Jake Blattner was working for Agropur in La Crosse in his first job after graduating from Viterbo when he received a call out of the
blue from Florida State University. The person on the phone offered him a position as a sports dietitian in the athletics department.
Being a sports dietitian in Florida just happened to be Blattner’s dream job and location at the time, so after quickly recovering from the initial surprise, he accepted. The whole thing was finalized in a matter of hours.
“Viterbo played a huge part in my getting that job,” Blattner said. “As a student, I had an internship at Princeton University, and the dietitian there knew the dietitian at Florida State.”
Blattner worked for the Seminoles for three years and earned a master’s degree in exercise physiology while employed there. He then accepted a position at the University of Nebraska, where he has served since 2018.
“The University of Nebraska is the mecca of sports nutrition,” Blattner said. “We have been the national leader in the field since the profession was essentially created here in the mid-1990s.”
Every student-athlete at the University of Nebraska is fed three carefully designed meals a day and each team has its own sports dietitian. Blatter works primarily with the men’s basketball team, traveling everywhere with them and managing the players nutritional needs and intake. Nebraska sports dietitians do advanced practices such as scientific sweat analysis, breaking down what athletes are losing during practices and competitions.
“I love what I do,” said Blattner, who also noted the University of Nebraska’s state of the art facilities. “It’s incredibly rewarding, and I am very fortunate to be in my position.”
The field of sports nutrition has experienced tremendous growth in the past decade.
“When I started at Viterbo in 2011, there were maybe 10 full-time sports dietitians in the country,” Blattner said. “Now there are that many just at the University of Nebraska.”
A wrestler and three-sport athlete in high school, Blattner was always interested in sports nutrition. The wrestling community was a close one, and he got to know the son of Viterbo faculty member and dietetics chair Karen Gibson, which led him to the university. He earned a degree in community medical dietetics, and greatly appreciated that the Viterbo program was designed for students to complete their supervised practice hours before graduation.
“I had no idea at the time how fortunate I was to attend Viterbo,” he said. “And the La Crosse community was great. I’ve traveled to places like Italy and Spain for work with the basketball team and dined in five-star restaurants, and now I go to La Crosse on vacation.”
Blattner now also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Viterbo, teaching a course in sports nutrition each summer.
“The reason I do that is to give back,” he said. “I want to help the next generation know what it takes to be successful in the field. Those connections with other professionals are important and are often the key to getting your foot in the door.”