Bobcats star Ingalls makes move to Ireland

Piper Ingalls is relentless.

That quality pushed her through two years of waiting to play basketball at Brandon University, through being the smallest player on the floor almost all the time when she finally did, and to become the best shooter to wear a Bobcats women’s basketball uniform.

Now the Moose Jaw, Sask., native is heading to Ireland to begin her professional hoops career.

Ingalls signed with the Abbey Seals Dublin Lions of Ireland’s Division One, the second-highest tier of pro ball in the nation.

“I’m so thrilled, I’m so excited for the next chapter and so grateful for what BU did for me, what coach (Ilarion Bonhomme) did for me and how much he helped me through the process,” Ingalls said.

Ingalls joined the Bobcats in 2019 after spending her high school seasons as a sharpshooter at A.E. Peacock Collegiate, helping the Toilers to a 4A provincial bronze medal.

She redshirted the 2019-20 season at BU under coach Novell Thomas, then had to wait another year when 2020-21 was cancelled due to COVID-19.

The five-foot-three guard debuted the following year for coach James Bambury, averaging 7.2 points on about 17 minutes per game.

The following season, she led the Bobcats with 12.1 ppg. Her numbers dipped back to 8.2 ppg under Jaime Taggart, as Reetta Tulkki and Faith Clearsky combined for 28 field-goal attempts per game while the rest of the team barely eclipsed that total.

But when Bonhomme took over, Ingalls dropped a career-high 13.1 ppg, then surpassed that with 15.9 in 2025-26, as she helped Brandon qualify to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. She was named BU’s co-female athlete of the year, along with Carly Thomson.

Ingalls left BU as one of two women to score more than 1,000 career points.

“I grew a lot through my seven years because of how many different coaches I had to play for, and how many roles I had throughout the years,” Ingalls said.

“My last two years, my role changed and I was one of the … scorers for sure. That helped me get my stats up, that helped me get recognized and helped me want to go pro.”

Early on, Ingalls leaned on fellow Saskatchewan native Chelsea Misskey, a veteran guard who followed a similar path to earn floor time. Ingalls said she was pivotal to her growth back then, as a friend and leader on the floor, and even recently as she navigated her next steps after graduation.

Of course, Bonhomme’s years of professional experience overseas were invaluable too.

“Coach was definitely helping me to reach out to agents, talking to coaches; we’ve had a couple of calls together with different coaches,” Ingalls said, adding her talks with Dublin coach Chris McNairney went well.

“I wanted to have a good connection with a coach … His play style and everything he wants me to do fit for me. And Ireland’s a pretty cool place, so that was hard to say no to.”

Ingalls has another month of off-season, then hits the hardcourt running in early September, much like she has for the past seven years in the Wheat City.

But there’s certainly a new level of excitement this time.

“It’s definitely different. Going over there, I’m not going to have school to worry about, but I’m definitely going to have to worry about getting as much training in as possible,” Ingalls said.

“I want to do what Coach did, travel around and go to all different places. I want to do this for a couple of years, for sure.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com