Nestled in the southwest corner of New York State is small town, USA - a place called Panama. It’s the kind of place where everybody knows each other. Traditions, family, and community are staples of the area. It’s a place where only 44 students are graduating from the senior class in 2025. Where signage for deer crossings, horses, and even tractors, are as common along road sides as stop signs. It’s also the kind of place for champions are born.
It produced Ed Nelson, the star of the football team during a great run from 1997 to 1999. Nelson was the team's quarterback, who passed for over 3,000 yards his senior season and was recruited to Division II Edinboro to play football. After two seasons there, Nelson moved on to Brockport, where he also played football, to pursue a career in physical education. It was in 2001 that I first met Ed Nelson as I was also attending school there. I’m sure he doesn’t remember me from that era, but he stood out to me then as someone who exuded integrity.
After graduating Brockport, Nelson returned to his hometown in Panama, where he began his career as an educator and coach. A football guy at his core, he began coaching the varsity football team. His start as a basketball coach was with the girls JV program. After a few years, as football season was wrapping up, the boys varsity basketball position had opened and remained vacant. Nelson wanted to make sure his football players had a coach for the basketball court as well, and so began his 18 year run as the boys varsity basketball coach.
In 2012, the Panthers won their first of 5 sectional titles under Nelson ('12, '16, '19, '23, & '25). In 2016, Panama defeated Rochester private school CG Finney in the Far West Regional, earning its first ever trip to the show…the NYS Final Four. Three seasons later, they broke through once again, after defeating Belfast in the 2019 Far West Regional. However, both of Panama’s trips to the big dance at the state level ended in heartbreaking fashion. In 2016, the Panthers gave up a 16-point fourth quarter lead and in 2019 a four-point play in the closing seconds forced an extra session, where the team was defeated in overtime.
Two seasons later came the Covid-shortened 2021 Season, where teams played a condensed regular season schedule. Panama was one of the schools affected by the pandemic outbreak and had to call up some eighth graders to field a varsity squad. Nelson sensed something special in that young group, which featured Carter Brink, Bryce, Hinsdale, and Alex Barmore. They competed that year against older, more experienced competition, and took some lumps. Nelson decided he would see that group through and walk away from coaching the basketball team after they were seniors.
I will never forget driving to Westfield during the 2022 Season. The Wolverines had a nice squad that would go on to win the Section VI Class D championship composed of four seniors and a standout freshman named Carson Swanson. They were taking on Panama that night. I recall tweeting out the starters, which included three freshmen in the lineup (Brink, Hinsdale, and Barmore). Despite making the trip that night to lay eyes on the Westfield team I thought would win a title, I left excited about the future. There were some freshmen from Panama and another from Westfield that we would be hearing plenty about in the coming seasons.
The following season, in 2023, the young core were now sophomores and already playing a winning brand of basketball. Despite their standout, Carter Brink, being forced out of action with a shoulder injury that cost him his sophomore season, the team won the Section VI title, upsetting Clymer in the championship. They would go on to lose to eventual state champion, Avoca-Prattsburg in the Far West Regional, but it was clear these boys from Panama were knocking on the door of something special.
With a roster capable of making a state title run, Panama learned that its 2024 squad, now composed of mostly juniors, would be moved up to Class C due to the state's addition of an extra classification. Panama had been a clear Class D program until the state adjusted the enrollment numbers used to classify teams, and in 2024, they were two students over the number that would have kept them in Class D. In the Section VI Semifinals, they were defeated by eventual Class C Champion Randolph.
When the numbers were released for the 2025 Season, Panama learned it would return to competition in Class D for the final run. As Ed Nelson counted up the number of games his team would need to play in order for their season to end in the state championship game, the boys he would be coaching were winning another state championship on the football field. It delayed the start of basketball season in Panama and the team had to push their first two games back. Hoops officially got underway for the Panthers on December 10th, their first of what would be 25 games - the very number Nelson had written on a board at school to show his boys what the goal would be.
After beginning the season with two straight victories, Panama was hosting league rival Westfield. The game would be broadcast as the Centercourt 'Game of the Week' and I was on hand to get my first look of the season at this team. Prior to the game, I walked through the halls of Panama with color analyst Ryan Mountain. We looked at the tributes to the athletic history displayed in the hallways, and noticed a football in a case with Ed Nelson's name on it. It was the home opener for Panama that evening and a capacity crowd was on hand. The Panthers came storming right out of the opening tip, banging a triple in the opening seconds and jumping out to a 15–4 advantage. Two minutes into that broadcast, I speculated as to how cool it would be for a team to be the first to win a football and basketball state championship in the same scholastic year. However, after an excellent start to the game by Panama, Westfield outscored them 73-40 the rest of the way, earning a 77-55 victory. Suddenly, the Panthers were just 1-2 on the season.
Nelson needed to get his team back in the lab as he called it, the intense practice sessions where he believes championships are won. The bright lights in March were just where they celebrated titles. He believed firmly in the value of the entire team, not just the players getting the minutes on the floor in games. The guys pushing each other every day at practice that didn’t always get as many minutes were every bit as valuable to him.
