THE WINDING ROAD IT TOOK PIONEER FLAG FOOTBALL TO GET TO THE STATE SEMIFINAL
The Pioneer Panthers girls flag football team is headed to the NYSPHSAA semifinal this weekend, competing for the Class C State Championship.
It’s a family affair for Head Coach Chris Edwards and the Pioneer Panthers, with Chris’s wife Addie on staff as an assistant coach, and their daughters Shay, Ellie, and Avery all on the roster. The eldest Edwards daughter, Shay, suffered a season ending knee injury on May 6th during the first half of Pioneer’s 44-0 win over Health Sciences.
“That was a huge loss for our team, just from a standpoint that she has been a three-year, two-way starter for us. She's been their leader in all the sports; she's the captain of the soccer team; she's the captain of the basketball team.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
Watching Shay, who is committed to Gannon University to play Division II soccer in the fall, tear her ACL during her senior spring rocked her teammates, and her father Chris even more so.
“You know, seeing your kid go down and then you lose your leader, that's tough. I mean, it was hard, just from an emotional standpoint, trying to separate dad and coach was very difficult for a few days.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
The injury to their captain came at the worst time of the regular season for the Panthers, with then-unbeaten Depew next up on the schedule, just 48 hours later.
“It had like, almost like a hangover effect. To be honest, we lost our first ever regular season game in three years, two days later, after she was out. We hadn't given up a point all year when we had her, and we've definitely had to make some changes to the way we do things without her.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
In an effort to help the team move past her own injury, the senior took on a pseudo-coaching position, helping to train sophomore Brook Schmidt as her replacement at wide receiver. Shay Edwards has provided the Panthers with an emotional spark even when she wasn’t available for the Far West Regionals last weekend, a day after her surgery.
“She's been kind of a mentor, helping Brooke out in that position. That has been very cool to see… [Shay] had her surgery on Friday, so she wasn't with us on Saturday, but the team, as soon as we were done, they all FaceTimed her, which was super sweet of them.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
Shay’s younger sister, Ellie Edwards, took the reins as Pioneer’s quarterback this season. Over the course of her sophomore campaign, Ellie has blossomed into one of the best offensive players in Western New York, leading Section VI with fifty total touchdowns on the season, and racking up nearly 2,500 total yards of offense.
“Ellie works really hard. She's a competitor, she wants to be good. She puts in a lot of time outside of practice: studying film, working on her mechanics, things of that nature. The other part, probably the biggest part, is we’ve got a great team around her. We have kids at every position who can make things happen… Coming into the year, I told her, ‘The biggest thing is, Ellie, you just need to play your role, do your part. Get the ball to the kids that need the ball in their hands.’ And we have a bunch of those kids who have stepped up and been great.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
One of those talented players that Ellie has been aided by is Jayden Leederman. The junior two-way starter has been turning heads all season long for Pioneer. As a running back alone, Leederman would be in the conversation for State Player of the Year, with 22 total touchdowns on offense. Add her defensive prowess, leading the Panthers in both sacks and interceptions, and Leederman is ahead of her class, and a clear reason why Pioneer is headed to the state semifinal.
“Jay can do it all, man. She's just a natural. She can take an adjustment on the fly, she can anticipate, she's got instincts, and she can jump around. Those are the things that I think separate her from kids who are really good athletes, because there are a ton, all around Western New York and New York [State], that are great female athletes. They're awesome. But Jay just has those football instincts, which are not common.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
Last year, in the inaugural State Tournament, the lone Section VI team to punch their ticket to the Final Four was the Clarence Red Devils, who fell in the State Semifinal in the then-named Division I bracket. In Division II, Pioneer lost in the Far West Regional to Section V’s Bishop Kearney, 26-25, losing on a buzzer-beating score after leading all game. Bishop Kearney went on to win the Division II State Championship.
“Honestly, I didn't handle it really well. I was really upset with myself. I made a lot of bad decisions at the end of that Kearney game that didn't put our team in the best situation. I vowed to the girls this year that, we get in these situations, we need to go for it. We gotta play to win, not play not to lose.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
As the only Section VI winner at the 2025 Far West Regionals, the Panthers are one win away from making history, and two victories away from cementing themselves as Western New York’s first State Champion. Standing in Pioneer’s way of the Championship Game is Section VIII’s Plainedge.
“It's kind of been the theory all year: whatever game is next is the biggest game. People said to us after we lost to Depew and we were going to play them in the sectional finals, a lot of people were like, ‘Oh, it's a revenge game.’ No, it's just the next game, and that's the game that's most important… We're only focused on getting better today, and that hopefully carries us through Saturday, and then we'll do the best we can, and we'll see what we have from there.” - Head Coach Chris Edwards
The girls flag football state semifinals for Class C are held at Homer High School on Saturday, with Pioneer and Plainedge kicking off at 11:30 a.m. The winner advances to the State Championship game, to be played Sunday afternoon at Cortland High School.
NHL SCOUTING COMBINE IS UNDERWAY IN BUFFALO
Ninety top prospects for the upcoming National Hockey League draft along with executives from all thirty-two teams, have been enjoying the kind Buffalo June weather, in town this week for the NHL’s Scouting Combine.
LECOM HarborCenter and KeyBank Center host the annual pre-draft event for the 11th consecutive year, where players undergo a series of off-ice tests to display their athletic ability, with the hopes to improve their draft stock. Along with tests, prospects meet with teams’ management staffs for interviews throughout the week.
This year, the National Hockey League Entry Draft is permanently changing its set up for the first time since the draft became a public affair in 1980. Later this month, while prospects gather in Los Angeles and wait to hear their names called, teams will be conducting business remotely, at their own individual facilities. During the COVID pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 drafts were “decentralized” as well, which perhaps pushed owners to approve this change back in 2023.
Last week, the Buffalo Sabres announced that they will conduct their draft-day business from One Bills Drive in Orchard Park, using the Buffalo Bills’ state-of-the-art facility. Maybe for the Sabres, who have drafted relatively well in recent years, the good fortune of the football team can rub off ahead of next season, as Buffalo looks to snap a 14-year playoff drought. The Sabres currently hold the 9th overall selection, along with nine picks on day two.
The NHL Entry Draft will begin on Friday June 27th with the first round, before the second through seventh rounds take place Saturday June 28th.
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