Many new faces are seen in the weight room during the first week of pre-season workouts for the Mayfield High School Wildcats football team.

The workouts, held on Friday mornings in June at the Cleveland-area high school, last roughly 50 minutes and include lifts like the Jump Squat, Push Press and Three-Board Bench Press.

As the players shuffle across the parking lot from the weight room to the football field, the group is silent, which is characteristic of units short on leadership and experience. It’s no surprise, though. The Wildcats lost 18 starters and 28 lettermen from last year’s playoff team.

Pre-season workouts and two-a-days will surely strengthen team bonds and foster the emergence of new leaders. In the meantime, though, one energy source is helping to pick the players up for the conditioning drills they’re about to perform. It comes in the form of Gatorade Prime Energy Chews, which the players consume between their grueling weight-room workouts and their gut-check on-field conditioning session.

The Chews pack a punch: 100 calories and 25 grams of carbohydrates give the players a boost to their optimum energy levels.

“The Gatorade Prime Energy Chews are going to tide you over when you are physically active,” says sports nutritionist Leslie Bonci. “It’s not a big volume, so you’re going to have something that goes down very easily, but you’ll know that you have something rather than nothing in the tank.”

The Wildcats chewed up the conditioning workout in impressive fashion, ending the first week of pre-season workouts on a high note and setting the tone for the rest of the summer and beyond.

Senior running back Anthony Canganelli said, “If you don’t do those things, you can’t expect to perform at your top level.”

The Wildcats expect to hit the ground running from Week 1. Topping their energy levels off with Gatorade Prime Energy Chews has become an essential element in their strong start.