Imhotep Charter tries again for a state football title, this time with ‘brain training’ on its side

The click-clack of cleats when Imhotep Charter takes the field Friday night at Cumberland Valley High School might resemble the sound made by the Panthers’ secret weapon as she strolls the halls of the school’s East Germantown campus.

“A lot of people don’t believe this because I wear heels and makeup every day,” neuroscientist Shirley Posey joked in a recent phone interview, “but I was a basketball player and I ran track [in high school].”

These days, Posey, the director of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at the African-centered charter school, is using “brain training” twice a week to enhance athletic performance.

The result has the undefeated Panthers, some of whom feel they have succumbed to championship pressure in previous seasons, on the precipice of a second state title.

At 7 p.m. Friday, Imhotep (14-0) faces District 7′s Peters Township (15-0) for the PIAA Class 5A crown.

“I think this is innovative in high school sports,” Imhotep coach Devon Johnson said before a recent practice. “You see this at the college level and the NFL, but we’re doing it at this level with our kids from the inner city, helping them perform on the biggest stages in high school football, and I think it’s directly correlated to being undefeated and having three come-from-behind wins this season.”

Johnson, now in his fourth season as coach, said it all began when he and Posey talked during the school’s trip to Ghana in June.

More than a dozen students from Imhotep, which refers to itself as a STEM learning center, delivered 3D printers to schools in the West African nation in hopes of installing water filtration systems and other services.

At some point on the journey, which included several football players, Johnson talked with Posey about his team’s need to be more focused and resilient when adversity struck.

After winning its first state title in 2015 under then-coach Albie Crosby, Imhotep lost three times to Cathedral Prep of Erie in the Class 4A title game from 2016-18. Then in 2019, the Panthers lost to Dallas in the 4A quarterfinals. Imhotep also lost to Penn-Trafford in overtime in the Class 5A finale in 2021.

“We would see body language changes whenever there was some sort of adversity,” Johnson said of previous seasons. “We’ve had kids in the past who would start crying when it was still the third quarter with a bunch of time on the clock.

“We would be successful all year, and then the first time we had some adversity or we weren’t able to just roll over a team, we were seeing doubt and fear creep into their minds instead of realizing we were one or two plays away from turning the tide.”

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For example, the Panthers battled Pine Richland to a 7-7 draw at halftime during last season’s Class 5A final. An early third-quarter interception return for a touchdown, however, broke their spirits, leading to a 28-14 loss.

“I saw it drop the morale of my team,” said junior running back Jabree Wallace-Coleman, who has committed to Georgia. “You could just tell it changed the team. But this year, we’ve been working to stay calm and not fold under pressure.”

Posey, 38, returned from Ghana and began building a “brain training” program that she revealed to Johnson, 36, in August. In addition to her duties at Imhotep, Posey also is a Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins after earning a master’s degree at Hampton University.

“When most people think about athletes, they think about speed and power, but ... it is our brains that regulate those skills,” Posey said. “It’s also our brain that regulates our emotions and how we control and manage those emotions, so if athletes truly want to perform at their top level, it is imperative that they train physically and mentally.”

For Posey, the focus is on using breathing and visualization techniques to improve focus, reaction time, memory function, and the ability to manage stress and anxiety.

Johnson didn’t take convincing, but his players were reluctant to board the brain train at first.

Posey introduced the idea by revealing that athletes such as NBA star Stephen Curry had been employing neuroscience training techniques for years.

During an early session, Posey broke the team into position groups.

Running backs, receivers, defensive backs, and linebackers, etc., worked within groups to assemble a puzzle.

Loud noises mixed with a time limit, the inability to talk, and random unrelated puzzle pieces that had to be discarded, she hoped, would simulate the pressure of a football game.

To up the ante, Posey sometimes randomly disassembled a group’s puzzle while the clock was running.

“The first time I did that, they freaked out,” she said, laughing. “As the exercise goes along, it’s not about putting the puzzle together, it’s about managing the stress of the noise, the time restraint, and the frustration of me breaking apart the puzzle pieces.”

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Johnson said his players didn’t grasp how the sessions related to football until the season started.

In September, Imhotep fell behind Malvern Prep early before rallying to victory.

“I think that really opened their eyes like, ‘Oh, this is working. We’re not folding under pressure,’ ” Johnson said.

Similarly, Roman Catholic led Imhotep by 10 points in the fourth quarter of the District 12 title game last month.

The Panthers also were missing six starters, including Wallace-Coleman, 16, who was out with an elbow injury.

In his stead, freshman Ronell Word scored the game-winning rushing touchdown, giving the Panthers the 30-26 victory.

“They were already some of the top kids physically as athletes, but now that they have the mental training or ‘brain training,’ they are a force to be reckoned with,” Posey said. “So I am super excited about Friday.”

Posey and Johnson also are enthused about the future.

Both believe the skills from “brain training” will be useful on and off the field.

“This is a whole different part of competition,” Johnson said, “so the fact that their minds were open to this mental aspect has helped us have conversations with them about making better decisions in life, not being so emotional, not getting too high, not getting too low, and that you have to roll with the punches. Then it’s about how you respond to adversity not just on the field, but in life. They’ll see the results for themselves once they leave these walls at Imhotep and go into the real world, or college, or the workforce, and it helps them be in control of their emotions, and have emotional intelligence. I think that’s more beneficial than anything.”