ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — A team of student-athletes from Washtenaw Technical Middle College in Ann Arbor has developed an innovative app to improve communication between injured athletes, coaches, and medical staff.
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The app, called 'Athletassist', allows athletes to identify areas of pain, rank their discomfort level, and communicate directly with coaches about their injuries.
"It's so important because life doesn't stop off the field, right? Players are people and people have human concerns and needs," said Quinn, one of the student developers.
The platform addresses a common problem in athletics where coaches struggle to keep track of individual player injuries across their teams.
"Oftentimes, the coaches are really overwhelmed and they don't have a way to individually check in with all of their student athletes," said Roman Karas, a senior at the middle college.
The app features a diagnostic tool where athletes can select where they're feeling pain and indicate their level of discomfort. Coaches can then see all their players and their current status.
"We have built-in communication and team announcements. Just so that there's transparent communication between the players and coaches," Karas said.
Coaches can use the app to communicate with their team collectively or with individual players, track which athletes are healthy enough to play, and adjust practices based on injury trends throughout the season.
Working with Junior Achievement of Southeast Michigan and Washtenaw Community College advisor Claire Sparklin, the team submitted their app to Junior Achievement's national Social Innovation Challenge called "Future Bound."
"When they submitted their information, they thought, well, that's great. We did it. Check that box. Like, how wonderful. Then they got the really exciting news that they had made top 10 in the nation," Sparklin said.
The four high school students are now heading to Georgia as the first Michigan students to reach the national competition, hoping to gain recognition and potential investors for their project.
"With this group. They are so young, they're dual-enrolled high school students and college students. And so watching their focus and their determination has frankly been inspiring," Sparklin said.
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