Nelen named Class C Player of Year
Cooperstown’s Miles Nelen has been named the Player of the Year for Class C boys basketball by the New York State Sportswriters Association. The organization released its All-State Awards for classes B, C and D on Wednesday, April 22, with Nelen leading the local award winners. A senior point guard, Nelen led Cooperstown to a Class C state title and an undefeated season.
The Hawkeyes went 27-0 in 2025-2026, a year after a section title and a 24-1 record. Nelen scored 720 points this season, just under 27 per game. In a three-year varsity career, he scored 1,440 points.
Cooperstown beat Berne-Knox-Westerlo in the state championship game, 52-43, on March 23 in Binghamton. Nelen's teammates Jackson Crisman, Christian Lawson and Brody Murdock were also honored. Crisman, a senior center/forward whose off-balance, buzzer-beating, three-point basket against Lyons on March 22 sent Cooperstown to the championship game, made the Class C Second Team.
Lawson, a senior guard who scored about half of his 1,000-plus varsity points at Milford, made the Class C Fourth Team. He spent his junior and senior years at Cooperstown, where he became the sixth man and backup point guard. Murdock, a junior forward, received honorable mention.
Other Class C honorees were Delaware Academy’s Lucas Nealis and Teddy Kelsh and Deposit/Hancock’s Micah Simmons. Nealis was named Fourth Team. Simmons was named Sixth Team.