Myles McHaney IV ’24 was a solid athlete and player on the field at Prairie View A&M University, and he was in the gym honing his strength and conditioning daily. But when he noticed that Agletics, a collaboration between the University’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) and Athletics Department, had shown up to football practice with fruit as a post-practice snack, it got his attention.
He’d be the first to tell you he wasn’t the fastest player on the field. But once he dialed in on what fueled him best, everything changed. Agletics was the start of a journey for Myles that helped him elevate his athleticism and skill on the field by focusing on what he was doing off the field first.
Myles became Agletics’ first student ambassador. Food, hydration and laser focus on bioindividuality helped him launch a career that has taken him from Prairie View’s gridiron to professional football in Brazil, and on to the United Football League’s Memphis Showboats.
“According to the NCAA, fewer than 2% of college football student-athletes advance to play professionally after their collegiate careers. His success is a testament to the Agletics approach to precision nutrition, an educational program designed to meet each athlete’s needs,” said Dr. TeKedra Pierre, founder of PVAMU Agletics and director of the Information, Impact, and Sustainability Center (IISC) for CAFNR.
Agletics continues to run “Wellness Wednesdays,” an initiative that began with fruit and nutrition education on the practice field and is now a weekly tradition at Panther Stadium, supported by PVAMU’s Extension Wellness in Houston.
The program has expanded through partnerships with PVAMU’s Meat Science Center for Innovation (MSCI) and Ratcliff Premium Meats, which now provides weekly meals for the football team in collaboration with Director of Football Performance Tommie Moore. Ratcliff also partnered with Coach Tremaine Jackson and his staff on a team-building retreat for the football coaches.
Through these efforts, PVAMU aims to provide on-site nutrition education and food demonstrations that support healthy eating habits on and off the field.
“When we first started Wellness Wednesdays, we envisioned it as an opportunity to directly connect with the players, educate them, and provide hydration in real time,” Pierre said. “There was an immediate impact on 105 student-athletes, and it’s only grown since then. We observed behavior changes from the first practice to the last, with many trying new fruits for the first time. The behavior changes at practice will lead to changes in the cafeteria, at home, and in communities.”
That success with precision nutrition is at the heart of the goal of Agletics: increasing agricultural literacy through the lens of sports.
“Sports are a universal language, like math or music,” Pierre said. “Our goal is to get everyone to understand the connection between nutrition and performance. Agletics is not just for student-athletes; it’s for everyone. Performance is not just on the field, it’s the push-pull-squat of everyday living.”
Pierre emphasized that the impact of studying nutrition truly is a ripple effect, as Myles’ story shows.
A Ripple Effect: Student Ambassadors
Following in Myles’ footsteps as Agletic’s new ambassador is Jalyn Dennis, a first-year nutrition major from Atlanta who plays soccer. She dreams of becoming a sports dietician to help athletes maximize performance through personalized nutrition plans and accessible food options. Hand in hand with her dietician ambitions is a vision to create a quick-service restaurant model that offers the speed and convenience of fast food without the unhealthy additives.
“If we can teach student-athletes about the connection, ultimately they will share with teammates, classmates, friends, and when they go home, parents, siblings, grandparents, and others in their lives,” Pierre said. “Agletics is a lifestyle. Agletics is an opportunity for CAFNR to utilize its research and resources to strengthen nutrition education and support sustainable, healthy lifestyles for everyone.”
Pierre noted that gaps in the literature exist for student-athletes and experiential learning, particularly in a post-COVID world. “The systems we had in place need to be reimagined and upgraded for the new ‘student-aglete.’ Agletics fills this gap. Agletics is poised to be a national model for student-athlete success.”
