Clint Wattenberg has been hired as Virginia Tech’s associate athletics director of sports nutrition, as announced Wednesday by Danny White.
A distinguished professional in sports nutrition, Wattenberg brings over 20 years of experience to Blacksburg.
“Clint is very well-respected in the field of sports nutrition and brings elite experience to Virginia Tech,” said White, a senior associate athletics director for the Hokies. “Between his time at the UFC and Cornell, he has provided world-class care to a wide variety of sport disciplines. We have an incredible staff at Virginia Tech and the addition of Clint will significantly enhance our high-performance model and care for all our student-athletes.”
With the Hokies, Wattenberg will oversee all nutrition and performance matters of Virginia Tech student-athletes. His responsibilities include integrating performance nutrition into Virginia Tech’s comprehensive performance services, which includes providing nutrition education, individual counseling, menu development, body composition analysis and teaching student-athletes nutrition for life after sport. Additionally, he will manage the Student-Athlete Performance Center, a state-of-the-art dining facility for student-athletes.
“I have been inspired by the unique commitment to holistic student-athlete performance from every Hokies coach, performance staff member and administrator that I’ve had the opportunity to meet,” Wattenberg pointed out. “I am absolutely thrilled to join Virginia Tech to contribute to the already exceptional sports nutrition and overall performance support staff.
“I also want to thank Whit Babcock, Danny White and the entire search committee for trusting in me to contribute to and grow the role of performance nutrition at Virginia Tech. I fully expect the Hokies to be a standard of excellence when it comes to developing exceptional student athletes, and their championship performances, for many years to come!”
Wattenberg was previously the director of performance nutrition for the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada. While in this role, he oversaw four registered dietitians and four performance chefs in supporting UFC athletes through an interdisciplinary high performance care model.
Wattenberg joined UFC following six years in two nutrition-based roles at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. After becoming a registered dietitian in 2010, Wattenberg joined Cornell’s athletics department as the Big Red’s eating disorder specialty nutritionist in 2011. In 2013, he added the role of sports nutrition coordinator, holding both positions until April of 2017.
Before becoming a dietitian, Wattenberg was an assistant wrestling coach at Cornell (2004-06), followed by two years (2006-08) competing as a member of Team USA’s men’s freestyle national wrestling team.
A native of Chico, California, he earned his bachelors in human biology, health and society from Cornell University in 2003 and his masters in exercise physiology from Ithaca College in 2008. As an undergrad at Cornell, Wattenberg was a member of the Big Red wrestling program, where he was a two-time NCAA Division I All-American. He was inducted into Cornell’s athletics hall of fame in 2013.
Wattenberg is married to fellow Cornell alum Sarah Wattenberg, who most recently was assistant athletics director of sport performance at UNLV. The couple has a daughter, Payton (11), and a son, Landon (9).
What They’re Saying…
“Clint is a trailblazer and a visionary in the field of sports nutrition. He is a strong clinician who athletes genuinely like to be around, which makes his nutrition programming incredibly effective. Additionally, he is a very collaborative leader who will inspire the staff around him to think differently in order to elevate the health and performance of Virginia Tech student-athletes.”
~ Katie Knappenberger, Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association President
“I consider Clint to be one of the top sports dietitians in the world. His experience as a collegiate athlete and coach, along with his knowledge base, will let him provide the education and services needed to develop Virginia Tech student-athletes. His organizational leadership will be a great asset to both the sports nutrition department and athletics department as a whole. This hire will be a competitive advantage for Virginia Tech.”
~ Scott Sehnert, Director of Sports Performance, Dallas Cowboys
VT Athletics
