Two stories -- one from Cougfan May 21 2018 and other from Evergreen Sept 21 2017) -- about chef Raul Vera and the exceptional work he and his staff do feeding/fueling Washington State University Cougar student-athletes.
Photo and cutline from WSU Evergreen. Story (scroll down
to read it) from Sept 9, 2017. Photo by Keisha Brokaw. Photo cutline: “Senior
Executive Chef Raul Vera preparing a tray of salmon for Thursday’s lunch in the
Gary W. Legends Lounge.”
……………
This story below from Cougfan.com May 21, 2018. Scroll
down to read Evergreen story from Sept. 9, 2017.
WSU has
powerful recruiting tool in Executive Chef Raul Vera
By Barry Bolton
Cougfan.com 5/21/2018
EVER SINCE 2014, when the NCAA deregulated what schools
could provide in the way of food to its student-athletes, nutrition programs
have quickly become a new frontier in recruiting. At Washington State, the Cougs have a
powerful recruiting tool in executive chef Raul Vera.
Vera’s enthusiasm for food, nutrition and all things
crimson came through loud and clear in a recent interview with
Cougfan.com. His impact goes far beyond
serving the high-value food used to fuel WSU’s 450-plus student-athletes.
“I usually do the recruiting dinners, for all sports,
when they bring in an athlete. And I do speak to the athletes, I tell them what
we’re doing here and emphasize how we fuel the body -- that it’s not about
feeding you, it’s about fueling you … I teach them how they have enough fuel in
the beginning, the middle and the biggest part is to make sure they finish.
Hydration is a big part of that, and the full circle of it is the edge we can
give to our student-athletes,” said Vera.
WASHINGTON STATE INVESTS $1.5 million each year on its
nutrition program, serving lunch and dinner to the 450-plus student-athletes in
The Gray W Jack Thompson Legends Lounge Monday through Thursday, along with
nutritional fueling stations where they can pick up breakfast and healthy snacks.
The motto spelled out above the serving area in the
lounge: Fuel · Train · Dominate. And educating student-athletes about food and
the value of nutrition is the No. 1 goal, says Vera.
“They just had a shopping class,” said Vera. “They’re
taught that you stay on the outer edges of the store, don’t go down the middle
aisles except for hygiene, everything you need is going to be on the outer
edge. We have quite a few who come from different regions, different areas of
the United States and overseas. So our goal here is to make sure we teach them;
‘I’m not feeding you, I’m fueling you -- so everything you eat is going to fuel
you physically and mentally. We want no wasted product in your body.’”
Still, there are challenges.
“The hardest part is you have young men and women who
(grew up eating fast food) and it’s not their fault,” said Vera. “Our goal is
to break them of that habit. There’s a reason I’m feeding you the kale. The
kale is going to help you that if you do get injured, you’re going to heal a
lot quicker – same thing with the antioxidants in all the fruits and vegetables
we give them ... We are a learning institution so we can’t just take food away
from them, we have to teach them about it.
“My big thing is I always have plastic spoons in my
pocket. Because you can’t tell me you don’t like it until you try it, so I’ll
make sure they taste it. And you’d be
surprised at how they put that dish on their plate afterwards.”
VERA OVERSEES A staff of four including an executive sous
chef. He “supplements any gaps” with the help of 18 student staff members. All of WSU’s student-athletes follow into one
of three categories, Vera said: weight loss, sustaining weight or gaining
weight. He closely monitors it all to make ensure the right amounts of protein,
carbs and good fats are being provided.
“When football season comes around in August and camp
starts, we have to get about 8,000 calories in them per day. And some of them are still losing weight so
we have to up that on some even more. Right now, it’s running and lifting so we
take that back down to about 5,000 calories per day,” said Vera.
And it isn’t only football players who can pack it away.
“You’d be surprised, the women actually eat more than the
men do at times, especially the cross country team and the track team, they all
need the leaner carbs, the protein and the good fats. A lot of people would
think the football player is the guy that’s going to eat the most but you’d be
surprised what some of these women athletes do,” said Vera.
