As the whistle sounded eight minutes into the first quarter of Biggersville High School’s 2023 Mississippi High School Activities Association 1A State Championship game against Velma Jackson High School, Biggersville quarterback Drew Rowsey handed the ball off to running back Japhan Hatch, who took off like a shot down the right side of the field in a bid to score a long touchdown. Hatch evaded every VJHS defender, but just as he turned upfield and made for the goal, he went limp and fell to the ground, clutching at his leg.
After the referee called an end to the play, Hatch’s teammates helped him limp his way off the field with an injured hamstring. Biggersville Head Coach Case Ingram had Tre Gunn step up as Hatch’s replacement. As the game drew near its end, Biggersville found itself down 49-46 with a mere 11 seconds left on the clock. After Rowsey threw a 17-yard pass to Brooks Seago, who then got tackled only two yards away from the goal line, Ingram called a time out and gathered the team to consider his options. Suddenly, Gunn spoke up and suggested an idea of his own.
“Coach, run this play and I will score,” Ingram remembers the young man telling him. Ingram listened to Gunn’s suggestion and decided to put his faith in him.
The players filed back onto the field into position. The moment the whistle blew, Rowsey pitched Gunn the ball, who then tensed and launched himself into the air, leaping the final 2 yards to the goal to score the last touchdown of the game to leave the score 53-49 in Biggersville’s favor.
Watching Gunn’s gambit pay off was a rush both for Ingram and for Biggersville itself, which had been struggling after what Ingram calls a “heartbreaker of a game” against Lumberton High School after the Lions made it to the state championship for the first time in 2020. During that game, Biggersville found itself down 14-0 by half-time but managed to take the lead in the second half with only a minute left in the game. The Lions’ hopes were dashed when Lumberton managed to score and come out ahead with only 25 seconds left on the clock.
“We had 13 seniors on our team that year, a lot of whom started in eighth grade, and it was such a disappointment for all of them and the Biggersville community when we’d been so close,” Ingram said. “It was the kind of thing you look back on and see where we as coaches didn’t do the best job for our team, and it weighs hard on you. Facing that is one of the biggest pressures of the position and all you can do is make sure that when you’re blessed enough to get there, you and the team will be ready.”
The win over Velma Jackson felt especially gratifying, Ingram said, because many players who had been freshmen during the 2020 game against Lumberton were still on the team as seniors and were able to turn their school’s record around themselves.
“Ultimately I wouldn’t say it was anything I did myself that made that happen; it was the kids, our administration and my assistant coaches working together that did it,” Ingram said.
‘That Work Will Always Carry You Anywhere You Go’
Growing up in the tiny community of Chalybeate in northeast Mississippi, Ingram dedicated himself to working hard on his school’s football team as early as sixth grade. When he enrolled at Kossuth High School in Corinth, he spent time on both the offensive and defensive lines and as a linebacker searching for the position that was right for him.
One September afternoon during a practice session on the field during Ingram’s sophomore year, Kossuth head coach Scott Grey gathered the entire team together, took up a clipboard and began calling out names of those who would be on starting positions for the season. As a sophomore, Ingram said he had not expected to get much play time, let alone a starting position. To his surprise, Grey not only called out his name for a starting defensive position, but asked him to stand before the team so that he could give Ingram special praise for his hard work that got him the position.
“When I walked up there he told me, ‘Case, you’ve been working hard to earn this spot, and that work will always carry you anywhere you go. You put the kind of work you put in on the field to get here today and you’ll go far in life,’” Ingram recalls. “I was beyond elated to hear that after all the work and sacrifices I’d put in, and it planted a seed of hard work and a strong work ethic that always stuck with me afterward.”
While a shoulder injury Ingram suffered during his junior year ultimately kept him from actively playing the sport into college, Ingram instead took up coaching like the man who had inspired him and carried his dedication to teaching his players the value of hard work with him on his path toward Biggersville.
‘That Kind of Mindset is Contagious’
Ingram began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Center Hill High School in Olive Branch under head coach Alan Peacock. He remained there for five years before spending a year as a defensive coordinator for Corinth High School in 2017. He moved to Biggersville and became assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Biggersville High under former head coach Stan Platt in 2018.
It was during his time working under Platt that Biggersville made it to the state championship for the first time in 2020, only to suffer heartbreak against Lumberton. Even in the face of such a loss, Platt kept the team moving forward.
“The team had been struggling for a while, but despite that, Platt had managed to pull in even a lot of athletes who had moved to other sports like basketball and got them back on the training field and into a winning mindset before he retired. That kind of mindset is contagious and was something we could sustain to keep moving forward.”
Platt retired later that year, leaving Ingram to take over the head-coach position. Ingram made it his goal to land Biggersville a state-championship win, which for him meant setting a new culture for the football program and being the best mentor for his players he could be, he said.
‘Your Identity is Bigger Than Any Game or Score’
Ingram said the most important lesson he works to impart to his athletes is that while their actions on the field are important, they do not define them as people. What makes an athlete a champion, Ingram said, is how they conduct themselves in the classroom, at home and everywhere else on a daily basis.
“Your identity is bigger than any game or any score,” Ingram said. “Kids can end up wrapping their identity up in stuff like that, but there will inevitably come a day where you’ll just be told to do this no matter who you are, so you can’t let a game be all that you are. Your wins are ultimately a product of who you are as a person, and that’s why it’s important for a coach to be an effective teacher and counselor to their athletes as well.”
Ingram and his wife, Bradi Ingram, live in Booneville, Miss., and have been married for nine years. The couple has 7-year-old twins named Jojo and Everly, a 2-year-old daughter named Lola June and a 3-year-old foster son named Keajan.
