Coach Tony Ingle in action. Tony Ingle in previous coaching position at Kennesaw State.Tony Ingle will be a Roadrunner again Thursday.
Ingle, a former All-Tri-State basketball player for North Whitfield High School who then helped Dalton Junior College win two state and region championships before moving on to Huntingdon College, will be introduced Thursday morning as the first basketball coach for the four-year version of his old junior college.
In reviving a long-dormant intercollegiate sports program on the campus, Dalton State College is retaining the nickname Roadrunners.
Ingle's hiring was first reported this afternoon by the Dalton Daily-Citizen newspaper, citing an anonymous source. Two other sources have confirmed the report to the Times Free Press.
Ingle and Dalton State athletic director Derek Waugh gave "no comment" responses to the Daily-Citizen.
Ingle previously coached at Gordon College, a two-year school in Barnesville, Ga., and Alabama-Huntsville in NCAA Division II. He later was an interim head coach at Brigham Young University and then took Kennesaw State to the Division II national championship in 2004 and shepherded the Owls into Division I membership. He was fired there in March 2011 after an 8-23 season that included an 80-63 defeat of Georgia Tech.
KSU said the firing was more about academic issues than the record. The Owls had Academic Performance Rate penalties.
In the Atlantic Sun Conference with KSU, Ingle coached against Waugh, who was at Stetson.
Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Henry Dickerson was a finalist for the Roadrunners job. Two others were interviewed in person.
See the Times Free Press for more.