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Question:

Our freshman daughter plays softball for her university and we hoped to find
others who had tips and tricks on how they or their celiac student managed
eating on the road, at the fields, on the bus, working with the coach, etc.



Summary:

1) My son learned to know what he could eat.  They can eat most fruit and
vegetables and salads.  They have to learn to speak up and ask if there is
wheat or flour in a recipe and most places will tell them. Since there is a
popular movement of eating no carbs many people are asking to hold the bread
so it does not seem so strange. Have a hamburger and say hold the bread. The
real issue might be the grill it is cooked on.





2) I teach at a university and deal with athletes regularly (as well as
having been a varsity athlete many years ago).  Unfortunately, there is
usually very little time at games/tournaments to get food for all the
players/coaches. Traveling on buses limits where they can stop to eat and
minimize the expense and the amount of time on the road.



Since most of the teams know their schedules early in the semester, it might
be possible for you or your daughter to contact local support groups in the
towns where she will be playing.  They may be able to supply a well needed
home cooked meal.  There may be alumni of her University that live in the
town who would be excited to be able to help the team out and be at the
games to cheer them on.



Other than that, the school may be able to provide "box lunches" for your
daughter that she can take along.  There are lots of snack foods like
pretzels and such that might fill in the gaps.  None of these are perfect
solutions and I'm sure others will have many more suggestions for you.



3) My daughter played college level soccer and I attended most games and
stayed in the same places that the team members stayed. I found the
tournaments to be the most difficult because there is a limited amount of
time between games and many times we had to eat at the horrible concession
stands.  I too brought a cooler, and had a stash of food items that were GF.




Schedules for games are usually set up far in advance of the season. Once
you have the schedule you or your daughter could check out the area and also
find out what the meal plan is for tournaments. My daughter did say that
they sometimes ate at turnpike rest stops.  All of the players complained
because the food made them feel sluggish and or sick.  The coach tried his
best to not stop for turnpike food.   If your daughter's coach knows what
the plan is for the food schedule you/she can look for restaurants that are
celiac friendly.  We were always able to find a place to eat.



My daughter sometimes ate at the opposing team's cafeteria.  If you know
that this is the plan perhaps you or your daughter could contact the food
service director of the college to see if they would be willing to prepare a
GF meal for your daughter.



My daughter's team usually stayed in a hotel that offered a breakfast menu
or continental breakfast. This made breakfast a bit easier. It was a little
harder with the continental breakfast but most places usually had fruit.



I traveled to most of her games over a four year period and most of the time
I was able to eat without any problems.  (Long Island was the least friendly
when it came to GF opportunities, I can't remember the name of the
University where she played but I really had a hard time in that area.)

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