For the Love of the Game: Chandler Knox
Author: Vanessa Beeson
Chandler Knox (Photo by Georgia Tech Athletics)
For Chandler Knox, a love of both sports and nutrition led the way to his current position as sport dietitian for the Georgia Tech Athletic Association.
"I loved sports growing up and always knew as a kid I wanted to be involved in sports in some way," he said.
The Atlanta resident grew up in Birmingham and his family moved to Atlanta when he was in high school. He played baseball and football as a child and wrestled in high school. When it came time to attend college, a visit to MSU sealed the deal for Knox.
"I fell in love with MSU on a visit—the whole bulldog family atmosphere hit home for me. I also knew I wanted to go to a school that had football Saturdays. MSU checked all the boxes for me," he said.
He earned a bachelor's in food science, nutrition and health promotion with a food and nutrition concentration in 2016 and master's in the same subject with a health promotion concentration in 2019. He volunteered with MSU Sports Nutrition as an undergrad from 2013-2014. In 2016, he matched to the MSU Dietetic Internship with the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion. He then organized a sports nutrition rotation within the dietetic internship, which opened the door for employment at Georgia Tech.
"Everything I focused on, even in college, was performance-based," he said. "In addition to my own focus on performance, the food science and nutrition foundation I learned at MSU makes me a more effective practitioner."
While Knox always loved sports, it was his time as a high school wrestler that really got him thinking about nutrition.
"As a high school wrestler myself, I know these young athletes don't always have the tools they need to make good decisions," he said.
The experience informed his dietetic internship research project, which resulted in a published paper in The Sport Journal.
"I focused on high school wrestlers and wrestling coaches, their knowledge of and behavior toward nutrition including weight cutting tactics. I learned that we need to rely on dietitians to educate these student-athletes and their coaches," he said.
A typical day at Georgia Tech has Knox working with the sports team and conducting one-on-one counseling sessions with student-athletes as he helps the players get the fuel they need for the performance they desire.
"With football, for instance, we're there for performance fueling beforehand, during practice as a resource, and immediately after practice, to make sure they're recovering properly," he said. "Counseling sessions run the gamut from student-athletes who know about nutrition and want to prep meals for themselves to student-athletes who've never considered nutrition as a factor that affects performance. I try to meet the individual wherever they are in the process and guide them from there."
Knox noted while Georgia Tech has 17 sports, there are only two dietitians so oftentimes he and his supervisor divide and conquer.
"We work on football together, I cover women's basketball, she covers men's basketball, and we tag team the rest," he explained.
On game days, he's always on the sidelines whether that's at home or on the road.
"I'm at every game on the sideline. It's a lot of observation. You do a lot of the work beforehand, you know through weight charting or camps what to look out for to make sure the players have the fuel they need to perform well on the field or court," he said.
Knox says his favorite part of his job is the relationship building.
"The relationship building is huge for me. While nutrition may not be the reason we win, seeing someone you're working with go through actual changes in their behavior and see results because of it—either by getting faster or stronger—is extremely rewarding," he said.
Date: 2022-02-02
