Graduate Assistant Spotlight: Maire Dickens

Boise State Athletics is spotlighting the graduate assistants who work to help each department within athletics run smoothly while obtaining their master's degree. These features will tell the stories of graduate assistants while also giving information on what each department within Boise State Athletics does.

Maire Dickens is a second-year graduate assistant (GA) working in the sports performance, health & wellness department as a performance nutrition GA at Boise State Athletics while pursuing a degree in the Master of Athletic Leadership (MAL) program.

"Essentially, the performance nutrition staff's role is to educate student-athletes and the coaching staff on food, hydration and fueling," said Dickens. "Our goal is to focus on showing them how to properly fuel their bodies based on training, competition and travel schedules. We also work on catering towards specific individual needs, whether that be for medical or religious reasons, such as student-athletes that are currently participating in Ramadan. We want to ensure that they are fueling their bodies properly while still respecting their religious beliefs."

The performance nutrition staff works to ensure that student-athletes with specific restrictions still have options in the fueling stations so that their needs and preferences are being respected, while also making sure their special accommodations are being met. These fueling stations are meant to fill in the gaps, rather than provide full meals, so that they are able to fuel properly before and after workouts, class or other activities they participate in.

It is also responsible for completing body composition and hydration testing, working with athletic trainers and sports performance coaches to ensure that if student-athletes are losing any muscle mass or not hydrating enough, the proper steps can be taken to focus on those nutritional elements.

Dickens' daily responsibilities as a GA include, but are not limited to, assisting in oversight of the internship program, oversight of hydration testing and scheduling, managing the monthly Bronco Bulletin and complying with the rules and regulations of the University, NCAA, the State of Idaho and any other governing body.

"Maire's first project in the MAL was actually to create the internship program we have," said her supervisor and director of performance nutrition, Samantha Wade. "We went from a team of just three to now a team of 15 because of the hard work Maire has put in, connecting with the kinesiology department and refining the internship program. She's truly grown as a leader and it's been incredible to witness."

Within assisting the oversight of the internship program, Dickens helps recruit student-athletes and students at Boise State, schedules interviews and communicates with human resources (HR), completes training and tours for both new and returning interns, creates personalized google folders and binders for each intern and schedules the interns for weekly shifts.

She is also responsible for creating the monthly hydration testing schedules during the fall and spring semesters, collaborating with athletic trainers from each team to schedule a day and time to test based off of teams' competition and travel schedules and delegates the posting of Bronco Bulletin.

"It has been a joy to work with Maire over these last two semesters," said assistant director of performance nutrition, Jamie Pepper. "She is extremely talented in creating designs and handouts, and her organization skills are outstanding. I've had the pleasure of watching her flourish in her role, stepping up in her duties to become a great leader on our team. Maire has taken full charge of all her responsibilities by delegating duties, communication with our internal and external staff and solving problems in a timely manner, we are going to miss her when she graduates!"

Prior to Boise State, Dickens worked directly with Washington State's student-athletes in the weight room for two years while obtaining her Bachelor of Science in kinesiology with a minor in strength and conditioning. She led the lifts and workouts for the cheer and dance programs, as well as for the athletics staff. During COVID-19, she worked at a local sports performance facility in Boise with high school students, some of which are now student-athletes at Boise State, such as Austin Bolt and Sydney Groves.

She also completed an internship at Exos, an elite coaching company, where she worked directly with Olympians, athletes preparing for the NFL Combine or Division I athletics.

"On paper, Maire was a seamless fit and since she was already admitted into the MAL program, that showed she was invested regardless of obtaining a GA role," said Wade. "There were no concerns about her professionalism since she'd already had experience working within athletics, and her background in exercise science has brought a completely different component to help balance my thought processes as a dietician. It's been such a blessing to have someone like Maire, who is willing to learn and bring new ideas to the table."

While she doesn't know just quite yet what role she wants in athletics, she's been able to build off her past experiences and continue growing as a professional in athletics. Her role as GA has allowed her to explore more areas of the sports performance, health & wellness department, while also touching upon areas of athletics she normally would not have if she had not been in the MAL program.

"I think my favorite part of this experience has been around being able to work in an area that I love, while also being given responsibilities that are outside of my comfort zone that allow me to grow as a professional," said Dickens. "I've had the opportunity to work with individuals and departments that I typically wouldn't have collaborated with through this role, such as working a Mountain West Championship. I've also been able to learn the importance of all the areas within an athletics department because of my assistantship and the MAL program."

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