At 12:05 p.m. on May 13, H.S. Ingo got the call he’s been waiting on for 20 years. And while Ingo now has his dream job as head coach of the highly successful George Wythe football program, he is also full of mixed emotions about having to leave Carroll County and Woodlawn, where he’s been an assistant principal since 2003.

“It was excitement, but also some apprehension because I am leaving a very good situation here, working at Woodlawn and Carroll County,” Ingo said of his thoughts after that much-anticipated call. “I had nothing but positive experiences in my nine years and I will be leaving a lot of great people that are very dedicated and in education for the right reasons. It is a very good county to work in and there a lot of great people to work for.”

A 1984 graduate of George Wythe, Ingo went on to play football for legendary coach Hank Norton at Ferrum College before getting his associate’s and master’s degrees at Radford University. He began his coaching career, ironically enough, at George Wythe rival Rural Retreat as an assistant for three years before serving three more years as an assistant at Rustburg. From there, he served one year as an assistant at William Campbell, before becoming the head coach in 1996, where he won a pair of Dogwood District championships in four years.

Ingo then came to Carroll County in 2000 to serve as an assistant under the Cavaliers’ then-new head coach Tom Hale. Ingo taught U.S. History at the high school and coached at Carroll for three seasons before becoming the assistant principal at Woodlawn. As an administrator, he no longer had the time to serve as a full-time coach, but he still assisted the Cavalier football staff in as many ways as possible.

“I am very fortunate Tom allowed me to work with them really for four years. I have continued to talk to Tom on a weekly basis or go by and check on them. Obviously being in administration, you don’t have time to coach, but I did a lot of film swapping for him and stayed involved, just not the day-to-day contact with football dealing with high school kids,” Ingo said. “I have kept myself involved working with a sandlot program in Wytheville for the last three years, but it’s not like a high school season with long hours and long days. But I kept myself involved and up-to-date on the football world because it’s always been important to me.”

And then the call from George Wythe finally came.

“Getting into education 20 years ago and beginning my career at Rural Retreat and actually coaching against George Wythe, I have always been intrigued by it,” Ingo said. “I wanted to possibly someday get back there and have some influence on the kids like my coaches and people in the community had on me.”

Because of the Virginia High School League’s power ratings used for football, the only Group A opponent Carroll County currently plays is longtime rival Grayson County. That doesn’t look to change anytime soon, but Ingo said a matchup of Group A power George Wythe and Carroll County isn’t that far fetched.

“With the costs and changes and everything the VHSL looks at, you never know what will be done. Personally as a former member and player in the old New River District (also Carroll’s former home), I would love to see the New River reformed,” Ingo said. “I would be in favor of it. I just think the quality of football in the New River District was always tremendous, as well as the Southwest District and the Hogoheegee District. They all have a long history of excellent teams, but I miss the rivalries from the New River District.”

As far as a potential scrimmage between the Cavaliers and Maroons, Ingo said neither team would probably get much out of it since they are both so similar in what they do.

“I am a Wing-T person. Tom and I come from the same mindset, which was very good for me as an assistant. He was trained by (former Pulaski County coaching legend) Joel Hicks. I worked under and played for (Paul) Wheeler, who played for Coach Hicks and coached with him, so there’s sort of a line there,” Ingo said. “We have a lot of similarities and very few differences. Tom has been very generous to me and kind to me through this and I owe him a lot as well as the staff that worked there with him.”

In that regard, Ingo said he would like to fashion many aspects of his program at George Wythe after what Hale has done in his nine years at Carroll County.

“People don’t realize how hard the staff works and how much time they put in over here at Carroll County for the development of student athletes. Tom and his guys do a great job of making kids accountable, not only for football, but to be better in life due to the high standards he sets,” Ingo said. “I hope my program will get to that point. I think we have some good kids, it’s just a matter of getting them out there and doing some things that they haven’t done in the past.”