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How Penn State's Cael Sanderson Became a Cookie Mogul 20 Years Later

Cael's Cookie launched in the 2000s but faded. Now, Sanderson has revived his sports nutrition cookie.
Amanda Vogt|
Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling coach Cael Sanderson reacts during a Big Ten match against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling coach Cael Sanderson reacts during a Big Ten match against the Iowa Hawkeyes. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The best college wrestling team in the country is fueled partly by a sports nutrition cookie founded by its eclectic head coach. What is Penn State wrestling’s secret ingredient? It just might be Cael’s Cookie. 

Cael Sanderson, in his 17th year as Penn State’s wrestling coach, has a record that speaks for itself. He’s the only undefeated, four-time national champion in NCAA Division I wrestling history and leads one of college sports' greatest active dynasties. 

Penn State enters the 2026 postseason seeking its fifth straight NCAA wrestling title and 13th under Sanderson. The Nittany Lions, who host the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament this weekend, have been particularly dominant this season, going 15-0 and outscoring opponents by an average margin of 39.4 points.  

So why is the nation’s most successful college wrestling coach back in the cookie business? It’s a story that began 20 years ago, when Sanderson commissioned a sports nutrition product because he wanted his wrestlers to eat better. He still does.

“I got tired of watching some of the stuff our guys eat and I’m like, ‘Man, I’ve got to get those cookies back because I just don’t like seeing what our guys are eating,’” Sanderson said recently.

Having initially fizzled as a business concept in the 2010s, Cael’s Cookie is back, rebranded in 2024 by Sanderson and a long-time fan who saw potential in the product. The first batch sold out, and it’s not just wrestlers buying them — marathon runners are seeing the benefits, too. Overall, the reviews have been great, despite Sanderson’s self-deprecating marketing pitch.  

“If you don’t eat healthy food, which I don’t eat a lot of healthy food, then they probably won’t taste very good,” Sanderson said. “If you do, you’ll love them.”

'Pioneers get slaughtered'

The cookie’s story started in 2006 with B.J. Thomas, a chemist and food scientist who had always been impressed with Sanderson’s career. When Sanderson wrestled in high school, Thomas watched him compete against teams he coached himself.

“A kid that I grew up with, his brother wrestled Cael in the finals at [a tournament], and Cael really just beat him,” Thomas said. “And this is an all-state football player, a very strong kid … and Cael just beat him like he was just a cat playing with a toy.”

A wrestler himself, Thomas wanted to create something that would benefit wrestlers nutritionally with clean ingredients.

“I didn’t want a bar,” Thomas said. “I didn’t want something that was cold, extruded. I didn’t want something that didn’t dissolve really well in the stomach. That was super important, that it’s something a kid could eat, especially if they're not eating a lot after weigh-ins or before weigh-ins.”

The sports nutrition cookie Thomas originally developed was called the “Undefeated Sports Cookie,” an homage to Sanderson, the only person with whom Thomas ever considered partnering. 

“I was intrigued because he lost the World Championships [in 2003] and then he came back to win the Olympics [in 2004],” Thomas said. “And if you look at any athlete, everyone loses. There’s only one way to grow, and you learn more from a loss than you do winning all the time. And when I came up with the name, it was like, ‘OK, well, who’s the best wrestler that kind of embodies this?’ And Cael was kind of the natural fit.”

But the cookie proved a hard sell. Explaining the concept of a healthy cookie was difficult regardless of the taste, and the Undefeated Sports Cookie never caught on.

When Jake Varner, now the director of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, competed for Sanderson at Iowa State, he couldn’t wear an Undefeated Sports Cookie shirt because of other sponsorships, Thomas said. 

“Our shirt was on the NCAA ESPN broadcast, and then it was like edited out,” Thomas said. “They made him take his shirt off and they wouldn’t show that anymore, and it was a bummer. And I remember Cael said, ‘Pioneers get slaughtered,’ and that’s something that we’ve talked about over the years. This was a pioneering idea, and certainly we were ahead of our time.”

