Last week, Hawthorne girls basketball coach Cornelius Ingram stepped down after eight seasons as head coach.
“I felt like it was time,” Ingram said. “I did everything you could possibly do as a head coach. I’ve won every award, I’ve coached and won a lot of big games and championships, girls going off to school, everything you could imagine doing as a head coach, I was able to accomplish that in my hometown, so it’s a special feeling.”
Ingram’s resume speaks for itself.
He won three girls basketball state titles (2020, 2023 and 2024) and compiled a 149-40 record for a .788 winning percentage.
“I’ve been extremely blessed to have eight great years of coaching some outstanding young women, some great coaches around me and, of course, our fan base is one of the best,” said Ingram, who just completed a milestone with his 10th season as head coach of the Hornets football program and will remain the school’s head football coach. “I know coaches personally who have had 15, 20-year careers and never had a deep playoff run.”
This past season, Hawthorne (12-5) lost at Williston in this year’s FHSAA Rural-Region 4 Semifinals, ending Hawthorne’s run of two straight state titles. They became the first Alachua County girls hoops team to win back-to-back.
“Honestly, I wanted to make sure I finished with De’Mya (Adams) and Jhalea (Jackson),” said Ingram, who said he had been discussing the decision with his wife for the past 2-3 weeks. “My entire senior group had been with me three or four years. I wanted to make sure I finished with them and just free up a little time.”
That extra time will allow him the opportunity to see his two sons play basketball.
Ingram’s oldest son, C.J., will be playing college basketball at the University of Florida this year and his son, Kyler, will be a senior for the Hawthorne boys basketball team, which just won its third state title in program history this past February.
“It works out perfect,” Ingram said. “I definitely want to be able to watch C.J. and watch Kyler finish out his senior year as well. I probably still won’t be able to make all of C.J.’s games, but I’ll be able to make more of his games. Kyler will be playing football, but we kind of anticipate a big senior year from him, so I just wanted to free up a little time.”
Adams and Ingram were recognized as the Florida Dairy Farmers Class 1A Player and Coach of the Year, respectively, in 2024.
Ingram also won the award in 2023 after winning his second girls basketball state title in four seasons.
He said when he took over the program, it wasn’t all about the wins and losses.
“When I got into coaching, the most important thing was being able to impact and help these kids with the right resources, give them a positive role model, and be someone they can look up to,” he said.
The Hawthorne alum also talked about coaching for a school that was a part of his upbringing.
“It’s always hard, especially when you coach at home, there’s so much that goes into it,” he said. “You have a soft spot being at home coaching, so a lot of these kids I knew personally before I even started coaching them, and once I started coaching, our relationships continued to grow. So it was a tough decision because our community is a close, tight-knit community.”
Ingram, who won six district titles, took the Lady Hornets to five final four appearances.
He won his first state title in 2020 with a 33-32 win against Port St. Joe in the FHSAA Class 1A state championship game and a state runners-up finish in 2021 before winning it back-to-back.
Hawthorne has already found a replacement as Shereka Jackson accepted the position to become a varsity head coach for the first time in her career.
“She was excited,” said Ingram, who actually coached against her daughter at Williston. “I’ll say this, a lot of times when you have the coach before you have a lot of success, a lot of people are intimidated by the job. She has a lot of confidence, and you need that as a coach.”
That confidence helped Ingram’s brother, Hawthorne Athletics Director Greg Bowie, make the decision to hire her.
“To want to do it after the hometown guy, says a lot about her and what she can bring to the table,” Ingram said. “Even though I’m not the head coach, I won’t step on any toes, but she’ll have full-time access to me if she has any questions or anything like that. I do understand that she has to make her mark, so I don’t want to be in the background, I don’t want to be at practice, I want her to make that team her team.”
Jackson, who coached AAU girls basketball (FLY and Tre Mann Elite), takes over a Hawthorne program that lost two first team All Area selections in Adams and Jackson.
“There’s a lot of things that she’ll probably do differently, which is totally OK, but I’ll be there for support if she needs me, or players or whatever, but I will try and stay out of the way and let her do her thing,” Ingram said.
This fall, Ingram will attempt to lead the Hornets’ football team to its sixth straight state championship game. The Hornets lost to Madison County in December after winning consecutive state championships.