ORCHARD PARK — The first time I met Chuck Nagel was on a makeshift practice field by Newfane Middle School in 2014.
Nagel was about to enter his third season as the school’s varsity football coach. Having just moved to the area, I didn’t know much about him nor Newfane football. And about the only thing research turned up was that, frankly, the football program wasn’t historically good.
You wouldn’t know that from talking to Nagel. He had a lot to say, but he didn’t need to say much at all.
You could feel his energy.
It was apparent from that preseason practice that Newfane was going to struggle to produce wins that year. While the Panthers went 2-7 that season, it was painfully clear from that first meeting that at some point, they were going to turn it around.
Nagel was the right person to have in charge. He cared about football, cared about his players and cared a lot about the school. Nagel played on Newfane’s 1993 league championship team. (Talk to him long enough and he’ll tell you about it.)
It wasn’t until 2017 that Newfane finally recorded a winning campaign and it rattled off three in a row. The COVID-19 pandemic set the program back a couple years, but Newfane got back on track again by going 13-5 in 2023 and 2024 — winning a share of its first league title since 1993 last year — only to experience two soul-stealing first-round playoff losses to Portville.
And then, with everything he’s ever dreamt about was within his grasp, he needed his kids to respond in a way they never have. The Section VI Class D championship game was tied 20-20 in the fourth quarter and his players, without panic, came up with the game-winning touchdown to beat rival Wilson, 28-20.
Nagel is the head coach for Newfane’s first Section VI football championship. And the first sectional football championship in Niagara County since 2009.
“They grew up together playing youth football. They won together playing youth football,” Nagel said. “They’re a close-knit group of buddies and it’s a fun bunch to coach. … We got 40 kids on our varsity team, we got 46 on our modified team. And we got youth football players chasing the bus down the road today after we’re pulling out of the high school. The excitement, it’s for real.”
Finding players was never a problem for Nagel. His magnetic personality attracts people to him — adults and kids alike.
When Nagel was named head coach for the Kensington Lions Club All-Star Game’s North squad in 2022, he made such an impression that players from other schools he barely knew would text him about film and strategy late at night. If it wasn’t obvious, that’s normal all-star game behavior.
And when there was a late-game scuffle after a perceived cheap shot on the North’s quarterback, Nagel was right in the mix trying to break it up while simultaneously yelling at the officials in an attempt to defend his players — the ones he coached a handful of times over the span of a month.
But finding the right athletes at Newfane was initially a struggle. He saw basketball, wrestling and track gobble up the school’s best athletes and worked tirelessly to convince them to try football if they weren’t pursuing another sport in the fall.
Suddenly the pieces started to fit and Newfane began to win. But until this season, the Panthers were 0-4 in playoff games against Nagel.
“We’re all human beings. We think the worst,” Nagel said. “I’ve endured some tough playoff losses — just tough playoff losses you can’t even imagine would happen. So I’ve cried myself to sleep plenty of times thinking about those losses. This group is different.”
Indeed this group is different. Nagel’s had teams in the past that struggled to combat adversity, but not this one.
Ironically, this team hasn’t faced much of it this season. Before Thursday, Newfane’s closest win in 10 games was by 19 points.
Wilson wasn’t going to hand over the sectional championship after a 21-point loss to end the regular season. And they fought back from a two-score deficit to tie the game.
With 4:46 on the clock and 57 yards to march, Newfane didn’t blink. They picked up a fourth-down conversion and kept moving the chains before quarterback Mac Capen capped a nine-play drive with a 5-yard touchdown.
“There was never a doubt,” Capen said.
And so Nagel has gone from thinking about quitting to thinking sustained success was never going to happen to being the happiest man in Highmark Stadium. And there’s still more on the table, as the Panthers sit three wins away from a state championship, something North Tonawanda’s 2009 team has only accomplished in Niagara County..
“When my kids were little, I remember asking, ‘If this is something that you don’t want Dad to do anymore, I’ll give it up next season. I’ll give it up right away,’” Nagel said. “And they both said, ‘No, Dad. We like you being the high school coach. We love coming to your games. We love supporting you.’ … I thought about it, but once I asked my kids and got that response, I knew I was going to hang it up.”
Newfane is lucky he didn’t.