The right time for a rebrand

The cookie never went away completely. Sanderson still ordered them, and Thomas still baked them. For nearly a decade, Thomas made the cookies primarily for Sanderson and his family, including a son who is a “pretty picky eater.” 

“That kind of kept it alive for him and me that his son can eat something really nutritious and perform really well in his sporting activities,” Thomas said. 

Initially, there were five flavors: chocolate chip, peanut butter crunch, cinnamon raisin oat and “mad mad macadamia,” but Sanderson never wavered from ordering the regular chocolate chip. Still, the product needed a refresh. Enter Zac Stork.

Stork grew up in Iowa as a Sanderson fan as well. He runs a marketing branding agency, CRT Digital Solutions, and in 2024 began the product’s rebrand. Stork now works closely with Cael’s Cookie, giving it a permanent spot in the sports nutrition market. 

“I have this quote from Cael that I always kept in the back of my mind, sometimes in my wallet: ‘If you don’t continuously adapt and improve, you’ll meet a harsh reality from someone who has,’” Stork said. “So I had commented that on a LinkedIn post, which is how Cael found me. It was right place, right time.”

Sanderson thought it was the right time as well. 

“Obviously the last thing you want it to look like is you’re trying to sell cookies as opposed to coaching a wrestling team,” Sanderson said. “So I have a very small part in it, but it was just something that is kind of fun.”

The science behind Cael's Cookie

Cael’s Cookie weighs three ounces, has 350 calories and delivers more grams of fat than of protein. That’s intentional, Thomas said.  

“Fat has way more energy than protein or carbohydrates, and it’s assimilated in your body so much quicker,” Thomas said. “And it’s so good for your heart, for your brain.”

Athletes get necessary nutrients from Cael’s Cookie without worrying about the quantity or size of what they eat. According to the product’s website, it also “sits light on the stomach,” useful for wrestlers at weigh-ins and before competition. 

“When I was wrestling in college, our carbohydrate-reload kind of supplement was an unflavored dry powder,” Stork said. “So I think guys just know that what you’re eating is something solid going into your body and not junk.”

Although the cookie is now mass-produced, the recipe remains unchanged.

“Why does it still work for the best wrestling team in the country? Because your body needs these things, and other products just fall short,” Thomas said. “The cookie really is a low-weight, high-calorie energy powerhouse that just tastes good.”

Sanderson’s stamp of approval

Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling coach Cael Sanderson reacts during a match against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling coach Cael Sanderson reacts during a match against the Iowa Hawkeyes. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

While his name is on the cookie, Sanderson leaves the sales to the professionals.

“This is something I’m endorsing, and obviously my name’s on it, so I don’t have to be on social media and messing around and worried about selling cookies because we’re trying to be the best wrestling program we can be,” Sanderson said. 

Although Sanderson never wanted to promote the product himself, the trust associated with his name is hard to compete with, Stork said.

“There’s very few people in the industry, in wrestling or anywhere really, that have the level of respect that coach Cael has from athletes and coaches and fans nationwide,” Stork said. “For him to put his stamp on a product, that’s a huge trust badge for everybody out there, that there’s no reason to not get behind something that coach Cael is putting out.”

Thomas said he never wanted Cael’s Cookie to “die” and remains excited about its trajectory. The chocolate chip cookie, which initially sold out, is now back in stock. The company has also launched a new flavor, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut.  

“It’s not the only product I’ve made, but this is my life’s work, and to have Cael put his name behind it, I knew he’s going to sell a lot of cookies. That wasn’t the surprise,” Thomas said. “When I saw that first batch sold out and Zac texted me, it was just this feeling that you can’t buy. It just feels so good.”

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Amanda Vogt
AMANDA VOGT

Amanda Vogt is a senior at Penn State and has been on the Nittany Lions football beat for two years. She has previously worked for the Centre Daily Times and Daily Collegian, in addition to covering the Little League World Series and 2024 Paris Paralympics for the Associated Press. Follow her on X and Instagram @amandav_3.

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