A new program is putting a spotlight on an often-overlooked aspect of athletic success – proper nutrition. The University of Alabama at Birmingham has teamed up with local nonprofit Bama Wellness Advocacy to deliver a comprehensive nutrition education initiative targeting high school athletes in the Birmingham City Schools District.
The brainchild of James Jones, head athletic trainer for UAB Sports Medicine Outreach, and Jacquie Fazekas, president of Bama Wellness Advocacy, the 12-week program was launched after observing a critical need among student-athletes.
“We both had the same idea for a program, but Jacquie had already implemented it,” explains Jones. “It was basically a nutrition education program for young athletes in schools, and we were both looking at kids coming to practices without eating — haven’t had a proper meal, weren’t properly hydrated.”
Recognizing their shared vision, they joined forces and launched a pilot nutrition education initiative targeting basketball teams at Huffman High School and Ramsay High.
With a financial boost from UAB’s “Give as One” internal fundraising campaign, the program hit the ground running. It incorporates weekly interactive sessions covering nutrition basics, healthy cooking demos, food tastings and distribution of nutritious snacks to encourage better habits.
“We’ve just been trying to look at how we can scale and grow,” says Jones. “I think the biggest goal was to provide some nutrition education on some of the best things for kids to eat — and not only pre-practice but pre-games and in their daily lives — and also look at total wellbeing.”
The approach has been well-received by students, coaches and parents alike. Fazekas and Jones made it a priority to get families involved from the outset through education nights and providing recipe books to extend the lessons beyond the classroom.
“We kicked off the program with the parents and the coaches,” Fazekas says. “We see that nutritional substance doesn’t just happen at the school or when the coaches are with them. We were trying to reach the parents and loved ones to make them aware of this education.”
Early feedback has been promising, with students reporting feeling more energetic during practices after choosing healthier snack options. There are also anecdotes of athletes being more mindful about hydration, sleep patterns and overall self-care stemming from the program’s lessons.
“We had kids who spoke to us about monitoring their sleep and getting on a sleep pattern, texting each other saying, ‘Guys, it’s about that time, we need to shut it down,’ ” Jones shares.
“Those are the types of successes we want to quantify better moving forward.”
With the basketball pilot showing positive results, Jones and Bama Wellness Advocacy have their sights set on expanding to other sports, such as football, in the coming years. The ultimate goal is to make nutrition education accessible across the entire Birmingham City Schools system.
Fezakas says that while Birmingham is about 70 percent “food desert,” referring to an urban area where it is difficult to buy affordable or good quality food, food scarcity wasn’t the focus of the program, as all city schools offer a free, healthy breakfast and lunch. Whether students take advantage of those offerings is another matter.
“There is a level of scarcity for sure,” explains Fazekas, “but we did not focus on that because they seem to, in some cases, get access to enough unhealthy food to fill their bellies. But we’re trying not to perpetuate bad options through food scarcity, and instead getting them to understand more what could be available from a true healthy option — whether it’s energy bars before or protein bars after or just being proactive and bagging grapes. We still have work to do with the schools, obviously, because we did hear that many of them didn’t eat breakfast or lunch, so it’s not even like they don’t have access to breakfast and lunch.”
As the nutrition program continues growing, the partnership between UAB and Bama Wellness Advocacy is equipping Birmingham’s teenage student-athletes with invaluable knowledge and resources to fuel their growing bodies properly — positioning them for peak performance and overall healthier lifestyles.
