ST. IGNACE - After 25 years at the helm of the St. Ignace boys’ basketball team, Doug Ingalls is calling it a career. Ingalls, was named the 2024 AP coach of the year in division 4, a great way to wrap up his career.
Ingalls played basketball at Northern Michigan University before finding his way to what would become his home of the future.
“Gladstone, Marquette and St. Ignace have been, my world kind of, and that’s all in the UP, which makes it even better to me.” Said Ingalls. “Right away after school, I got a job offer from St. Ignace to coach varsity basketball and teach junior high math. And that was kind of my goal, my hope, my dreams to be a varsity basketball coach.”
A dream come true right out of college for Ingalls, and this year was special for not only the St. Ignace team but also for Doug, as the team made it to the state semifinal game at the Breslin Center, with Doug’s son Jonny Ingalls leading the Saints there.
“It’s amazing what tournaments do to small towns. Some of these former players I hadn’t heard from in two, five, ten years. Maybe I’d see them in the summer once in a while. It’s just great touching base with everybody, the love for St. Ignace Athletics and St. Ignace Basketball is great, I’m so proud to be a very small part of that but, hopefully help so many kids over all the years.” Ingalls said.
In recent times, Doug has been struggling with some medical issues.
“As many people know, I’ve had about a year and two thirds now that I’ve been dealing with some cancer, and I still got a lot of things going on with that. In the meantime, in the last month, I found out that I’m now a diabetic. So that kind of throws some mix into all my medications and stuff and I’m struggling getting all that taken care of right now.” Ingalls said.
Doug’s wife, Dorene Ingalls, is still coaching the girls’ squad at St. Ignace, and it remains to be seen whether or not Doug will continue to help Dorene coach the girls’ squad, or pursue something different, but one thing is for sure, that Doug will forever be a part of the St. Ignace family.
“My whole goal when I came to St. Ignace was to, lead these guys, this team, this school, this community to a state championship. So, to win some districts and some regionals and get to the state semifinal was big, but never got to our final destiny and my final goal as a varsity coach to win a state title. I’m bummed for all of St. Ignace because of that and my players, but we are a family.”
