Ingomar coaching legend Norris Ashley dies at 75
Feb. 17—Norris Ashley, the legendary Ingomar basketball coach, died Friday. He was 75.
Ashley had been suffering from several chronic illnesses. His daughter-in-law, Kelly Jo Ashley, announced his passing in a social media post Friday morning.
"We lost one of the greatest men in the world this morning," she wrote. "Coach Norris Ashley made an impact on so many lives, and we will miss our Poppy more than anyone will ever know. We can rejoice in the fact that he's running the streets of heaven today."
Norris Ashley was a head basketball coach for 43 years, including 41 at Ingomar. He had a combined record of 1,697-860 and won nine state titles at Ingomar — five with the boys team, four with the girls. His last championship came with the boys in 2010, two years before he retired.
Ashley was inducted into the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame in 2007. He was named the Daily Journal Coach of the Year six times — three times for girls, three times for boys.
"When I originally came here, my old high school coach told me this would be a good place to stay for a year until I found a better place to go. I never found a better place to go," Ashley said at a retirement ceremony in 2012.
"The people of Ingomar trusted me with their children. Hopefully I taught them a little about basketball and maybe a little about living. Hopefully I didn't disappoint them."
Ashley's influence was far reaching, with several of his players going on to successful coaching careers of their own. One of those coaches is his son, Jonathan, who leads Ingomar's boys. Jonathan Ashley led the Falcons to the Class 1A state championship in 2020.
"Nobody's capable of replacing him," Jonathan Ashley said upon succeeding his father at Ingomar. "I've been told that my teams play like his. That's a compliment."
Corinth boys basketball Adam Kirk played for Ashley.
"This is a huge loss for the Ingomar community," Kirk said Friday. "As great a basketball coach as he obviously was, he had an incredible ability to read players and find ways to make them want to run through a wall. There wasn't much I wouldn't have done for him. Plus, we never wanted to disappoint him. We respected him that much.
"I'm thankful I was able to play for him. He's definitely a reason I became a coach."
Ashley's proteges usually adopted his coaching philosophy, which was simple but effective.
"He ran a man-to-man defense, a diamond-and-one press and the flex offense," former West Union coach Ken Basil said after Ashley retired. "He would even run the same in-bounds play. He just didn't change."
That consistency in approach was only one part of Ashley's formula, as he told the Journal in 2012.
"It comes down to the character of the kids involved," he said. "Can they take coaching? I was lucky to have players who got better when I got onto them hot and heavy."
Mica Browning Killough, a 2000 Ingomar graduate, said it was an honor to play for Ashley.
"Coaches these days are not like he was. I've got three boys now, and I wish they could play for somebody half of what he was," Killough said.
Norris Ashley graduated from Ingomar in 1964 and then attended Delta State, where he later coached the school's freshman team for the 1968-69 season. His first high school job was at Coahoma County, from 1969-71. He then returned home to Ingomar, where he also coached baseball for several years. But basketball is where he made his mark.
Perhaps Ashley's greatest team was his 1977-78 boys squad. The Falcons won the Class B championship and then defeated Utica 66-62 in the Grand Slam final to claim the title of best overall team. They finished the season with a 44-1 record.
James Green was a member of that team. He went on to play at Ole Miss and later served as head coach at Southern Miss and Mississippi Valley State, among other schools.
"Coach Ashley is the one person who influenced me most as a coach, player and person," Green said in 2010. "He's my hero, my John Wooden."
Ashley is survived by his wife Pat and their three children, Kellan, Jonathan and Kerrianne.
