Serving love

If you happen to catch the end of a team workout at the Strength and Conditioning Center inside the Setzer Pavilion at Wright State University, you will witness Cole Pittsford transition from strength and conditioning director to barista.

“Nutrition is huge as far as performance effect for student-athletes,” said Pittsford.

In the new Dewan Family Fueling Station, located a few steps from the weight room, Pittsford quickly loaded up the blender and made over a dozen vanilla and peanut butter shakes with whey protein for the Wright State men’s basketball team.

“Allowing them to get a snack and get some protein after a workout goes a really long way,” said Pittsford.

The fueling station, which is stocked with jars of peanut butter, milk, fruit, protein bars and Gatorade, is the result of a generous donation to the Wright State Department of Athletics from Sudan Dewan and his family. Dewan is a 1982 Wright State alumnus who played on the Raider tennis team with his brother Nick.

“Hopefully this will play a small role in achieving their goals,” said Dewan.

The new station, which also contains a refrigerator and tons of storage, is a better setup than what Pittsford used previously.

“Before this, we just had a small cart with some containers of snacks for our athletes,” he said.

Dewan’s gift not only provided the funds for the new equipment and storage, but it also provides funds to purchase supplies and restock food as needed.

The Dewan Family Fueling Station was revealed on July 21 to an intimate group of athletics department staff, including men’s basketball coach Scott Nagy and women’s basketball coach Kari Hoffman, and Dewan, his wife, Rachna, and sister Renu.