Athletes at Quincy University are pushing back against the use of a new team-oriented nutrition app. The app is called Teamworks and it is designed to track meals as well as give dietary insights. 

The football team at QU tested the app’s functions before any other sports on campus. After word got out around campus of the new app, students did not like the idea. Words like ‘invasive’ and ‘unnecessary’ were used to describe the app and it has created controversy over privacy, convenience, and honesty. 

Teamworks is not only a nutrition app though. Other features in the app enhance the cohesion in a team and offer structure for the chaotic life of a college athlete. The app includes a calendar. It adds every class, meeting, and workout that an athlete has on a particular day. 

Teamworks also has a direct messaging feature that allows coaches, trainers, or dietitians to interact with athletes. The resource tab allows those people to then send athletes presentations or educational forms that can teach them about nutrition. 

Austin Bortle is the new head coach for the sprint football team at QU. Sprint football is a sport that requires its athletes to stay under a certain weight limit. Coach Bortle has used the Teamworks app before in his coaching career and appreciates the role it plays. 

“With a weight-controlled sport, I believe it could be useful in creating another level of accountability in an athlete,” Bortle said. 

Some athletes do not share the same thought process though. Wrestling is also a weight-controlled sport with constant weigh-ins and an influence on nutrition. Jasmine Hopkins, a sophomore at QU, has wrestled for a long time and sees more harm instead of the help that the app provides. 

“Wrestling is already prone to eating disorders and I think tracking meals will only add to that,” Hopkins said. 

The nutrition aspect of Teamworks has raised concerns. Coaches are worried that athletes will become dishonest and not track what they are eating. Athletes are worried that this new system is too overbearing and forced. 

Freja Hansen, a junior at QU, shared her concern about the app. 

“Coaches should trust their athletes and believe they are eating right and not have to watch what we eat for us,” Hansen said. 

Students believe Teamworks puts a level of control over the athletes when it comes to eating habits. However, many athletes at QU rely on The Cafeteria for meals and have no control over what they make. This leaves the athlete in an unfair situation and makes the results in the app skewed. 

A solution that coaches have alluded to is Teamworks adding what athletes should eat rather than tracking what they are eating. Students have suggested making the app optional for those who want to engage in meal plans and recipes. This avoids mandating the use of the app. 

Regardless of if Teamworks stays, changes, or gets scrapped, students want a say in how technology shapes their daily lives, especially when it is served up alongside their lunch.