlete Gabrielle Dimick knows she has to keep up with her nutrition on a day to day basis as well as training hard.

“I think it’s important to balance both nutrition and training, especially for distance runners, before a race they should eat healthy because you don’t want to throw up during your race.”

As a young female athlete, Dimick also believes eating a lot of carbohydrates and proteins prior to competing.

“I eat carbs before I compete and the day of a race I eat something light like oatmeal.”

Freshman football player and track athlete Sami Makaffi has similar essentials for both football season and track season.

“I have seen some people that don’t eat enough before football games, and you can tell they look tired and don’t want to try as hard.”

Makaafi notices how weak he feels if he doesn’t  hydrate or eat enough calories before track meets.
“If I don’t drink enough water or eat any power bars then I usually feel tired and can’t focus enough.”

Nutrition does not only affect an individual athlete, it can affect the the team as a whole during games.

“You can tell when someone eats poorly and it affects the way they play, which causes the rest of the team to pick up the slack during a game,” stated Cardozo.

Every athlete has their own opinion on their nutrition and their own personal routine of what they eat before practice and before they compete. It can have a different impact depending on the type of athlete and what sport they play.

Whether you are playing football or running track, you have to make sure you eat right and get enough hydration and sleep in order to perform at maximum.