In Coach Bryan Bender's first season at the helm, the Ellsworth CC men's basketball program established a culture and laid a foundation for continued success, both on and off the floor. The program is centered around its core values of Passion, Humility and Discipline (P.h.D) and this season the results spoke for themselves. The Panthers spent 15 weeks ranked in the NJCAA top 20 poll, finished with a 22-10 record (highest in 10+ years), had 4 ICCAC all-region performers, had its first NJCAA All-American in over a decade (Shawn Fulcher), posted a cumulative team GPA of 3.27, saw 5 student-athletes earn their AA degrees. The program also witnessed numerous players catapult their academic & playing careers by signing scholarships to the next level.
The community college level is designed to be a stepping stone to get you to where you want to be. There were 20 new players and 4 new coaches brought into the program during the 2022-23 season. Many of them left their mark on the program in a very short time and will now be responsible to represent the Ellsworth Community College brand at their 4-year programs.
Dior Davis (University of New Hampshire), Shawn Fulcher (University of Buffalo), Bruce Kanno (Stetson University), Issakha Niang (University of Central Arkansas) and Saliou Seye (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) all signed a letter of intent to NCAA Division I programs this spring. Compared to other NJCAA DII programs, the five DI signees led the country. Four of these signees were true freshman and departed after just one season with the Panthers. Of the 566 two-year programs in the country with men's basketball, no program produced more freshman NCAA DI signees than Ellsworth.
Joining the NCAA DI signees were Rich Ashu (Mary University), Guido Klompenmaker (Ottawa University), Danny Lazic (CIU), Tarik Islamovic (MUW), Andre Fluker (Eureka College), and Clayton Ubben (Upper Iowa University). The program also produced two coaches who made the jump to the next level. Assistant Coach, Noah Gosse, took the associate head coaching position at NCAA DII, Newman University as well as recent ECC graduate, Mateo Martinez, got a job coaching multiple sports at Clarion Goldfield Dows High School.