AS FOR THE ‘top seller’ at dinner, Vera said there are
several but two main dishes he mentioned: the chili verde and the cowboy
ribeye, the latter featuring a salt, pepper and coffee rub. A typical pregame
meal the night before a game or match starts with the leaner meats.
“I’ll give them an 8 ounce tenderloin steak, we’ll do
chicken breast, pasta with marinara, a baked potato. Sometimes I’ll give them
some shrimp … we’ll give them chicken noodle soup, and salad bar for sure.
We’ll have two veggies and we’ll do some kind of rice as well,” said Vera.
BEFORE VERA CAME to WSU in 2015, he served as the
executive chef at Oregon State as well as Western Washington. He also owned his
own restaurant in Oregon.
“The cooking part comes from when I was about
nine-years-old,” said Vera. “I used to hand with my mom in the kitchen … we had
all the family gatherings at our house … she started catering weddings,
quintineras and I was always by her and my father’s side and they were always
showing me everything about the food.
“The training table up here at the Thompson Lounge, I
call it the safe place. It’s up to me and my staff to make sure these young
athletes feel at home. We have quite a few of them who come from far away and
so also when the parents come in, I make sure they understand this is a safe
place for them, a safe home for them. And what better can I make them feel at
home than with food. There’s nothing like being a Coug.”
……………
Experienced chef completely focused on WSU athletes
By DYLAN GREENE, Evergreen, Sept 15 2017
Fuel. Train. Dominate. A three-word mantra that overlooks
WSU athletes as they are served food inside the Gray W Legends Lounge.
Raul Vera, senior executive chef of WSU Athletics, runs
the kitchen inside the lounge. He and his staff provide the student-athletes
with the fuel they need to compete.
“We just want to make sure they are fueled and ready to
dominate,” Vera said.
Vera and his staff serve lunch and dinner to the athletes
Monday through Thursday each week. The rest of his time is spent either
preparing pregame meals for the athletes or hosting and serving food to WSU
alumni and donors on Cougar football gamedays.
Despite the time commitment, Vera, 57, said he enjoys
interacting with the players every day.
“This is what fuels my fire, you know the young people,”
Vera said. “They are very appreciative, and it’s good to see what our next
generation is going to be like.”
Vera first started cooking when he was nine years old.
His mother taught him how to cook, and Vera credits her for the cooking style
he uses now.
At that young age, he told his mother that someday, he
would own a restaurant. Sure enough in 1990, Vera and his wife opened a Mexican
restaurant in La Grande, Oregon.
The restaurant served healthy, authentic Mexican food
with fresh ingredients from farms in the area, he said.
“We were the first ones to come out with a healthy
concept,” he said.
After eight years, the chef and his wife moved the
restaurant to Bellingham. They then decided to sell the business so they could
spend more time with their three boys.
In Bellingham, Vera got hired as a lead dinner cook at
Western Washington University. Within a year, he worked his way up to Executive
Chef.
Oregon State University noticed and hired Vera as their
own Executive Chef in 2005. He was eventually promoted to Culinary Director of
the Athletic Program at OSU.
Vera worked in the Beavers’ program for 10 years before
his contract ended. He essentially became a free agent in the Pac-12 market.
Not wanting to leave what he was doing, Vera accepted a
job at WSU to continue working with student-athletes. He had job offers from
other universities, but Pullman was at the top of his list.
“It wasn’t in desperation I came here, it wasn’t a second
choice, this was my first choice,” he said. “I had other opportunities that I
could have taken, but this is where God brought me.”
Now, Vera serves the athletes at WSU, making sure they
are properly fueled for gameday.
A pregame meal for the athletes usually consists of prime
rib, shrimp, lasagna, chicken breast, mashed potatoes, vegetables and dinner
rolls, Vera said.
