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Breakfast Club Boosts Food IQ

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By Andy Staples, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 25, 2007

Updated: 09/25/2007 12:44 am

GAINESVILLE - This morning, on the one day a week that his class and workout schedule allows him to sleep in, University of Florida defensive end Duke Lemmens will rise early and schlep to Gator Corner Dining facility, where a feast awaits.

Whether he wants it or not.

Lemmens weighs 240 pounds. Lemmens' coaches - and Lemmens himself - would like to see that number rise. A guy who regularly takes on 300-pounders needs a little meat on his bones. Which is where Florida's Breakfast Club comes in.

Lemmens, a Westlake Village, Calif., import who looks nothing like Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson or Anthony Michael Hall, must report to Florida's dining hall at 7:30 a.m. every Tuesday. There, Florida's freshmen and underweight and overweight veterans eat under the supervision of athletic department nutritionist Cheryl Zonkowski and strength coach Mickey Marotti.

'They've got to watch me eat,' Lemmens said. 'Eggs, pancakes, just whatever puts on pounds. It makes me not enjoy eating anymore.'

Anyone who has ever spent quality (dinner) time with a lineman knows Lemmens didn't make that statement lightly. Occasionally, he's even lost his love for his favorite food, sushi - hey, he is from California.

'When you're forced to and you've got to weigh in every day and you're trying to put on heavier clothes so you just get that extra half-pound,' Lemmens said, 'it takes the taste out of the food.'

'Skinny' players such as Lemmens sometimes need encouragement to eat enough to feed their ferocious metabolisms. So, Lemmens said, Marotti occasionally will ask a player to add pancakes to his plate the same way he would ask him to add a pair of 45-pound plates to the leg sled during a workout. Lemmens could not confirm whether Marotti ever has warned 'Don't mess with the bull, young man; you'll get the horns' at a previous Breakfast Club.

Before each meal, Zonkowski gives the players nutrition tips. Last week, she explained the differences in the myriad Gatorade products available to Florida players. Zonkowski said she wants players to understand what to put in their body to keep them healthy. That's why freshmen are required to attend; since they're adjusting in every other facet of their lives, it's easier to mold their eating habits. Zonkowski knows they can't afford personal chefs and organic produce, but if she can teach players to make the correct choices in the buffet line at the dining hall, the players will be healthier for it.

For Lemmens, his long-term well-being depends on carrying a few more pounds on his 6-foot-5 frame. As a defensive end, he must rush against massive offensive tackles. He also plays defensive tackle on occasions when Florida coaches expect an opponent to pass. Of course, Tennessee didn't give Lemmens a heads-up when it decided to run on one such play. More than six hundred pounds of center and guard left Lemmens on his back.

'They thought it was going to be a pass - and it definitely wasn't,' Lemmens said. 'Two-hundred-forty pounds doesn't stand up for too long. I got up real quick, though.'

And until Lemmens can add enough weight to stay off his back, he'll have to keep rising early for meetings of the Gators' Breakfast Club.

Reporter Andy Staples can be reached at (352) 262-3719 or astaples@tampatrib.com.

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