VALDOSTA — Football just means a little something extra at Valdosta High than almost anywhere else.

The Valdosta Touchdown Club showed just how much football means earlier this year when boosters made the $30,000 decision to partner with Muscle Milk Collegiate.

As the name implies, the Muscle Milk Collegiate program has primarily been offered to universities. Some of the most athletically prestigious schools in the country such as Florida State University, the University of Southern California and the University of Oregon partnered with Muscle Milk in 2006.

Since that time the brand has continued partnering with some of the most successful programs in the nation, including the University of Texas in 2008 and the University of Alabama in 2015. Now, Valdosta High has become one of the first high schools in the country to partner with Muscle Milk.

The idea originally spawned from the same line of thinking that began the “Feed the ’Cats” program — a desire to provide better nutrition for the student-athletes at VHS.

The Touchdown Club knows the fastest way to return back to the glory days of Wildcat football is to build championship-caliber athletes with a strong, daily nutritional foundation of the proper balance of proteins and carbohydrates.

With the dietary needs of the team in mind, the Valdosta Touchdown Club invested in a year-long partnership with Muscle Milk Collegiate. The partnership allows the boosters to purchase Muscle Milk Collegiate Powder formula at a reduced rate. As a bonus, Muscle Milk has supplied the Wildcats with t-shirts, sideline towels and shaker bottles.

One year of the program will cost the boosters $30,000.

“Our booster club folks have really stepped out there for these kids,” Rodemaker said. “The booster club really has been kid-focused here the last year.

“They wanted to do this. We’ve been asking for some help, so it’s been really good so far.”

But a $30,000 investment will seem like pocket change if it makes an impact on the football field. Valdosta head coach Alan Rodemaker claims he can already see results since starting his team on the program at the beginning of the Spring semester in January.

“We just maxed our kids out after a nine-week cycle,” Rodemaker said. “An average on our kids was like 88 pounds over three lifts. Bench, squat, power clean averaged an about 88 pound per kid increase.”

Muscle Milk’s Collegiate Powder provides up to 40 grams of protein and 590 calories (per four scoops). As well as being lactose and gluten-free, the formula provides the student-athletes with 20 essential vitamins and minerals and up to 91 grams of carbohydrates.

When taken after a session in the weight room, the powder provides a big boost of protein for muscle recovery and the building of new muscle.

“After they lift weights, they all have a shaker bottle, we give them two scoops of Muscle Milk with two cartons of milk and they shake it up and take them,” Rodemaker said.

Derrick Davis is a sports reporter at the Valdosta Daily Times.