KALEB BIGWOOD TAKES A PICTURE WITH HIS MOTHER, KELLY, AND SIBLINGS
By Toby Blissett (Head Coach, Highland Baptist)
Hamilton Christian's Kaleb Bigwood already had one state championship under his belt when toed the line for the boys' 400m at the 2024 LHSAA D2 State Indoor Championship. He had won the LHSAA Class 1A state championship in the 800m in 2023.
Despite his lone outdoor title, he was a relative unknown--and the No. 3 seed in the race behind Lake Charles College Prep's Careion Franklin and Glen Oaks' Na'ryan Delone.
Bigwood seemed to have extra juice as he took off confidently and led the race through the first 200m. On the back stretch, Delone pulled up shoulder-to-shoulder with Bigwood as they entered the third and final turn. Bigwood took a fall on the fieldhouse's Mondo surface. With his fall, so too his chances at pulling off an upset and winning his first indoor state championship took a tumble.
The fall was unexplainable. He wasn't bumped. He wasn't tripped. He just fell. Misfortune happens in every meet. It's a narrative that plays out at every meet, but when it happens at the LHSAA state meet-=it makes the sting much worse.
After the race, Bigwood was visibly upset as teammates and coaches, and his mom, showered him with hugs.
Later that night, I was replaying the events of the day. Bigwood's fall kept replaying in my mind. My son, Tyler Blissett, and Kaleb competed against one another in the regional and state meets in May of 2023. I had met Kaleb's father, Josh, and we had become friends.
When I could not stop thinking about Kaleb's fall, I texted Josh.
"Hey, sorry about what happened to Kaleb," I wrote. "He'll bounce back."
Josh sent back a text I will never forget.
"Thank you. It was really raw for him tonight as my wife only has a few weeks left as cancer has overtaken her liver and other organs. She was able to make it today to watch and he really wanted to win that for his mom. So it was more than just a fall for him."
After hearing this news, Kaleb's emotional response to taking a tumble made more sense.
Kelly Bigwood would watch her son compete again during the first two weeks of the 2024 outdoor season before passing away on Friday, March 22nd.She was 45-years old.
The daughter of a pastor and the wife of another, Kelly Lee Bigwood knew where she was going.
"I'm ready to go home," She said with a few last breaths on Earth.
On that same day, Hamilton Christian traveled to Opelousas for Westminster Christian Academy's Davis Memorial Relays. Kaleb Bigwood was on the team bus. He won both the 400m and 800m on that day. He also finished third in the discus to give his team 26 points.
Understandably, his times and marks were not remarkable. The fact that he was on the bus and competing in the sport that he loved on the day his mother passed away was incredible. During his time of grief, he was with his "family"--his Hamilton Christian Track & Field Family.
A week later, Bigwood did run a remarkable time-=47.63 at Leesville's Wampus Cat Relays. At the time it was the No. 1 time in the nation for sophomores and No. 2 overall in Louisiana behind Warren Easton's Germain Smith-Mata.
Then, at the 2024 LHSAA State Outdoor Championships, disaster struck again as Bigwood--while leading the 400m dash and with less than 100m to go--took a fall. How could this happen? That's probably a question Bigwood still speculates, and a question that nobody knows the answer to.
LOUISIANA BOYS' 400m RANKINGS!
Athletes have walked away from sports over less adverse situations, but that's not Kaleb Bigwood. That's not the kind of son that Kelly and Josh Bigwood raised.
When doctor's at M.D. Anderson gave her the official diagnosis on October 1, 2015, they gave her six months to live, but she fought the good fight over eight years. Over that span, her fight allowed her to watch her children grow up and experience special moments in her children's lives. For example, Kaleb's first day of high school.
Kaleb Bigwood has continued to fight and thus far has had a great 2025 indoor season. He is ranked No.1 in Louisiana in the 400m (48.79) which he ran at the McNeese Indoor No. 2. It was a meet record and Bigwood was a presented a belt buckle to commemorate the record-breaking performance.
Now, it's Kaleb's turn to fight this Saturday at the LHSAA State Indoor Championship. He will be fighting to stay on his feet in those tight turns at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse. For Bigwood, it's more than a state championship on the line. It's an opportunity to remove the bitter taste of not one--but two-straight mishaps at state championship meets; an opportunity for redemption.
No matter what happens on Saturday, this isn't the triumph-through-adversity story we all thirst for, but it is Kaleb's story, and he is far from writing the final chapter.