Jeff Ingram

Baseball and Football - Class of 1985

"Coach Bill McDonald described Jeff as "the best person I have ever known and coached." To illustrate his praise, Coach McDonald reminisced about Jeff's 1985 baseball team, a team stacked with talent, a team that opened the season 5-0. However, in the middle of the season, the team’s title double headers — it was a pivot moment. Almost forty years later, Coach McDonald recalls Jeff's courageous leadership as team captain, rallying his fellow players to refocus and rise to the challenge. He spoke to his team that "every coach would want to hear," the team rallied with ten straight wins en route to a state championship.

Jeff's accolades speak for themselves — an all-state catcher, ranked as one of the top five behind the plate in America, a college standout at the University of New Orleans, a draft pick for the Chicago White Sox. But for Coach McDonald, it is Jeff's personal leadership that stands the test of time. Jeff "stood for goodness," for "truthfulness, honesty, humility, and integrity." Jeff set the standard for the right way to approach the work and the success.

Jeff said it best — a student-athlete should "be a leader and set a good example to not only their teammates but all classmates." Jeff lived this truth by not just being a gifted ballplayer on the diamond, but also by using those same talents to "see the goodness within themselves." Because of his talent and leadership, Jeff has become a legend over time, one whose model all should follow when they put on the Green and Gold."