The 2025-26 Clymer boys basketball team made history, becoming the first team in history of the program to reach the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Final Four. Since winning the first Section VI championship in 1951 and the beginning for the state tournament in 1978, the Pirates had a difficult go of things in regional competition, posting a 0-4 record and missing one completely due to COVID restrictions.

Looking back at the five previous sectional champion Clymer teams, there were close calls and a few unfortunate draws with regional opponents.

The first crack at the state tournament came in 1981 and it was the closest the Pirates came to reaching the final four as they dropped a narrow 56-54 decision to Batavia Notre Dame at Erie Community College.

The 1980s were not as kind the second time around. The year after current head coach Irv King graduated, the 1988 squad fell to Avoca in the regionals 73-51.

Five years later, the Pirates were back in the state tournament against undefeated Clyde-Savannah. Clymer gave the Golden Eagles a run for their money at Rochester War Memorial, but came up short 64-58 and a Section V champion went on to win the Class D state title for a third year in a row.

Clymer waited another 13 years before representing Section VI in the state tournament again, this time under the coaching expertise of King. However, King’s crew ran into another great Section V team in C.G. Finney, which motored its way to a 61-34 win at Buffalo State and captured its first of back-to-back state titles in 2006 and 2007.

Twenty years later and now in King’s final season, the Pirates have finally broken through. Stacked up against a formidable Andover/Whitesville team that scored less than 60 points one time this season, Clymer put on a defensive clinic and won its first Far West Regional 63-49.

Not only is the trip to states special for King because it comes in his final season, but it’s an opportunity his 2021 squad did not get to play for.

King’s second season back in the head coach role the Pirates put together quite the successful season, dropping just one game en route to winning the Section VI Class D title 53-40 over Sherman. Despite being one of the most successful Clymer teams with a 15-1 record, the Pirates got hot in the wrong year with COVID restrictions cancelling the state tournament for a second year in a row.

Clymer was able to end that season as a champion, but it still came short of competing with the rest of the best on the state’s biggest stage.

In the final four this season, half the teams are making their debut at states and the other two are quite familiar with the big dance.

Clymer and Section VII’s Bolton are both making their introductions on the state’s stage this morning in Binghamton and both will face a team that played in the tournament last year.

Clymer’s opponent is Section III’s Sackets Harbor, which returns after losing to Panama in the semifinals last year 74-53. The Patriots are making their third trip in a row, losing the year prior in the championship against North Warren 68-66.

Sackets Harbor previously won the state title in 2012, defeating Madrid-Waddington-X 49-35.

Bolton also faces plenty of experience against Section XI’s Bridgehampton, which lost to Panama in last year’s state championship 78-69.

Bridgehampton enters the final four as the top seed and the most decorated Class D team in the state’s history, winning nine championships and most recently accomplishing that in 2015.

Action begins with Clymer and Sackets Harbor at 10 this morning in the Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton and it is followed by Bridgehampton and Bolton, as the four teams fight for a spot in Sunday’s championship.