Mustang grad Ingalls excited to step into coaching role after stellar NCAA freshman season
Lander University Bearcats standout back home helping with field lacrosse camps
If this was a normal year, Moose Jaw Mustangs lacrosse grad Quinn Ingalls would be way out west playing high-level field lacrosse after finishing off a solid first season with the Lander University Bearcats.
Instead, there Ingalls was recently during the first Moose Jaw Lacrosse Association field development camp at 1996 Summer Games Park, decked out in Lander blue and grey and passing on tips and tricks to local up-and-coming players.
Just like everything else, it’s all a product of the COVID-19 pandemic – but this time, it’s a bit of an opportunity as opposed to a wholesale drawback: a chance to pass on the game the same way older players did for him back in when he was a youngster learning the outdoor version of the sport.
“Oh yeah, it’s actually really exciting,” Ingalls said as players began to filter into the park. “I’ve always wanted to coach but I’ve never had time too, and fortunately this season Moose Jaw Lacrosse brought it all together. They’re way ahead of other organizations in the province and across the country, too, so I’m pretty proud to part of all this.”
Ingalls had planned to take the field with the legendary Coquitlam Adanacs in the B.C. Junior A Lacrosse League this summer, but with everything shut down due to the coronavirus, he’s back home biding his time until next season. That is until MJLAX got up and running again with their development camps shortly after the province hit the final parts of Phase 4 of Re-Open Saskatchewan.
“It’s mostly box down here, so any time we get a chance to play field out here it’s really special,” Ingalls said. “Field has always been close to my heart, so I just hope more Moose Jaw kids get a chance to play this kind of lacrosse like I did when I was a kid. Unfortunately, we don’t always have those opportunities in Saskatchewan, but we’re growing every year. So hopefully this is a huge building step in the right direction.”
Before coming home, Ingalls was in the midst of an impressive season for the first-year Lander Bearcats, a Division II program in Greenwood, South Carolina. They’d staked themselves out to a 4-2 record despite having never taken the field as a unit before, and were looking to close things out on a high note. But COVID-19 came calling in mid-March, and the Great Lakes Valley Conference quickly brought things to a halt. Three days later, Lander University did the same, and Ingalls was on his way home. “It was even more disappointing because we were doing really well,” Ingalls said. “It was our inaugural season, and as a first-year program you’re not expected to do a lot, but we had four wins right off the bat. We were really getting on a roll, our whole chemistry was coming together and we had excellent coaching. It’s a great program at Lander and I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
An offensive midfielder, Ingalls played five games and put up six goals and eight points in that span, in addition to picking seven ground balls and creating a pair of turnovers. That, while learning to adjust to the level of NCAA Division II lacrosse.
“It’s just higher speed and higher athleticism,” he said. “The American players are very athletic where the Canadian guys are very skilled and one-handed and have the fundamentals down. But the Americans have that speed and strength, they hit the weight room a lot… So I’d say the big difference is the speed in the game, everyone can catch and shoot, everyone can play, but it’s just that much faster.”
And then there’s just the mindset surrounding the game down south – lacrosse was born as a sport of symbolic warfare, and they take it to heart in the States. “I just love how intense the competition is and how every team hates every other team,” Ingalls said with a grin. “It’s just like we want to bash heads every game.” The question now is just when and how lacrosse and sports, in general, will return to the United States in the coming months. In addition to the excitement for his sophomore season, there will also be some additional prestige, as Lander is moving into the Peach Belt Conference next season. “We’ll see what happens, but we resume face-toface instruction this fall, so I’ll be back down there,” Ingalls said. “It’s going to be exciting with the new conference and I think we’re going to make a good run this year.”