PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Oct. 9, 2025) – It all started with an orange slice.
Myles McHaney IV ’24 was a solid athlete and player on the field at Prairie View A&M University, and he was in the gym honing his strength and conditioning daily. But when he noticed that Agletics, a collaboration between the University’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) and Athletics Department, had shown up to football practice with fruit as a post-practice snack, it got his attention.
He’d be the first to tell you he wasn’t the fastest player on the field. But once he dialed in on what fueled him best, everything changed. Agletics was the start of a journey for Myles that helped him elevate his athleticism and skill on the field by focusing on what he was doing off the field first.
Fueling Success On and Off the Field
Myles became Agletics’ first student ambassador. Food, hydration and laser focus on bioindividuality helped him launch a career that has taken him from Prairie View’s gridiron to professional football in Brazil, and on to the United Football League’s Memphis Showboats.
“According to the NCAA, fewer than 2% of college football student-athletes advance to play professionally after their collegiate careers. His success is a testament to the Agletics approach to precision nutrition, an educational program designed to meet each athlete’s needs,” said Dr. TeKedra Pierre, founder of PVAMU Agletics and director of the Information, Impact, and Sustainability Center (IISC) for CAFNR.
Agletics continues to run “Wellness Wednesdays,” an initiative that began with fruit and nutrition education on the practice field and is now a weekly tradition at Panther Stadium, supported by PVAMU’s Extension Wellness in Houston.
McHaney and Pierre
The program has expanded through partnerships with PVAMU’s Meat Science Center for Innovation (MSCI) and Ratcliff Premium Meats, which now provides weekly meals for the football team in collaboration with Director of Football Performance Tommie Moore. Ratcliff also partnered with Coach Tremaine Jackson and his staff on a team-building retreat for the football coaches.
Through these efforts, PVAMU aims to provide on-site nutrition education and food demonstrations that support healthy eating habits on and off the field.
“When we first started Wellness Wednesdays, we envisioned it as an opportunity to directly connect with the players, educate them, and provide hydration in real time,” Pierre said. “There was an immediate impact on 105 student-athletes, and it’s only grown since then. We observed behavior changes from the first practice to the last, with many trying new fruits for the first time. The behavior changes at practice will lead to changes in the cafeteria, at home, and in communities.”
That success with precision nutrition is at the heart of the goal of Agletics: increasing agricultural literacy through the lens of sports.
“Sports are a universal language, like math or music,” Pierre said. “Our goal is to get everyone to understand the connection between nutrition and performance. Agletics is not just for student-athletes; it’s for everyone. Performance is not just on the field, it’s the push-pull-squat of everyday living.”
Pierre emphasized that the impact of studying nutrition truly is a ripple effect, as Myles’ story shows.
A Ripple Effect: Student Ambassadors
Following in Myles’ footsteps as Agletic’s new ambassador is Jalyn Dennis, a first-year nutrition major from Atlanta who plays soccer. She dreams of becoming a sports dietician to help athletes maximize performance through personalized nutrition plans and accessible food options. Hand in hand with her dietician ambitions is a vision to create a quick-service restaurant model that offers the speed and convenience of fast food without the unhealthy additives.
“If we can teach student-athletes about the connection, ultimately they will share with teammates, classmates, friends, and when they go home, parents, siblings, grandparents, and others in their lives,” Pierre said. “Agletics is a lifestyle. Agletics is an opportunity for CAFNR to utilize its research and resources to strengthen nutrition education and support sustainable, healthy lifestyles for everyone.”
Pierre noted that gaps in the literature exist for student-athletes and experiential learning, particularly in a post-COVID world. “The systems we had in place need to be reimagined and upgraded for the new ‘student-aglete.’ Agletics fills this gap. Agletics is poised to be a national model for student-athlete success.”
Agletics as a National Model
And with that shift comes a new era in the CAFNR world: Agletics highlights a new master’s degree in nutrition science, the second new CAFNR graduate program launched within the past two years. The new MS in Nutrition will allow undergraduate nutrition students to seamlessly transition into graduate studies, participating in research with student-athletes.
Pierre also emphasized that she would love to see more athletes major in nutrition or agriculture. Some of them may have stories similar to Myles, being able to continue their true athletic careers post-graduation. But if they do not become professional athletes, there’s another door that is open, ready to link their athletic knowledge with so many more career opportunities.
“Agletics is a fusion of two different worlds, athletics on one side and nutrition on the other, layered with agriculture as they understand the impact of the source of food and how sustainable, healthy practices in agriculture lead to more effective nutrition,” Pierre said. “Within CAFNR research, we have six systems, including artificial intelligence. Agletics provides student-athletes with additional options.”
Pierre said with a knowing smile, “Ag touches everything.”
“For the 98% that do not go pro, there is a career for them in agriculture,” Pierre said. “They can apply the leadership and team-building from their athletic careers, and their nutrition expertise to careers as a nutritionist, sports dietician, sports medicine, and so much more. There are even opportunities for them to leave the field to raise cattle, chicken, or bees, or become a spokesperson for a product they understand the science behind. The sky is the limit.”
Pierre emphasized that with a new generation of student athletes, who are more connected than ever as influencers and content creators, the potential impact of marketing for products is exciting and vast. And it’s not just players who benefit, but coaches as well, she said.
“Coaches want answers. They want their players to ask, “What can I do differently to improve my results? And then be able to produce and apply those results,” Pierre said. “Our research can help solve those problems: diet and off-the-field habits can help the individual, but the difference is that Agletics gets them involved directly. They can now see firsthand the research process, and the data translates to actionable progress. That buy-in is a lot more effective for coaches when their players are committed and interested in the why behind the what.”
From the Classroom to the Field
Agletics is expanding beyond the field with a new pre-internship training academy that will prepare students to support PVAMU’s sports teams alongside the sports medicine staff. Nutrition interns will lead education sessions with athletes, meeting them where they are and helping elevate their performance. The undergraduate experience will also lay the groundwork for graduate-level research, advancing PVAMU’s push toward R1 status and President Tomikia P. LeGrande’s Journey to Eminence Strategic Plan for 2035.
An Agletics course is also on the way—far from a typical sports nutrition class, it will give students the chance to study, analyze, and contribute directly to the Agletics model.
As Agletics continues to grow, the program isn’t just reshaping how athletes fuel their bodies—it’s reframing how they see their own influence. On a campus where players double as role models, the stakes go beyond wins and losses.
“There is a science behind being an influencer,” Pierre said. “There is so much credibility for young athletes with brand deals. These student athletes are the legit real deal. They have a lot more influence than they realize, especially on a college campus. We want them to perform at a certain level, yet Agletics asks and seeks to answer, ‘Are we giving them the tools they need to do that?’ When you start to see results, you pay attention and are motivated to do a little more.”
For Myles, that motivation carried him from PVAMU to the pros. For the athletes like him who follow, like Jalyn and so many more, Agletics aims to make that same precision nutrition the difference between potential and peak performance.
By Meredith Mohr
-PVAMU-