When Newfane head coach Chuck Nagel walked off the field at Highmark Stadium after winning the Section VI Class D title on Nov. 13, he did not know that he’d be back on the field just under a month later but this time in front of 70,613 people.
On Dec. 7, Nagel took the field to be named the 2025 Buffalo Bills Coach of the Year at halftime of the Bills game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Nagel beat a field of 11 coaches in the Buffalo region to receive the honor.
Nagel received the Bills Coach of the Week award after the Panthers beat Wilson in Week 8, 46-25, and he was informed that he was the Coach of the Year before the Bills game when he and the 22 other nominees were going through the walkthroughs and introductions.
He said every week a different coach in Section VI and Section VI is named the Bills Coach of the Week and then all of those winners are voted on for the Coach of the Year award. Nagel said when a coach is named the Coach of the Week, the Bills send the football program a $1,000 check.
Nagel, who has been named as a Coach of the Year finalist four times previously, was named the Bills Coach of the Week in Week 8 this season after Newfane beat Wilson to clinch an unbeaten regular season and Class D league championship. Wilson’s Bill Atlas and Barker/Roy-Hart’s Bill Bruning were also Coach of the Week honorees.