Imhotep’s Third Straight PIAA Championship Was Sweeter Than Ever.
If you visit Imhotep Institute Charter High School in Philadelphia — whatever you do — don’t reference The Mummy movie trilogy with Brendan Fraser. The basis for the name isn’t the film according to the website. The actual Imhotep was an Ancient Egyptian Chancellor, was a high priest of the Sun God Ra at Heliopolis, and an architect.
This year, the Imhotep Charter High School PIAA Class 5A Basketball Championship had additional meaning.
After all, it’s not all of the time that a high school basketball program goes from 2A to 5A.
All other Philadelphia-area high school powerhouses had already been eliminated from the PIAA Playoffs, Roman Catholic, Neumann-Goretti, Archbishop Wood, and Archbishop Carroll.
On this night at Hershey’s Giant Center, Imhotep Charter (29–3) was given all of the competition that they could handle against Franklin Regional.
Located between East Oak Lane and East Germantown, Imhotep Charter Institute High School is relatively new by Philadelphia standards, having first opened in 1998.
Imhotep has a total of nine state championships. They are 9–0 in State Title games as well. A recent poll by USA Today ranked them #21 nationally according to a TribLive.com article.
Late in the game on Friday night, Franklin Regional pulled to within 49–40. It was the closest that they ever came and Imhotep pulled the game out 58–49.
Imhotep’s 10th State Championship came with all other Philadelphia teams already having been eliminated.
Michael Thomas Leibrandt
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