How this Manual grad will unearth 'hidden talent' as Peoria Quest's new basketball coach

Ron Ingram is making his return to the sidelines.

Peoria Quest announced the hiring of the former Decatur MacArthur head coach as its newest boys basketball coach on Monday. Ingram comes to the Class 1A program after serving as an assistant on Willie Coleman’s Manual staff this past season.

“After dealing with the Manual program — going through the year with them … that kind of lit my fire to coach again, actually,” said the 1978 Manual grad, who had taken the 2020-2021 season off to deal with some health issues.

Ingram spent six seasons — 2014 to 2020 — with MacArthur, where he went 113-72 along with a pair of Class 3A regional championships that bookended his time with the Generals. Prior to his move to Decatur, Ingram had been a Manual girls assistant under Jonelle McCloud since 2001 before joining the boys staff as the sophomore coach in 2007.

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Two of those seasons with the Rams resulted in 2008 and 2010 Class 2A runner-up finishes.

“There’s a lot of hidden talent here at Quest,” Ingram said. “There are a lot of (players) that can play basketball at other schools, but they choose to come here at Quest. Those other schools don’t really know about those other players here.

“They’re the same type of tough kids — they’re the Peoria kids. They’re just Peoria kids that just don’t go to Manual, Richwoods or Central or Notre Dame.”

Quest basketball is 10 years old

Ingram replaces interim coach William Nickels, who will be retained on Ingram’s staff along with Drew Nickels. The Gators went 12-9 last season, ending their season in a 1A regional semifinal to AlWood Ridgewood in in seven overtimes.

Michael Jenkins founded the program in 2012, coaching Quest to an 87-38 record in four varsity seasons with three regional titles and a 2016 1A Elite Eight appearance. Dustin Brooks then took over the program for three seasons before being replaced by Corbin Parker prior to this past season.

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De'Yahnna Styles is expected to be hired as one of Ingram’s assistants. Styles, who played at Lake Michigan College, coaches track and field as well as basketball at Quest middle school. Both freshmen and sophomore teams will likely be field at Quest.

“She’s going to do a fantastic job for me here at the school,” Ingram said, noting he’ll add two more to his staff.

What can you expect from Quest?

Much like Manual, Quest will play an uptempo style of basketball, utilizing its fast and athletic players, who maybe small but know how to play basketball, according to Ingram. He’s unknowingly had a chance to watch his future team and develop relationships with the players as the Quest family liaison professional.

When Manual wasn’t playing, Ingram would be in the stands cheering on the Gators.

“Before I even knew I’d have the job, I was communicating with the boys,” he said.

Utilizing the connections he made with MacArthur in the Central State Eight Conference, Ingram already has Springfield Lanphier as well as reigning 3A state champion Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin on the Quest schedule for 2022-23. His goal is to have his team playing the toughest schedule possible.

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Limestone, East Peoria, Bloomington Central Catholic, Knoxville, Eureka, Kewanee, Lewistown and Peoria Christian were all on Quest’s slate last season.

“I want to beef up our schedule a little bit,” Ingram said. “Even though we’re Class 1A basketball, we want to play 2A, 3A, 4A schools. … I want to beat them, I do, but I want to play better schools than us so it can make us better when we do go into the playoffs.”

And how about those Peoria schools?

“As we build and grow our program, I think they’ll start playing us,” he said.

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: IHSA basketball: Manual grad Ron Ingram takes over as Quest boys coach