Penn Manor board places mental‑performance app for student athletes on Dec. 1 voting agenda

Athletic director Pat Tassi urged the Penn Manor School Board on Nov. 17 to approve a one‑year license for OMP (Optimize My Performance), an app he said delivers short, sport‑specific lessons to build confidence, resilience, sleep and recovery skills for student athletes.

Tassi told the Committee of the Whole that OMP includes roughly 230 short content items (about 1½ to 9 minutes each) — roughly 27 hours of material — developed by sports psychologists and former elite athletes. He described the program as “push and play” content coaches can assign, and said the district would be the first public high school to use the tool. School staff said the annual cost is $5,000, about $10 per athlete, and that the platform complies with COPPA and includes dashboards and survey tools so coaches can monitor engagement.

Superintendent Dr. Philip B. Gale and athletic staff answered board questions about fit for high‑school athletes, the ability to upload district content and privacy protections. “It’s very scalable for the number of athletes we have,” Tassi said, arguing that the platform makes mental‑skills work more accessible than repeated outside speakers.

After discussion, a board member moved to place the OMP purchase on the Dec. 1 voting agenda so the board could consider formal approval; the motion carried 8–0 to add the item to the voting agenda.

Next steps: the app will return to the board for a final vote at the Dec. 1 meeting, and staff said they will report engagement metrics and an evaluation at the end of the pilot year.