Hokie ClubA foundational aspect of a person’s mental health derives from their nutrition. Clint Wattenberg knows that better than anyone.
“Nutrition impacts student-athlete mental health in a lot of ways,” Wattenberg said. “The energy our student-athletes consume fuels not just what we see on the court or field, but also the internal systems that regulate mood and well-being. If an athlete is consistently under-fueled, their mental health can be directly compromised as a result.”
Wattenberg serves as Virginia Tech's Associate Athletics Director of Sports Nutrition, overseeing the Hokie sports dietitian staff that supports more than 500 Hokie student-athletes as well as directly serving volleyball, wrestling and softball. That work is anchored in the Student-Athlete Performance Center, a dining hall exclusive to Hokie student-athletes located adjacent to Cassell Coliseum. The Chico, California native arrived in Blacksburg in 2023, bringing a diverse collection of experiences: time as a member of Team USA’s freestyle national wrestling team, served as an eating disorder specialty nutritionist and sports nutrition coordinator at Cornell, and worked as director of performance nutrition for the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas.
A former wrestler for Cornell, Wattenberg provides a unique perspective on the link between a student-athlete’s mental well-being and daily nutrition. That perspective was forged, in part, through personal struggle.
“My journey as a student-athlete was bumpy,” he said. “As a collegiate wrestler, I could argue no sport requires more nutritional strategy. I was struggling to apply what I was learning in the classroom to training and competition on the mat. As I grew out of my weight class in my time at Cornell, I was undernourished, and I had all the signs and symptoms of an under-fueled student-athlete, including overtraining, chronic fatigue, and nagging soft tissue injuries.”
At the end of that sophomore season, Wattenberg had a frank conversation with his coaches about what made sense for his future. He moved up from 165 to 184 pounds, thrived, and became a two-time All-American. But the more lasting outcome was the clarity it gave him about his life’s work.
“Being able to compete at my best was a new opportunity when I was well nourished,” he said. “That really drove me to refine performance nutrition for all athletes. I found a real passion for those at higher risk for under-fueling and disordered eating, to emphasize fueling as a health and performance opportunity rather than something to be manipulated for short-term perceived benefits.”
That philosophy shapes how Wattenberg and his staff approach every interaction with Hokie student-athletes. A significant part of their work involves cutting through the noise student-athletes absorb outside of training, particularly from social media.
“Food and diets are oftentimes presented, particularly on social media, as either good or bad,” Wattenberg said. “There’s a lot of judgment associated with it. We try to break it down to the science and the physiology. We want our student-athletes to focus on food when it’s time to focus on it and not have to obsess over it.”
Student-athletes in 2026 face stressors that prior generations simply didn’t encounter at the same scale. Social comparison has always existed, but TikTok and NIL have sharpened it in ways that can quietly erode a young student-athlete’s relationship with food and body image.
“Collegiate student-athletes are always going to feel social pressures,” he said. “But those are dramatically amplified in the social media age. TikTok is the primary driver of that with college students today. And the pressures of NIL can further push student-athletes, largely our female students, to present themselves in a way they feel is marketable, but also undermines self-care and mental health.”
Wattenberg collaborates closely with Virginia Tech Athletics’ Counseling and Mental Performance (CAMP) staff, and he describes that relationship as one of the most important in the support network surrounding a student-athlete.
“When food and body concerns arise, communication between nutrition and our psych team is so instrumental,” he said. “We need a shared understanding of how our student-athletes may be struggling or otherwise interacting with their environment, and a consistent, collaborative effort in supporting them.”
That shared effort extends beyond the nutrition and sport psychology offices. One of the clearest things Wattenberg said he has learned since arriving at Virginia Tech is how wide the circle of influence actually is.
“Every single person a student-athlete interacts with has an opportunity to impact that athlete in some way,” he said. “We can create an environment where student-athletes are protected from the toxicity they may be experiencing elsewhere, whether it’s social media or family or otherwise. Or we can create a toxic culture. We’ve seen with USA Gymnastics and others how that breeds a lot of issues around food and body. That’s why collaboration across the entire performance team and beyond is so key.”
At its core, Wattenberg’s approach is built on a refusal to treat performance and well-being as competing priorities.
“The question we always wrestle with is: are we pushing performance at the expense of mental health and body image, or are we so focused on self-care that performance suffers?” he said. “What we work hard to do here at Virginia Tech is hold both. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”