Dessert is also served during pregame meals, but Vera
said this is the only time that the athletes get to enjoy a slice of red velvet
cake or cheesecake.
“The rest of the time we try to not influence them with
any kind of sugar in their bodies because it dehydrates them pretty quickly,”
he said.
Special dietary meals, such as vegan and vegetarian
options, for athletes are prepared, Vera said.
Vera makes sure each meal fits the diets of athletes and
takes responsibility for knowing what they are looking for in the food they
eat.
“I took to heart what they needed because it’s a
lifestyle that they want to do — to eat that way,” he said.
Sometimes, Vera even works with the nutritionist and team
strength coaches to prepare specific meals that can help an athlete lose, gain
or maintain weight.
“We have to get them to their ‘playing’ weight — that’s
where they excel at their best,” Vera said. “That’s going to protect them from
injury. They are going to be able to get through the competition without
getting tired, dehydrated or anything like that.”
Perusing this career path was based on Vera’s love for
sports growing up. He and his wife have talked about opening another restaurant
sometime in the future, but for now, Vera’s focus is on WSU athletes.
“I was born to do this,” he said. “This is something I
would never give up. As long as I can keep doing it, this is what I want to
do.”
:::::
As NCAA faces difficult test regulating legalized sports
betting, Colorado athletic directors unsure of what’s next
CU Buffs and CSU Rams react to possible legal sports
wagering in Colorado
By Kyle Fredrickson, Denver Post, 5/21/2018
Gary Barnett couldn’t believe it at first. Can you blame
him?
Barnett, the last football coach to lead the Colorado
Buffaloes to a conference title in 2001, was in his third season overhauling
Northwestern’s program in November 1994 when rumor spread from player, to
athletic trainer, to graduate assistant, to assistant coach and to Barnett that
senior running back Dennis Lundy made an illegal cash wager on his own team
losing big.
The allegation surfaced after Lundy, then Northwestern’s
career-leading rusher, had fumbled on the Iowa 1-yard line in a 36-point
defeat. Might Lundy have intentionally let go to ensure Northwestern wouldn’t
cover the spread? Barnett needed proof. So he called Lundy into his office the
following Monday.
“What do you have to say?” Barnett asked.
“It’s true,” Lundy replied.
Barnett was speechless.
“All I could see was three letters go across my eyes —
FBI,” he said.
As far back as 1919, when the White Sox fixed the World
series, and as recently as 2011, when several University of San Diego
basketball players were convicted of points shaving, the cross section of
college sports and gambling has left black marks on the game’s integrity. It’s
why the NCAA had long pushed against gambling of any kind on its events. Now,
the NCAA has no choice but to embrace it.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to strike down federal
law prohibiting sports gambling outside Nevada brings to light the challenging
enforcement of NCAA policy against its student athletes’ participation as
individual states can decide whether to legitimize a formerly black-market
industry.
Bill Saum was a longtime NCAA enforcement officer who
served as its first director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities up
until 2005. Saum is certain the NCAA’s efforts have increased awareness for
players, coaches and administrators to the real-life consequences of sports
betting. Making the practice legal on a state level, though, re-ups his concern
for student athletes.
“It creates a challenging dilemma for the entire sports
world,” Saum said.
“But I think the college sports world needs to look at it
differently than the professional sports world because we’re dealing with young
people.”
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Colorado was considered one of 14 states in position to
legalize sports gambling within two years of the Supreme Court’s decision,
according to a 2017 study, but legislators and athletic administrators are
still formulating how that might look as early as 2019. The office of the attorney
general released a statement that it is “currently evaluating the implications”
of legal sports wagering and that it “will work with the necessary state
agencies to assess any impact it may have.” Colorado athletic director Rick
George said CU will “wait and see where the NCAA goes … and we’ll take what
their lead is and follow it.” Colorado State athletic director Joe Parker
added: “It’s a bit of a voyage that I don’t think anybody has a clear picture
on what the destination is going to look like.”
