The high school football season came to an end for the Hawthorne and Buchholz football teams this past Friday night.

Their senior classes set the standard for excellence in Alachua County.

During the last four years, the Hornets and the Bobcats have a combined 90-13 record.

Hawthorne is 45-3 during the last four years under head coach Cornelius Ingram, who just completed his 10th season.

“A lot of those seniors, they won a lot of football games for our football program,” said Ingram. “All of them played key positions. They’ve battled injuries, they’ve battled personal issues, whether it’s off-season or even during the film, they showed up every single day with great senior leadership. I’m one proud coach.”

For players like Naziy Gent, a three-year starter, Leland Johnson, a four-year starter, and running back Keenon Johnson, who has gone over 3,000 yards rushing his last two years alone, all they’ve known is state championship game appearances.

“Being able to coach these kids and be around them makes you younger, man, and I really get joy out of doing my job every single day with these young men, but I’m extremely proud of the senior class,” Ingram said.

Hawthorne, which became the first Alachua County football team to ever win back-to-back state titles last year, had an easy playoff win against Branford in the first round and later defeated Williston, 28-7, which gave the senior class a 4-0 record in state semifinals games.

This past Friday, the two-time defending state champion Hornets, who were making their fifth straight state championship game appearance, lost to Madison County, 21-14, in the FHSAA Rural state championship game, finishing as state runners-up for a second time during the last four years.

“Making it to the state championship game for five consecutive years is an extraordinary accomplishment for our program,” said offensive coordinator Greg Bowie, who is Ingram’s older brother and the school’s athletic director. “This milestone signifies several key things…it shows that the program isn’t just a one-hit wonder but rather a consistent force in Florida high school football. We’ve been able to maintain a high level of performance season after season.”

And even though he wasn’t on the roster this past fall, quarterback C.J. Ingram played a big part in the Hornets’ success his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.

Ingram, who decided to forego his senior year of football to focus on basketball, went to three state championship games, won two of them, was 25-0 as a starter, and was last year’s Florida Dairy Farmers Class 1R Player of the Year.

“All of these kids have played together, it’s really tough because as your senior class, you want to go out with a bang and win a state championship but a lot of these kids had almost everything to do with last year’s state championship game, even the year before, so it’s tough not winning as a senior but to have the type of resume’ these kids have put together, by far my best senior class to come through here in my coaching career,” said Ingram. 

Meanwhile, the Buchholz football program advanced to its fourth straight state semifinal.

“We started out there in the COIVD-19 year, I think we were in the Elite Eight, we lost to Niceville here at Citizens (Field),” said Buchholz football coach Mark Whittemore, who took a year off from coaching last year when Chuck Bell was the coach but returned this season for his second stint. “So, we’ve had five straight Thanksgiving breakfasts as a team, so it’s been really good.”

They had to beat a really good Pace team in the regional semifinals to advance to the 6A-Region 1 Final, where they defeated Oakleaf (Orange Park) in a close game.

This past Friday, their season came to an end at home when a furious rally came up short against Osceola (Kissimmee) in the 6A state semifinals.

“We made more mistakes than they did, and they scored six more points,” Whittemore said following the game. “This is the winningest group of seniors in Buchholz history, and they’ve never known anything but the final four. We were just hoping to end on a high note.”

They had a lot of key juniors this year, including quarterback Trace Johnson, running back/wide receiver Justin Williams, and wide receiver D.J. Hicks, just to name a few, but their top senior was Nick Clayton.

Clayton (6’5, 210), who recently signed with Wisconsin, has only known Bobcat football. His brothers Marcus and Matthew played at Buchholz.

Defensive coordinator Chuck Bell remembered the first time that he had a conversation with the youngest Clayton.

“The first time I ever really remember talking to Nick was after his brother, in his class we lost to Niceville in the regional semifinals in 2020, and he was going to be coming in as a ninth grader that next year and I just remember the first thing I said to him on the field,” said Bell. “His brother was crying, and I was kind of consoling him and then Nick walks over and I just really quickly patted him on the back and said, ‘you’re next,’…and I’m glad that we were able to help him fulfill his dreams and play at such a quality place (University of Wisconsin).”

Clayton was a freshman on the 2021 team that finished 12-2 and started their run with a loss at nationally ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale) in the 7A state semifinals.

Whittemore has known him for much longer.

“Nick has been with me since probably his fourth, maybe third [grade], I don’t remember, I remember him as a little round mound, just kind of running around, not really sure what was going to happen to him,” Whittemore said. “I wasn’t sure if he was going to be like Marcus or if he was going to be like Matt. Well, he turned out to be taller than both of them and he has blossomed into one of the best D-ends in this state.”

That’s become a norm for Buchholz in the trenches.

According to Bell, “Every defensive lineman who started at Buchholz since 2020 that qualifies academically to go to college and wants to play college football has had that opportunity.”

“It started with his brother’s senior class. We had Matt [Clayton] go to Wofford, so a Division-I player there, we had Gavin [Hill] go to Florida, a Division-I player, Kendall [Jackson] go to Texas A&M, Jahari Clemmons is a starter now at UNC Pembroke,” Bell said. “So I think that what we do speaks volumes to the idea of we’re very complex of what we do up front defensively and defensive-wise, and I think the film that we’re able to get to put out, it showcases different talents…our guy’s film shows you everything you need to know about a defensive lineman.”

Next year guys like Darian Bowie of Hawthorne, the son of Greg Bowie, and Johnson of Buchholz, who was 36-of-50 for 439 yards with five touchdowns against Osceola, will try to carry on that winning tradition at their respective schools.

But never before has a football program in Alachua County done what the Hornets and the Bobcats have done the past four years.