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Student athletes are hard workers. Between classes, practice and games, the pressure to succeed in multiple areas of their lives is constant.

Stephanie Frusteri, Founder and CEO of , wanted to address this problem before it affected athletes on the field.

“Everyone addresses the crisis,” said Frusteri, “but … what happens in those seconds before? There wasn’t anything for those moments, and at the end of the day, before a student is on the verge of breaking down or spiraling out of control, it’s those 10 to 90 seconds before that matters the most.”

Last fall, Frusteri was awarded a scholarship to attend the Behavioral Health Tech Conference, where she was connected to leaders in the “mental health and sports performance ecosystem.” Her work has been endorsed by leaders across medicine, education and “student-athlete development.”

Frusteri described Zone Performance as “a non-clinical neuroscience-based system designed to help students regain cognitive control under pressure before stress escalates into crisis. It’s a skills-based nervous system regulation system and protocol that universities can deploy at scale through a brief physiological intervention, including the One-Second Reset protocol.” Her focus is specifically on helping student athletes.

Frusteri began working with LaunchNET last semester. She got connected to Professor Ferguson’s business consulting class at ����ԭ��, where she met seven students who worked with her to test Zone Performance’s first pilot. She specifically mentioned four students in the class who helped her immensely: Charlie Durkin, Nathan Tager, Luke Ballard, and Jake Petkov.

Durkin, who was the football team captain, and Tager, who played for the team, were both helpful in narrowing down her focus on athletes as the target audience. “It was from those boys that I really honed in on this,” she explained. “Charlie voluntarily told the other kickers and specialists on the team about it, and they did the pilot with us on our own.”

“They gave me a fresh perspective,” said Frusteri, “and there’s no better audience than the actual audience that you’re working with. I had the pleasure of working with my target market.”

The first pilot test consisted of an in-person one-on-one session, a second group session, and heart rate variability (HRV) based nervous system regulation training. HRV refers to the amount of time in between each heartbeat.

The athletes would wear monitors throughout their daily life that provided a baseline HRV measurement. During the sessions, Frusteri measured their HRV when they thought of or experienced possible stress triggers, such as missing a play. She noticed that it dropped significantly, showing signs of stress. However, when they would use the technique she taught them, their HRV would rise significantly, showing that “you can get that composure literally in one second, once it’s been instilled.”

Frusteri graduated from ����ԭ�� with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. She has always been interested in science and working with people, and she recognized the importance of this kind of training in her own life, as well as in the lives of others around her.

“Just like anyone, I have certain life experiences that led me to focus on the true need for this,” explained Frusteri. “It’s newer to really even discuss pre-crisis intervention, because, as you know, everyone’s talking about the true collapse.” She aims to give students resources to prevent breakdowns before they happen, rather than showing them how to recover after the fact.

Currently, Frusteri is still in the case study phase of her program to determine where it will fit best. “My goal is for this to be implemented in multiple departments throughout various college campuses throughout the country,” she explained. “I would like to scale it at a national level, because I feel it’s very important and addresses that area of concern that hasn’t been addressed so far.”

Frusteri is planning on a second pilot test, and wants to eventually get licensed and trained facilitators once the case study is completed. “I would like a formal study in terms of being able to … have a real case study with real metrics that’s approved by the university,” she said. She is working on partnering with the multiple campus departments at ����ԭ��, including the CARES Center, as well as meeting with Case Western Reserve for a case study.

Although it works in complement with existing programs, Zone Performance is non-therapeutic and non-clinical, and it does not treat or diagnose.

Frusteri wanted to offer tools to help those who may feel a stigma surrounding therapy. “With this, you don’t have to talk about your problem or even say anything,” she said. “You don’t even have to believe it works to see it works.”

LaunchNET connected Frusteri with various departments and resources that were a great help to her business, specifically mentioning the trademark clinic. “I’ve been very fortunate with this program,” she said. “Everyone genuinely wants to see you succeed, so they really do line you up with people who are beneficial.”