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Dietitian Nutritionist Program Sports Nutrition Specialty Experience: Nick Sage 

  • Published: 09/15/2025
  • Revised: 09/15/2025
 Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
A man with short brown hair, a woman with brown hair pulled back, a man with short light hair and a man with brown hair pulled back all wearing black pants and blue sweatshirts that have the Los Angeles Rams logo on them.
Pitt Dietitian Nutritionist student Nick Sage (BS ‘21, MS ‘23, MS ‘26) (right) serving as the training camp/preseason performance nutrition intern for the Los Angeles Rams this summer.

Nick Sage entered the University of Pittsburgh Dietitian Nutritionist (DN) program in 2024 through the post-baccalaureate pathway. However, that is not where his journey began at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS).  

Sage first joined the SHRS Nutrition Science program in 2021 for his undergraduate degree. After graduating, he went on to pursue a Master of Science in Sports Science in 2023. With a holistic perspective in nutrition and sports performance from SHRS, Sage forged a passion for becoming a sports dietitian, prompting him to apply to the Dietitian Nutritionist program.  

Read on to learn more about Sage’s unique background from SHRS and his passion for sports nutrition. 

A woman with long hair pulled into a ponytail wearing a gray sweatshirt and black pants, a man with brown hair wearing a black jacket and dark gray shirts, a woman with dark hair pulled into a bun wearing a black jacket over a blue sweater and black pants and a woman with long brown hair wearing a blue sweatshirt and black pants all stand together on the Pitt football field.
Pitt Dietitian Nutritionist student Nick Sage at the 2023 Pitt Blue vs Gold spring football game in 2023 during his undergraduate experience volunteering with Pitt football alongside Katie Gulley (left), sports dietitian with Pitt Athletics, fellow Dietitian Nutritionist student Nicole Chiu (second from right, MS ‘26) and alumna Gabby Popovski (right, MS ‘24).

Discovering Sports Nutrition

How did your experience in other SHRS programs influence your desire to be a sports dietitian?

The sports landscape is historically competitive. Pitt’s Dietitian Nutritionist program is unique in the inclusion of a Sports Nutrition specialty rotation. Growing up, I had a passion for nutrition and athletics, which pushed me to work in performance nutrition. I began to volunteer as a nutrition intern early in my undergraduate career. Throughout my junior and senior year in the Nutrition Science program, I helped fuel the Olympic and football athletes at Pitt.  

When I volunteered as a fuel station attendant, I began to seek out and gain more opportunities to be supportive and learn from Pitt Athletics’ performance dietitians. I continued to take on more responsibility preparing educational handouts, managing inventory and producing new ideas for how we could optimize the athlete experience through their interactions with the Pitt Athletics Sports Nutrition Department. The ability to get hands-on experience, work with athletes and support the performance nutrition team at Pitt is a great way to promote yourself as a worthy candidate for the Sports Nutrition specialty rotation.  

A man with chin-length brown hair wearing a black t-shirt and gray shorts and a lanyard with "UFC" written around it.
Nick Sage during his performance nutrition internship at the Ultimate Fighting Championship Performance Institute (UFC PI) which he acquired during his time in the Master of Science in Sports Science program.

During the second semester of the Master of Science in Sports Science program, I applied and was accepted for a position to serve as the performance nutrition intern with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at their Performance Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada. This experience helped to sell me on the amazing career of a sports dietitian by allowing me to work with a team of dietitians to support combat sport athletes looking to optimize performance while also competing in a weight-class based sport.  

Here I reinforced and built upon the information learned in our coursework in both the Nutrition Science and Sports Science programs, by carrying out body composition assessments, developing individualized meal plans for athletes and carefully monitoring hydration status throughout different phases of training and preparation for competition.   

The Dietitian Nutritionist Program

What sets this Pitt Dietitian Nutritionist program apart from others?

Pitt’s program provides those interested in sports nutrition with the unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience working directly with athletes as you work with and learn from a team of performance dietitians. Alongside this experience, you gain a great educational background, building a strong foundation in key areas such as exercise physiology and medical nutrition therapy (MNT). 

What will your role be in the Sports Nutrition specialty with Pitt Athletics? 

I will be serving as nutrition intern with the Pitt football team throughout the fall semester. This aligns with my future goals which are steered towards working as a sports dietitian in a high-performance setting, with an emphasis on working with football athletes.  

How will you use what you learned thus far in this specialty?

Sports nutrition provides a unique landscape for which you can apply principles from MNT, community and food service realms every day. From an MNT perspective, we monitor and provide comprehensive hydration support, considering electrolyte imbalances that may arise. We also measure and assess body composition, work with athletes on supplement education and develop and plan meal options that account for dietary restrictions, allergies and intolerances.  

A man with short curly hair wearing a red t shirt and light shorts, a man with brown hair pulled back wearing a black shirt and gray shorts, a man with dark hair wearing a red t shirt and gray shorts, a woman with brown hair in braids wearing a gray shirt and black pants, a man with light hair and facial hair wearing a black shirt and black shorts and a man with dark hair and facial hair wearing a red shirt and dark gray pants all stand together at the UFC Institute.
Nick Sage (second from left) with other interns at the Ultimate Fighting Championship Performance Institute (UFC PI).

From a community perspective, we are continuously providing team talks, designing education infographics to be placed around the building and even holding cooking classes to allow the athletes easy opportunities to learn culinary skills.  

Lastly, we incorporate food service principles as we work with catering agencies, foodservice distributors and performance chefs, to create menus, order products and develop catering banquet event orders for teamwide events.

Working with Pitt Athletics

 What is beneficial about working with athletes directly?

Working with athletes directly allows you the opportunity to provide individualized nutrition care which can unlock performance enhancing benefits. It also allows you the ability to tailor your nutrition recommendations to meet them where they are, considering their preferences, past nutrition experiences and unique performance needs.  

Will you work with coaches or anyone besides the athletes?

Yes, the nutrition team works collaboratively with a number of departments including sports medicine, strength and conditioning, sports science, sports psychology and performance coaches. These various departments make up a network we call the high-performance team which works to optimize the performance, recovery and well-being of our athletes.

What is something fun you have learned about athletes and their nutrition?

Athletes appreciate creativity and opportunities to make nutrition fun. Many athletes have busy schedules and demanding training schedules. We want nutrition to support and optimize performance but try and do so in unique ways that cater to individual interests and favorites. We try to do our best to provide variety while maintaining high standards for taste and quality. One meal template that always is a win is customizable bowls. We have worked to create fun, nutrition-packed bowls including themes like loaded burrito bowls, gyro bowls and cheeseburger bowls.   

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Learn more about the collaboration between the Dietitian Nutritionist program and Pitt Athletics, featuring Auburn Paulone, assistant director for performance nutrition at Pitt Athletics and Tracy Maluchnik, SHRS assistant professor within the Dietitian Nutritionist program and clinical instructor for the Sports Nutrition specialty rotation.

Read the story here.

A woman with dark hair pulled back wearing a blue zip-up jacket and khaki pants holding a drink carrier of Gatorade bottles and standing in front of a sign that reads "Panthers."

Read about Dietitian Nutritionist student Nicole Chiu’s experience with Pitt Athletics as she prepares for her Sports Nutrition specialty rotation.

Read the story here.

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Learn more about SHRS Dietitian Nutritionist Program (MS), Nutrition Science (BS), Sports Science (MS) or contact an enrollment specialist at enroll@shrs.pitt.edu today!