Panama head coach Ed Nelson hugs Bryce Hinsdale after the Panthers won the NYSPHSAA Class D championship last month in Binghamton. Photo courtesy of Brynne Hinsdale

Ed Nelson stood in a back hallway at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena last month following the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D boys basketball championship game.

The Panama head coach reminisced about his previous 18 years as the Panthers’ varsity bench boss, more specifically, the last five he had enjoyed with many of the eight seniors on this year’s state title-winning team.

“We’re basically a bunch of football players here, even me, I don’t even know how I got involved in basketball,” Nelson said that night in Binghamton. “I was a football guy too. We’re a bunch of football guys going out there and competing.”

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The earliest any of the eight seniors played in a varsity game was during the 2021 playoffs when that year’s varsity team was quarantined due to COVID-19. Needing bodies to play in a playoff game, Panama called up its eighth-graders.

“We went up to Franklinville and walked out of there on a stretcher, every one of us,” Nelson recalled. “Bryce Hinsdale played with a broken foot, we didn’t even know it was broken until after the game. He was dragging his foot up and down the court.”

After winning a Section VI Class D championship as sophomores, the Panthers were blown out by Avoca-Prattsburgh in a Far West Regional.

“When we were sophomores and ended up upsetting Clymer for that sectional championship, we really had no pressure on us,” Nelson said.

Then, last year, the Panthers were moved up to Class C even though the school’s BEDS number was so close to the cutoff that the girls team was still playing at Class D.

“We got moved up to Class C with the new BEDS numbers and how they figure that out the next year,” Nelson said. “We ended up competing with some really high-level teams — Westfield and Carson Swanson, Drew Hind and Randolph.”

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But this year, the stars aligned for Panama.

Back in Class D, the Panthers scheduled a nonleague schedule as hard as possible, knowing they wanted to be battle-tested come postseason time.

They opened with Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 2 victories over Chautauqua Lake and Maple Grove before losing their first showdown of the year with Westfield, 77-55 in Panama.

A six-game winning streak followed before they ran into Hind and those Cardinals. Randolph won 61-51 at home in Cattaraugus County.

Undeterred, the Panthers closed the regular season with 10 straight wins, in the process beating the Swanson-led Wolverines 60-59 in Westfield to effectively wrap up a share of the league title.

Then, on Feb. 13, tragedy struck Nelson and his family. On Senior Night against Falconer, Nelson’s father passed away. Following festivities honoring his eight seniors, before the game even began, Nelson left the gym to be with family.

Two days later, in the midst of a four-game nonleague winning streak to end the regular season, Nelson was back coaching his team at Frewsburg. The Panthers would never lose again.

With a bye to the sectional semifinals at Jamestown Community College in hand, Panama beat Clymer 68-41 in the semifinals and Forestville 83-38 for the 12th sectional title in program history.

“This year, we were the No. 1 seed, No. 1 in the state for a long time … we had targets on our backs,” Nelson said.

An 86-69 win over Fillmore in the Far West Regional at Rush-Henrietta High School sent the Panthers to the state final four for the third time.

The first two state semifinals did not go Panama’s way as Nelson’s teams in 2016 and 2019 blew fourth-quarter leads en route to disappointing finishes.

That would not be the case this time. First, the Panthers coasted past Sackets Harbor 74-53. Finally, although Panama did lose what looked like an insurmountable lead early in the game, the Panthers were able to lock down the first state title in program history.

What a way to cap off everything,” Nelson said. “It’s not about the medal around my chest, it’s not about that plaque we were holding up, it’s about people. It’s about me having an opportunity to coach with Coach (Chris) Payne and Josh Nelson. … It’s about me having an opportunity to be able to meet those boys and be able to coach them. It’s about relationships at the end of the day.”

For guiding the Panthers to the first state championship in program history, Nelson is the 2025 OBSERVER/Post-Journal Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.