A sports product for children? I think not

by Roger Barbee

The photograph in our North Carolina newspaper was above the fold. It showed two well-known college basketball players facing each other, one from Duke and one from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Each was squirting an orange-colored aerosol into his mouth. The small two-ounce canisters holding the oral aerosol were marked with the logo of the North Carolina-based company, which had used the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) to score a significant marketing move by getting these two college athletes to endorse its new product.

BOA Nutrition has unveiled

BOA Ignite, its new oral aerosol sports supplement, which the company claims will elevate athletic performance, allowing atomized nutrients to be rapidly absorbed by the body. Each two-second blast of Ignite delivers caffeine, B vitamins, fast- and slow-acting carbohydrates, and electrolytes.

BOA Nutrition launched in 2020. The product is endorsed by several elite athletes such as Des Linden, Morgan Pearson, Sam Long, Hunter McIntyre, and Wendell Moore, Jr. Now, be honest and see how many of the endorsing athletes in this list you can identify without using Google. I offer that only the most dedicated sports fan will know more than the name of Wendell Moore, Jr., and that is my point concerning the significance of the Duke and UNC basketball players’ endorsements. Controversy swirls around the NILs, and so be it. However, regardless of the Duke medical doctors, I am skeptical of products like BOA Nutrition. As a 2:42 marathoner and coach of runners and wrestlers, I know that a sound diet, proper liquid intake, good training, and rest are the most important tools for any athlete. There is no magic potion for athletic success. What concerns me is how photographs and endorsements of well-known and idolized college athletes may influence youngsters.

Imagine how a 12-year-old, motivated to be a basketball player, will hear that a blast of a citrusflavored aerosol from Ignite will “enhance his or her performance”?

Just because someone like Jeremy Roach says that a two-second blast of a citrus-flavored aerosol jump-starts him, giving him an advantage, is that good for our children? Will it help any young, aspiring athletes carry around a canister that delivers caffeine through a two-second blast?

I’m curious if many young athletes know or are interested in who Des Linden is. But most of them know who Jeremy Roach is, and he uses BOA Nutrition. Thus, if it works for him, it will work for me so they or their parents or coaches will reason. But they ignore that Roach and other athletes are mature adults with different requirements than a 12-year-old.

If a mature athlete wants to try a “quick-fix” formula for success, so be it. However, I highly recommend academic study, drills in your chosen sport, and a good nutrition program for any aspiring young person. Anything else is a missed lay-up.

Roger Barbee authors sports commentary at The Sports Column, and, all of his columns can be found at Southern Intersections.

Jr. High Basketball roundup

The Weatherly Area junior high basketball teams dropped their games with Pottsville last week.

In the eighth grade boys’ game, Pottsville won 40-29 behind the 15-point games of Marquise MillerBallard Jacob Bowman.

Chase Grier paced the Wreckers with nine points and Chance Stauffer had seven.

In the seventh grade game, the

Crimson Tide posted a 30-19 win despite Kolton Reiner’s gameleading 12 points for Weatherly Area.

And in the seventh grade girls’ game, Riely Davis scored 12 points and four teammates added six apiece to lead Pottsville to a 41-6 victory.

Mya Binder had four points and Courtney Snyder added two for the Lady Wreckers.