A local youth football program takes a unique and holistic approach to improving the health of its players and their families.
Coastal Outreach Soccer launched a pilot health and nutrition program for its players this year that aims to track their health in a variety of ways and educate them about healthy and productive lives.
The program is a collaboration between numerous health professionals and offers a comprehensive approach to improving the health and wellbeing of COS players.
“Our goal is to do this over several years so we can see if there is a pattern,” said Shawn Williams, founder and director of COS. “This is a prevention program.”
It also benefits the children’s entire families, he said.
The program currently looks after around 35 students and is financed by scholarships.
The focus is on improving the nutrition of the players, tracking their stress and sleep patterns, analyzing their physical health and performance on the field, and educating them about how these components work together to affect everyone’s overall success.
“The program seeks to address and meet all of children’s daily needs, including education, minimizing stress, and maximizing a healthy mind and body to do the best they can,” said Jesse DeNello, a longtime COS supporter whose expertise lies in movement science.
DeNello studies players’ energy levels using handheld devices that monitor heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate, and other exercise variables.
Players also wear instruments on their shoes that track how far they move, how many steps they take, and how fast they walk.
“The coaches use several things to collect this information so that we can make a decision about how the game will affect the players and how the players will affect the game while they are playing,” said DeNello. “But we also monitor other health variables, such as resting heart rate and blood pressure, so we know that the players are healthy and can function normally.”
Dr. Jarrod Reynolds, a Charleston pediatrician, grew up in public housing in Brunswick and has worked with Williams for many years to improve the lives of the community’s youth.
He is now helping develop training protocols that focus on all aspects of player health, including physical, mental, and nutritional health. He also monitors their stress hormones to see how stress affects them academically, personally, and athletically.
Reynolds grew up in a single household and his mother was often ill during his childhood.
“As she went in and out of the hospital, it kind of turned me into medicine to try to improve the quality of life for the individual,” he said.
He saw firsthand the difference proper nutrition can make to a growing child.
“Diet is important,” he says. “You have children who may be like me, the only meal you really got all day was your lunch and, of course, some dinner, but it was meager. Your family could afford that. “
Students will also go through sleep assessments and begin wearing Fitbits in January, which will monitor their resting heart rate, sleep patterns, and other non-soccer activities.
Dr. Danielle Shelton, founder of the nonprofit Clean Your Plate, offers weekly products for students and their families, as well as nutritional education and culinary demonstrations designed to support healthy eating at home.
A week’s meal included sugar peas, broccoli, onions, peppers, bean sprouts, baby corn, and mushrooms.
During a recent cooking demonstration, the students learned about the Mediterranean diet and practiced the preparation of pan-fried dishes.
“You’ll also learn why what you eat is healthy, why olive oil is good for you as opposed to maybe vegetable or peanut oil, and how to taste good,” Shelton said.
This part of the program also addresses the food insecurity of some families who may not have the financial means or access to buy fresh food on a regular basis.
Viewing food as medicine is an effective way of improving health for all ages, which is often a more cost-effective approach.
Food insecurity has also been proven to have a significant impact on student performance in school, Shelton said, and children who grow up with food insecurity have higher rates of ADHD and other problems.
“If you intervene now, you have a chance to avoid diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease,” she said. “You have the ability to get better at school. They also have the opportunity to influence their entire family – their brothers, their sisters, their parents, in a truly family-oriented approach. “
A registered nutritionist also works with the program to ensure that students have better access to the foods they need to improve their performance in school, in the field and in other areas of their life.
The Medical College of Georgia has also provided feedback and guidance on the overall program, Williams said.
Clean Your Plate is holding a fundraiser on December 2nd to support the COS health and nutrition program. To learn more about the event, visit cleanyourplaterx.org.
The aim is to increase the reach of the program through increased funding so that more students can benefit from it.
“The idea is to help participants not only on the soccer field, but also in their daily lives, to provide them with healthy alternatives and healthy outcomes,” said DeNello.