Proponents of legalized sports gambling, such as Brett
Smiley, editor-in-chief of SportsHandle.com, consider this a win for college
campuses. Smiley estimates illegal bookmakers will be out of business with
legitimate betting operations in place.
“This activity is already occurring,” Smiley said.
“Americans are accepting of it — and that doesn’t mean the NCAA is entitled to
be concerned — but if it’s done in a legal framework in a legal setting, I
think it can be done in a more secure fashion.”
Saum is less optimistic.
“The dirty little secret that’s not discussed anymore is
the gambling on college campuses,” Saum said. “That’s not going to change with
legal sports wagering, because I’m guessing there is going to be some age limit
on gambling, and I’m guessing initially it’s not going to be via internet, and
I’m guessing it’s going to be available in more major populated areas than
(smaller college towns).”
Where Smiley and Saum agree is that the NCAA and college
campuses must allocate more resources to ensure the integrity of the game in
states with legalized sports wagering. How those funds are acquired and their
extent, though, will be highly scrutinized.
In at least 11 states considering legal sports wagering,
and not including Colorado, lobbyists from professional leagues have already
pushed for what’s known as an “integrity fee,” according to The Charleston
Gazette-Mail, which functions as a tax on all bets returned to the
corresponding league. Even at just 1-percent, the rate proposed by the NBA and
MLB in West Virginia, the financial windfall would be substantial considering
that U.S. residents illegally bet an estimated $150 billion on sports each
year, according to the American Gaming Association.
“If the NCAA were in a position to get their cut of that,
which, say, could be $500 million dollars per year, would they actually say
no?” Smiley asked. The Denver Post inquired the NCAA whether it would consider
an integrity fee in states with legal sports gambling, but it declined to
comment. The NCAA’s only action thus far has been the temporary lifting a ban
that prevented championship events from being played in states that accept
wagers on single games.
“For the NCAA, it’s going to add another layer on to
what’s already a very deep set of issues involving the massive amount of money
in big-time college sports,” said Roger Pielke, director of CU’s Sports
Governance Center. “If there are going to be billions of dollars more made off
college sports, it’s just going to add more and more pressure for wholesale
change.”
Which brings us back to Lundy. The former star
Northwestern tailback and three teammates were indicted in 1998 on federal
perjury charges related to placing illegal sports bets through a campus bookie.
Why would Lundy gamble away his football reputation? The Denver Post was
unsuccessful in reaching Lundy for comment, although Barnett recalled a modest
explanation.
Lundy sought a $400 payout for the cost of an airline
ticket from Tampa Bay so his mother could watch him play.
“You don’t know what to think,” Barnett said. “Just
absolutely crazy.”
As amateur athletics takes yet another step toward
professionalization, Barnett hopes today’s college football coaches can avoid
the difficult circumstances he once faced at Northwestern.
“It’s going to make it difficult to police and make sure
that it doesn’t have an impact on the game,” Barnett said. “It was already
hard. But I think this really makes it difficult. Hopefully, they can find a
way to do it. It really comes down to doing the right thing or doing the wrong
thing.”
::::::::::::::
WSU Research Projects Blast Off for International Space
From Pullman Radio news 5/21/2018
Two new NASA-funded WSU research projects have blasted
off for the international space station.
The Cold Atom Laboratory, or CAL, run by Peter Engels and Maren Moss,
along with researchers from the University of Colorado, will conduct
experiments with atoms at temperatures just barely above absolute zero. The
CAL, will be the coldest place in the universe.
Dr. Norman Lewis, is lead WSU scientist of the WSU-led
Consortium Foundational Research for NASA on the International Space Station.
The Final Frontier Plant Habitat will be used to
investigate the growth and development of plants in micro-gravity. Growing plants will be necessary for any
colonization or distant-space missions for both food and oxygen. the APH is a
joint project between WSU, the University of New Mexico and the Los Alamos and
Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.
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