It’s a number that has grown exponentially in the past few years.

The idea for the village of Panama to purchase and put up a sign dedicated to the school’s sports teams that achieved state championships has been a recurring theme for the past 10 years, and the current village board has made an official decision as to how they are going to go about doing that.

During the April board meeting, Mayor William Schneider gave a brief history of the discussion behind the state championship sign, which he said first began about ten years ago after the Panama girls volleyball won a state championship.

“The village thought a little bit about it, didn’t say too much,” Schneider said. “And it’s interesting because we had a track one before that and since that time we’ve had two state track championships, three football state championships and we’re on the first ever varsity boys basketball state championship.”

Members of the 2016 Panama Central School volleyball team are pictured with coach Tammy Hosier and former state Sen. Catharine Young. Young visited the school to present the Lady Panthers and Hosier with a New York State Senate resolution to commemorate the team’s undefeated season and state Class D championship. It was the team’s first state title in school history. P-J file photo

The football wins were all Clymer/Sherman/Panama Wolfpack team wins in 2018, 2019 and 2024. The Panama Central School girls volleyball team won a state championship in 2016, with the track state championships occurring in 1996, 2011, and 2019. Then, the Panama boys basketball team won the 2025 Class D state championship.

Schneider said this conversation has come up multiple times since the volleyball win in 2016, also being tabled a few times, until the football’s back-to-back wins brought it back to the village’s radar by various people in the village.

“They go to other villages and they see championship signs with the ‘welcome to Tim-Buck-Two, here’s the Tim-Buck-Two state champions’,” Schneider said. “So they asked if the village was going to do that to honor the students’ excellence, and so that’s where we are today.”

Different ideas have been discussed by the village over the last few months, that has included talking to one or two people from the school. The school has banners recognizing the champions in the gym, and the Chautauqua County Legislature recognizes state championship teams as well. After the second football state championship Schneider said there was a vote to move ahead with the project but at the time it was wanted to have all three Clymer, Sherman, Panama schools and municipalities involved, and Schneider said it was left at a stalemate after that conversation because of the want to not only recognize C/S/P but also each individual municipality’s champions as well. It was shelved after that, but has since come up again. At the Panama Village Board’s most recent meeting, Schneider asked the board to make a definitive decision about where to go next with the project.

Three different sign option ideas have been looked at by the board, a banner option, an option to put the sign underneath the existing welcome signs, and an official sign in front of the school. It was noted that these championships have happened over the span of the last decade, but that they really do not happen that often, and these championships deserve recognition.

The Clymer/Sherman/Panama football team poses as the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D champions after defeating Burke Catholic 46-7 in the title game at JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse in 2024.

The board discussed liking the bigger sign to be placed at the school the most, and discussed approaching the school again about putting the sign up in the school yard. The village welcome sign option only allows for nine spaces, and the village already has eight to put up, making that option an issue.

“It’s not an option of whether or not we should, I think we’re all in agreement that we absolutely should be doing something to recognize all of the state champions, so it’s just a matter of what,” Village Trustee Kim Davis said. “If we present this one back to the school officially — I don’t think it’s fair to say they were not willing to work with us, I think it was more I had a private conversation and it was one person’s understanding of what I was asking — where if we present this to the board and say here’s our suggestion of option one.”

Davis said if the school did not like the option or did not want a sign by the school, then the village could have a back up option of the third banner suggestion. Trustee Todd Eddy said in a separate conversation with a school board member, the school board is in favor of it. Funding and budget wise, it was discussed that there is enough money in the village budget for the sign, and to involve the school somewhat as well so it is not just the village’s sign and then they both would have an investment in it.

The village added that the school can also help decide where to install it, and conversation included if the school would like to do more than one sign in more than one place, the village could fund the first one and leave the rest up to the school if they wish to do that, making sure at least one sign will be in a place where anyone going by will be able to see it. With both having an investment in the sign the funding will not only fall on the village or school taxpayers and would be both, along with discussing it with the community and offering the ability for donations.

The village decided to officially present a letter on official village letterhead to the Panama school board at their next meeting, and have both trustees in attendance to talk with them and answer questions. The letter will include that the village feels this is the best option for all considering budgets and costs. If the school says no, Schneider said they would go from there.

Clymer/Sherman/Panama’s Cameron Barmore easily clears the bar in the high jump during the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Championships. Barmore went on to win the state championship in the high jump and is one of the athletes Panama officials want to honor with a sign in the village.

“I just really want to put this topic to rest because it has been a really difficult thing being the mayor, being a school employee, and also being an involved coach of the state championship teams,” Schneider said. “We had said we’re going to put them out at the signs, but then the signs needed to be repaired … There were other things that came up that took precedence because this is not our sole focus in life, there are other things that have taken precedence, but we want people to understand that this is something that we know they need to be recognized.”

The Panama Panthers pose with their state championship plaque after beating Bridgehampton in the NYSPHSAA Class D final Saturday evening at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton. P-J photo by Matt Spielman