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ONTARIO — Rising seventh grader Kennedy Sapp loves baking, playing basketball and swimming with her friends.
Last spring, she discovered yet another interest as a part of Ontario Middle School’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America chapter.
Sapp recently competed at the FCCLA’s 2022 National Leadership Conference — putting her public speaking abilities and knowledge of nutrition to the test.
Sapp competed against sixth through eighth grade students in the Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) Sports Nutrition event.
Melissa Muzic, Sapp’s advisor and Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, said it’s the second year in a row an Ontario Middle School student has competed at the national level.
“It’s a really big deal,” Muzic said. “Before last year, I hadn’t taken a student in eight years.”
FCCLA is a student organization associated with Family and Consumer Science courses, Muzic explained. Membership is optional, but only students who join can attend conferences and compete.
To compete, Sapp had to develop an individualized nutritional plan to meet the needs of a competitive student athlete in a specific sport. Plans had to include a sample nutrition and hydration plan based upon a student athlete’s nutritional and energy needs.
Sapp chose basketball, with herself as the test subject. For her project, Sapp developed a comprehensive health plan with goals for sleep, nutrition, hydration and exercise.
“I would make sure that my snacks were healthy and that I was not eating like a brownie for lunch or something,” she said. “I had to also incorporate my basketball practices as a part of a day’s exercise. So like on Tuesdays and Thursdays for example, instead of working out I would have basketball practice.”
Sapp spent about a week developing the plan, incorporating her FCS lessons on nutrition and additional research. Then she followed the plan for two weeks, documenting her health habits and how she felt as a result.
Muzic said she was impressed by her dedication.
“She went above and beyond,” she said. “She only had to do it for three days and she did it for two weeks.”
As an athlete, Sapp said she needed more protein than the average teen. She also made sure to have adequate carbohydrates and water in her diet.
“I’d say the most challenging part was figuring out how much nutrition is in everything and what to add things to,” she added. “If I’m eating oatmeal, should I add fruit or is it better by itself? Should I add granola to my yogurt?”
The project took discipline — Sapp gave up her occasional late night TV habit and began going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. She also swapped out junk food for healthier snacks and started drinking a half gallon of water each day.
“It was a little bit of a challenge, but I adjusted pretty easy after the first couple of days,” she said. “I found that I felt healthier and then I could go on further with the day by eating different meals and not eating like a bunch of chips and stuff.”
Kennedy’s mother Kathy Sapp said she saw a difference in her daughter during the experiment.
“She seemed to have more energy. She seemed to not come back from basketball so exhausted,” she recalled.
Kathy said she was happy that the project focused not on weight, but wellbeing.
“At no point did she really worry about how her weight was affected by this,” Kathy said. “The focus purely was how she felt.”
Sapp qualified for nationals by scoring high marks in the regional FCCLA competition and earning a silver medal at the state competition.
At each event, she gave a 15-minute oral presentation in front of judges and answered five minutes of questions.
“I think what set me apart is that so many students were just doing it just because,” she said. “I was doing that for a purpose and I wanted to be there.
“Sometimes you have to skip out on some of the fun things to get the project done. You have to really work hard at it.”
Kathy said she’s glad her daughter decided to sign up for the competition.
“FCCLA is such an underrated program,” she said. “It teaches these young people such valuable life skills.
“They learn how to interview, they learn how to dress professionally — all the things that are going to help them in their adult life. It helps them be assertive, be leaders and be confident.”
Kennedy is already looking forward to next year’s FCCLA conferences. She plans to try out the entrepreneurship competition.
“I was told by my advisor that if I want to do entrepreneurship, it is a bit of a step up,” she said. “I was told by many advisors at nationals that entrepreneurship is one of the hardest competitions for Level One.”
The heightened challenge doesn’t seem to bother Sapp. If anything, it motivates her.
“I think if I can put my mind to it, I can do it,” she said.
