This is a busy time of year for athletes and coaches who participate in fall sports. Sometimes it seems as if the families of those involved need a logistics expert to help them navigate the harried schedules athletic activities generate. Northside High School Athletic Director and head football coach Morgan Ingram knows all too well about being pulled in several directions. Ingram is coaching football at the same time his daughters are participating in fall sports. In addition, his wife, Kacy, is also an athletic director and a coach, which makes for some serious strategic planning sessions each fall.
Last year, the Northside Patriots had a 7-4 record for the season, 6-1 in the region. Ingram’s team was the region runner-up and are looking to have a winning 2016 season. In The Game asked Ingram 10 Questions about his coaching career, his goals for the football season, and how his family manages their active lifestyle.
In The Game: How long have you been Athletic Director at Northside High School?
Morgan Ingram: Going into my ninth year.
ITG: When did you become head football coach for the Patriots?
MI: January 2013.
ITG: What subjects do you teach at Northside?
MI: For eight years, I taught different levels of math at Northside. This year, I will transition into the physical education department.
ITG: Where did you teach/coach before coming to NHS?
MI: For eight years, I taught math and coached football at Columbus High School. For two years, I taught math and was the head football coach at Hardaway High School.
ITG: Being an AD/head coach/teacher at a large high school is a big load. What is your secret to keeping up with all of those responsibilities?
MI: I have a great support staff to help me keep up with the load. I have, what I believe to be, the best football coaching staff around. They do a great job. I also work with wonderful head coaches who do a great job at their particular sports, which is a huge plus from the AD perspective. The students at Northside High School make the teaching part fun and rewarding.
ITG: Tell us a little about this year’s Patriots football team and what your goals are for this season.
MI: Our team goals are to contend for a region championship and make a playoff run. As a team, we have replaced 16 starters from last year’s team. However, the experienced players that returned are very capable and determined.
ITG: Your wife is the Athletic Director of Aaron Cohn Middle School. Does she coach sports, too?
MI: Kacy has been the AD at ACMS since the school opened. She coaches track at ACMS as well as adapted sports for MCSD.
ITG: Your two daughters are athletes. What sports do they participate in for school?
MI: Romie is a junior at Northside. She has been a 1st Team All Bi-City athlete in both Cross Country and Track & Field. Riley is a freshman at Northside. She is a member of the Lady Patriots softball team.
ITG: How does your family manage the logistics of practices and games of such an active and athletic family?
MI: Kacy and I have been coaches every second of our teaching careers. It’s all we know. It’s all our children know. We laugh when we say that our kids didn’t have any choice but to play sports. Logistically, it has not always been easy to juggle multiple schedules, but we have always made it work. Kacy and I have been lucky enough to work at the schools our children have attended in middle and high school, which has really helped. The fall has always been the toughest season for us. With high school and middle school football games, cross country meets, and softball games all being played in the same season, it is difficult.
ITG: What is the best part of being the Athletic Director and head football coach for Northside High School?
MI: The best part of my job is the kids I get to meet and work with. It is such a blessing to watch them grow throughout high school, mature into adults, and move into the real world. But the real pleasure has been to get to work with some of them later. I have four former players of mine coaching on my football staff this season: Brycen Freeman (Columbus High), Joey Peacock (Hardaway), Johnny Garner, and Tim Bennett (Northside).
ITG Web Content
10 Questions With Northside High School’s Morgan Ingram
Written by Beth Welch
Photo by George McDuffie
