Clint Wattenberg, most recently the director of performance nutrition for the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, has been hired as Virginia Tech’s associate athletics director of sports nutrition.
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.
He will also manage the Student-Athlete Performance Center, a state-of-the-art dining facility for student-athletes.
While at UFC, Wattenberg 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. 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 through 2017.
“Clint is very well-respected in the field of sports nutrition and brings elite experience to Virginia Tech,” said Danny 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.”
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, Calif., Wattenberg 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.
“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 said. “I am absolutely thrilled to join Virginia Tech to contribute to the already exceptional sports nutrition and overall performance support staff.”
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