Ingrassia on pace to play at the next level
Ingrassia on track to be the next Wildcats signal caller to play in college
Marin Catholic has produced a string of quarterbacks over the past decade who have gone on to star in college and beyond. Now entering his junior season, current signal caller Michael Ingrassia appears to be on track to follow in those same footsteps.
Ingrassia has accepted multiple invites to prestigious football camps over the summer, including the Bay Area Showcase, the Best Coast Showcase and the Elite 11 Regionals.
“It means a lot,” Ingrassia said of the invites. “It shows I’m on their radar. I’m not the ideal (6foot, 3-inch) quarterback who has a whole bunch of D-I offers. I’m 6 foot and it means a lot that I’m getting looked at by these camps and hopefully I can show what I cando.”
These invitations put Ingrassia, who is entering his second full season as the starter, on track to follow in the footsteps of other MC quarterbacks like Jared Goff, Darius-James Peterson and Spencer Petras and play at the next level.
“That’s always the expectation given the guys we’ve had,” MC coach Mazi Moayed said. “Whoever steps in at the helm here expects to be at the next level and that’s our expectation as well.”
The Elite 11 in particular has been the premier high school quarterback competition in the country since it was founded in 1999. Ingrassia is set to compete at Los Angeles regional on Nov. 15 at
El Camino College in Torrance.
“These are pretty important because right now I’m not getting themost looks,” Ingrassia said. “These camps are givingme the opportunity to stand out and turn some heads.”
Ingrassia said he’smostly been in contactwithMountain West schools like Nevada, San Diego State and San Jose State. This upcoming season — tentatively set to start in early January — will be an important one for Ingrassia’s college prospects.
“Its a good honor to have to be invited to some of those outfits,” Moayed said. “As far as recruiting, it’s good on the resume … and it’s good because you get a chance to measure yourself against the best around.”
Ingrassia, who has been playing at quarterback since he was 8 and grewup idolizing Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, showed Moayed enough early on that he was given playing time on varsity midway through his freshman season.
“His tools were good enough to play varsity football,” Moayed said. “He had great character and he seemed very trustworthy. That goes a long way
“He was mature for his age, too. He was very tough, calm and worked hard. He was very coachable and had a lot of great intangibles and a lot of positive traits going for him.”
Then-quarterback Gaven Cooke was also a talented receiver and defensive back
andMoayedmade themove to start Ingrassia and shift Cooke to those other positions.
“It meant the world to me,” Ingrassia said of the trust MC showed in him. “Coach Mazi just trusted me and believed in me. Gaven especially, too. He was such a good leader and helper. Gaven taught me the plays. He was always there when I had questions.”
Ingrassia threw for 427 yards and seven touchdowns on 52.7% passing as a freshman. Those numbers improved to 1,688 yards and 20 touchdowns on 63.7% passing as a sophomore. Moayed expects
another jump from Ingrassia this upcoming season.
“He’s bigger, he’s stronger,” Moayed said. “He’s a lot more powerful than he was last year and he has another year of maturity.”
Ingrassia’s path to playing in college has been complicated by the pandemic. Spring footballwas canceled and the summerwas largely restricted to chalk talk over zoom sessions and conditioning within cohorts.
“It’s been rough because we can’t see all of our teammates and we can’t practice as a whole team,” Ingrassia said.
As one of the more experienced offensive skill-position
players now, Ingrassia has taken all the things Cooke taught himas a freshman and paid them forward. Ingrassia has spent a lot of time helping his teammates learn the playbook and become more comfortable within the offense despite the limitations of the pandemic
“The other thing that’s shown up with this challenging summer and fall is his leadership abilities,” Moayed said. “He’s really been outwardly focused on his teammates. … He’s been teaching the other guys our offensive system, which he’s improved at tremendously himself.”