Eyes on the Prize
In the midst of one of Hewitt-Trussville’s most successful football seasons in program history, senior wide receiver and national champion triple jumper Noah Igbinoghene says his No. 1 goal is to lead the Huskies to their first AHSAA Class 7A title.
“I just want a state championship, to be honest. I already have everything I could want for myself,” the 6-foot, 190-pound wide receiver said. “It would mean a lot to bring them a championship.”
“I think he brings a certain amount of confidence to our team, because there’s no telling what Noah’s going to do, and you know you can score points on any given play,” said Hewitt-Trussville head coach Josh Floyd. “Football is a very mental game, and I think our guys have confidence right now. That’s the attitude we want them to have every time we step on the field.”
Igbinoghene eclipsed 1,000 yards of total offense for the first time in his career, with a career-best 112 yards receiving in the Huskies’ 42-14 win over Sparkman Oct. 7. Highlighting the performance was a 77-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Connor Adair, which Igbinoghene says is his favorite touchdown of his career so far.
“We try to get him the ball in so many different ways,” Floyd said. “He has big-time speed. He’s a guy who can take it to the house anytime. He’s a guy that makes people miss in the open field. He’s not some track guy who can just run straight down the field. What makes him special is he’s hard to get a hand on.”
His gridiron success has caught others’ attention, being selected for the 30th annual Alabama-Mississippi All-Star game on Dec. 10 and attracting dozens of collegiate offers. Before the season, Igbinoghene said he’d narrowed his list to five colleges. Now, he says it is mainly three: Duke, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.
Igbinoghene says he is seeking a college that will allow him to excel in football, track-and-field and academically.
The son of two Nigerian Olympians, Festus Igbinoghene and Faith Idehen, Noah Igbinoghene already has made a name for himself nationally in long jump and triple jump. A four-time state champion and six-time All-American, he won Hewitt’s first national title at the 2016 New Balance Indoor Nationals in New York with a triple jump personal record of 49 feet, 7 inches. His long jump PR is 24 feet, 8.5 inches. Last May, he was selected to represent the U.S. at the Caribbean Scholastic Invitational in Cuba.
Hewitt-Trussville track-and-field coach David Dobbs said he hopes to see Noah Igbinoghene reach 50 feet in the triple jump this spring, while the senior is aiming even higher — 26 feet in the long jump and 52 or 53 feet in the triple.
“The things he does are so natural for him and his body, while everybody else has to concentrate on that rhythm and workout. He’s at the point where if we change one small thing, it’s going to gain him six inches,” Dobbs said. “Triple jump is beautiful to watch, and when in the air, it’s glorious to watch. The good ones make it look easy, and Noah makes it look easy.”
Floyd sees similar traits on the football field, a sport Igbinoghene didn’t begin until seventh grade.
“There’s a few deep balls where he just made plays on the ball and went up and got the ball and straight outran people. There’s some of the plays he makes where he’s making a jump cut and making guys miss. Those are the things you can’t teach,” Floyd said. “He does an incredible job making people miss in the open field. That’s what makes him special at the next level.”
Igbinoghene hopes one day that next level will include turning the Olympics into a family tradition and building a career in the NFL. He says it’s that pursuit that drives him daily.
“I want to fulfill both of those dreams, and I really think I can,” he said. “I want to inspire people and to have people know my name, not really for me, but for my family.”
His mother, a three-time All-American and two-time SEC champ at Alabama, won bronze for Nigeria in the 4x100 relay at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. His father won seven SEC titles at Mississippi State and went on to compete in triple jump at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Dobbs said he believes Igbinoghene has the potential to keep the Olympic dream alive, especially being eligible to compete for either the U.S. or Nigeria. Dobbs considers his senior jumper to be in a rare class of athlete by being able to excel at the national level in track and being a top football prospect.
“It’s like giving you an example of a science that doesn’t exist,” Dobbs said.
How rare is it? Only 40 NFL players since 1912 have found their way to the Olympics. Of those, there’s only been one unique to jumping — Buffalo Bills wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, who finished 10th at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.