On Friday, Hawthorne girls basketball coach Cornelius Ingram announced he has stepped down after eight seasons as head coach.
Ingram, who just completed a milestone with his 10th season as head coach of the Hornets football program, won three girls basketball state titles (2020, 2023 and 2024) and compiled a 149-40 record for a .788 winning percentage.
In a phone interview, Ingram said the timing was right.
He’ll get a chance to see his two sons play basketball, and his resume speaks for itself.
Ingram’s oldest son, C.J., will be playing college basketball at the University of Florida this year and his younger 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.
“Honestly, I wanted to make sure I finished with De’Mya (Adams) and Jhalea (Jackson),” said Ingram, who said he has 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. 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.”
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.
Jackson is the mom of Chanitey James, who was a senior outside hitter for the Williston volleyball team and signed with Baptist University of Florida.
“It’s my time, finally it’s my turn,” Jackson wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “In my 20-plus years of coaching basketball, I was never given the opportunity to be the head. I was always the tail, the help, the assistant. Don’t get me wrong now, I have served under some great coaches and learned a lot from them all…thank you to the Hawthorne administration for giving me such an amazing opportunity and thank you to everyone who believed in me and what I bring to the game of girls basketball.”
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.
Adams and Ingram were recognized as the Florida Dairy Farmers Class 1A Player and Coach of the Year, respectively, in 2024.
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.
Ingram, who won five district titles, took the Lady Hornets to four final four appearances within a five-year period.
In addition to back-to-back state titles and a state runner-up finish in 2021, 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.
Hawthorne defeated Wildwood, 42-38, to win the 1A state title in 2023 and the Lady Hornets knocked off Graceville, 43-30, to win the 1A title in 2024.
Ingram has taken the football team to five straight state championship game appearances.
The Hornets lost to Madison County in December after winning consecutive state championships.