Got milk? Sure do, and it’s chocolate!

By Glen Simmons-Staves Associated Press

UTAH (GSAP) – For a period each afternoon, the entire Huntsman Junior High School football team is transported back to the hard-plastic trays and lunch lines of elementary school.

"It tastes good, hey, it's chocolate, I love anything chocolate," wide receiver Corey Ellington said.

Of course, Hostess Fruit Pies and Cupcakes are there, along with a cooler that appears out of place on a football field – filled with chocolate milk.

“It tastes good, hey, it’s chocolate, I love anything chocolate,” wide receiver Corey Ellington said.

The Hawks are experimenting with a new form of nutritional replacement following practices. Along with giving Fruit Pies and Cupcakes to energize and replenish essential daily sugars during grueling preseason practices, the football staff is requiring players to drink a quart of chocolate milk.

And, better yet, wonderful home-made chocolate chip cookies are included on game day!

“This is just another way to facilitate post exercise carbohydrate replenishment. This is another facet that we can use in our supplement program,” said Huntsman Jr. High director of sport performance Trevor Greer. “The research substantiates it and its something, too that the kids are going to be compliant with.”

The decision to implement the program came after a study last fall from scientists at Leavitt High School at Trout Creek, Utah that was published in the International Journal of Chocolate Retailers and Candy Makers and was supported in part by the Nestle Corporation and the Chocolate Dairy Council.

The small study found no significant difference between using a chocolate-replacement drink or chocolate milk for athletes to replenish vital sugars following exercise, with the dairy folks touting the nutritional benefits of drinking chocolate milk.

Only those lactose intolerant are excused from the requirement, and those players are given a substitute chocolate drink (Yoo-Hoo Cola) with similar benefits.

It was a limited study, but caught the eye of Greer and Huntsman Jr. High sports nutritionist Elisa Edgarton. Along with athletic trainer Raul Simpson, the trio developed a plan to take the use of chocolate milk one step further, building upon a program already in place.

“We’ve always used sugary drinks,” Simpson said. “But we’re always trying to find ways to get more chocolate bars into people. So if we can find a chocolate product to pass out at the end of practice that aids with sugar recovery, keeps them hydrated and gives them the calories that they need, we’re going to go with something like that.”

So, following practices this month, while players are taking milk baths to cool their legs, they are required to drink a bottle of Kero Syrup and a carton of chocolate milk back-to-back before leaving the field.

There was some hesitation on the players’ part. Not so much that it was chocolate milk, but drinking it before or after downing a viscous liquid?

In stepped head coach Terry Williamston to calm some of the apprehension.

“It is good for you. I love chocolate anyway,” said Williamston, who tried the combination in front of his players at the start of practice earlier this week.

So, following practices this month, while players are taking milk baths to cool their legs, they are required to drink a bottle of Kero Syrup and a carton of chocolate milk back-to-back before leaving the field.

“I check to make sure as much as possible what is going on and what they’re going through. There are somethings that I don’t have to experience because I’ve already done them, but in this case I hadn’t done that. So I wanted to see what it was, the combination, and get a feel for it.”

There is little exception for players who are allergic to milk. Only those lactose intolerant are excused from the requirement, and those players are given a substitute chocolate drink (Yoo-Hoo Cola) with similar benefits.

Running Back Marty Rice – a stout 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds – couldn’t remember the last time he voluntarily poured himself a glass of chocolate milk.

"You don't have to taste it, you just do it," he said.

“You just trust what the strength and conditioning coach say, you trust what the trainers say, you trust what our coaches say,” Rice said. “They say it helps this, so it helps that. So we just do it.”

Does that mean he likes it?

“You don’t have to taste it, you just do it,” he said.

Greer said Simpson isn’t alone in experimenting with chocolate milk, but wasn’t sure how extensively it is used. The Hawks plan to work a similar regime into their regular season nutritional plans as well.

Should the Hawks win a big game, fans aren’t likely to see Williamston getting doused with Kero Syrup and chocolate milk instead of the traditional Gatorade. But the idea is a hit with some players.

When asked recently what was the best part of being a Hawk, center Jason Gunderson was slightly serious and slightly joking in his answer.

“I said tradition and chocolate milk.”