Riverside, Calif. (July 27, 2015) -- Competition is fierce in the NCAA sports fields and venues, so fierce that the competition is now expanding to the dining halls.   

California Baptist University was featured in the Summer 2015 issue of NCAA Champion magazine on the concept of LANCERS Fuel. (Read the entire article here.)   

The article describes steps universities are taking to get proper nutrition, also known as fuel, to their athletes.

Christopher Bates is CBU's director of athletic performance development and strength and conditioning coach. Shortly after he was hired in 2010, he noticed a trend toward properly fueling athletes on the Division I (D-I) level. He became convinced he could find a better way to fuel his athletes with fewer resources than the D-I schools.

Bates reached out to the school's nutrition and food sciences program, led by Dr. Margaret Barth. The two worked on this concept and together they launched the LANCERS Fuel guide.

The 36-page guide covers everything from food choices to hydration, sleep and much more. It is given to all student-athletes and features a map of locations of healthy food choices at campus dining halls.

"This guide focuses on equipping student-athletes to make the best diet and nutrition choices to optimize performance today - and for life," Barth said.

Barth has also held nutritional classes for student-athletes. This fall she and Bates will be offering a new one-credit-hour course based on LANCERS Fuel guide.   

"LANCERS Fuel guide is just the first phase in the student-athletes nutritional education," said Bates. "I definitely think it's a great platform just to continue to build our Lancers Fuel program and ultimately enhance our athletic performance development program."