The Collegian

Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Mayday

Four skaters in helmets and pads line up in front of Doug Ingles. He tells them to get into position, and they hunch over. Their torsos are parallel with the floor and their right arms are so close to the ground, they almost touch. At his signal they alternate their arms again and again. They stay hunched.

Ingles, the owner of Hillsdale's Stadium Roller Rink, is living a coach's dream. He has trained state champions, national champions, travelled the world with his athletes, coached at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. and has even coached a couple of Olympic gold medalists.

But he's here in Hillsdale, coaching his team and running the roller rink.

The Stadium Roller Rink was founded in 1956 by Ingles' father. Three years later, Ingles started to skate competitively.

"I've been skating since before I was born," he said.

Ingles has won numerous national championships - his first when he was eight.

He said he grew up with speed and figure skating along with his two sisters, Sherri and Carol Ingles, who were also national championships.

"Between the three of us, we've won nationals 27 times," Ingles said.

Practice for speed skating isn't easy, said current members of Ingles' team, the Hillsdale Sk8 Crew.

Shannon Ward, 16, has been skating for four and a half years - she has also been Michigan's state champ for four years. She has travelled to the same Olympic training center in Colorado that Doug Ingles coached at. During her time there, Ward said she spent up to six hours in her skates for four days.

Michael Perks, 9, has been skating for a year. He too, is a state champ within his first year of skating.

Jonathan Ingles, Doug Ingles' son, said he competes in three different kinds of speed skating: short, middle and long distance. Depending on his competitors, Jonathan Ingles said he competes mostly short and middle distance in the five major meets he's competed in.

"I've won first place in about three of them," he said. "For the other two, I got second and sixth."

Doug Ingles said even though speed skating isn't an Olympic sport a good deal of Olympic athletes get their start on the rink. He listed off a few, including Olympic gold medalist, ice skater Apolo Ohno and bicyclist Theresa Cliff-Ryan.

Continued...

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