There were still 22 games ahead if they were to reach the promised land. The team adopted the mantra eat glass. They broke down their huddles that way, believing if they can rebound, they can run. They became a machine in transition, rebounding and running teams into the ground. Nelson would tell his group, I need you to be 1/5 part of that machine when you’re on the floor. Just over a month later, the Panthers would go on the road to avenge that loss in an intense game against Westfield. That victory earned Panama a share of the league title in CCAA I West.
The final home game for the 11 seniors at Panama was February 13th against defending Section VI Class B2 Champion Falconer, a team very similar to the Panthers, with size, experience, and a standout. That night was also senior night at the school. After ceremonies prior to tip honoring those seniors and as the game was close to beginning, Nelson was approached by his sister. His father had suffered a medical emergency and Nelson had to leave immediately. Later that evening, Nelson lost his father to a heart attack. In his absence, the Panthers earned an overtime victory.
"My dad was our biggest fan and my best friend. Losing him was a big shock to me right before playoff started. You have a big empty space in your soul. I knew when I lost my dad that night, I was missing the team as well. Even though you always say it, I really did think of them as family, like extended sons of myself."
Wyatt Eggleston, a junior on the team, had also lost his father earlier that week. Both Eggleston and Nelson came to practice the day after losing their father because being with the team felt like being with family. It was where they needed to be.
"Our country wasn’t built by people who quit during hard times. The only way to honor someone is to keep moving forward, because you never stay in the same place - if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving moving backward." said Nelson.
Nelson had told his team during the season that the enemy of good was great and they didn’t want to be good. Later that season, they no longer wanted to be great - they wanted to be the enemy of great, which was legendary. Nelson came back to practice with some other motivational things in mind to say, but a look in his player's eyes showed him there was something intrinsically motivating those young men beyond anything he was going to say. He had a team of champions that were ready to enter the Lion's Den and start eating hearts.
Five nights later, the team was in Cheektowaga for a nonleague game that had been pushed to the end of the season, due to football. It was originally part of a showcase in early December. That was another Centercourt 'Game of the Week' I was on hand to broadcast, eager to see how Panama would fair against a significantly larger school from Class A that was also a league champion in ECICIII. Panama won that game in what felt like clinical fashion. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the eat glass or rebound and run mentality, but I said during the broadcast how proficient they were in transition after a rebound, stating: "they leak, they look, they space and attack." I also speculated again during that broadcast of a state championship in their future.
I left that evening convinced it was happening, and when game photos were sent to me by my photographer, Shawn Turri, a great picture of Ed Nelson with his team appeared. I immediately sensed that I was looking at a coach of the year photo. I didn’t learn until the following day that Nelson had lost his father tragically less than a week prior. But what I did learn that day, was this Panama team was just different. They were a determined looking buzzsaw, led by an alpha male.
After claiming the Section VI Class D championship at JCC, Panama entered the Far West Regional to face Fillmore, a team that sat right next to them in the state rankings all season. Many viewed it is the de facto state championship. Fillmore came out firing and sinking 3-pointers at an alarming rate, making three in the first two minutes of the game, and jumping out to a 9-3 advantage. However, Panama was completely unwavered during the early blitz. Instead of playing on their heels, they just kept counter punching until they were the team punching harder. By the end of the first half, the Panthers had knocked down nine 3-pointers and eventually cruised to a 17-point victory.
The victory placed the team of destiny back in Binghamton, where they had fallen short six seasons prior. This team and everything about this trip would be different. Panama started the NYSPHAA Class D semifinal fast and then poured it on in the second half, claiming a 21-point victory over Sackets Harbor to reach the state championship game. After seeing that and the team they would be playing the following day, my confidence began spilling over into outright guarantees on my social media account.
Bridgehampton was their opponent, a team returning to the state championship game from the prior season, who arrived on an 18-game win streak with 16 of those victories coming by double figures. They hadn’t faced adversity in a game in over two months. Panama was entering another Lion's Den...time to eat!
Their opponent was a squad that liked to overwhelm teams with speed and a full court press. After a competitive start to the game, it was Panama doing the overwhelming. All fifths of the machine were well-oiled as the team ate glass & attacked. The culmination of being together at the varsity level since eighth grade was playing out before my eyes as I sat front row for the big show. By halftime, the Panthers had taken a 41–22 lead. They increased that advantage to 22 points after three quarters.
When the final horn sounded, the players and coaches began jumping up and down, moving their way toward the middle of the floor, coming together for an embrace. They had made history together, not just becoming the first basketball state champion in program history, but also giving Panama the distinction of being the only team from Section VI to win a state title in both football and basketball in the same scholastic year. They accomplished it by staying together as a family during the toughest trials that two of their family members had ever faced. They did it for each other and for their beloved head coach on his final tour behind the bench. A head coach and 11 seniors walked onto to the court for one final game together as Panthers and walked off of it as state champions.
They kept the family together into the early hours of the morning, taking their celebration straight to Texas Road House for a champion's steak dinner and then immediately boarding the bus to drive home that evening. About 10 miles outside of town, they approached flashing lights. The fire department was on hand to escort the team back into town. A championship parade in the middle of a cold night in small town, USA. Family and community members were waiting at the school to give them the hero's welcome they deserved.
Welcome home to Panama, NY, where champions are born. Ed Nelson is your 2025 Centercourt Coach of the Year. Congratulations on an outstanding 18-year career that included five sectional titles, three regional titles and a NYSPHAA Class D State Championship.
-🏀centercourt🏀
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