As the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament gets underway this week, Jared Ingersoll recalls his own scholastic hockey experience. Ingersoll is in his second season as an assistant coach with Malvern Prep, the top seed in the Class AAA bracket. The Friars will open tournament play Tuesday night against Salesianum.

Nearly a quarter century ago, Ingersoll was skating for the Friars as they captured the 1997 Class AAA Flyers Cup championship. Ingersoll himself was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player; he graduated from Malvern Prep not long after.

Today, Ingersoll reflects on how the school shaped his life. He enrolled as a freshman in the fall of 1993 but began considering the school several years before that.

“One of my best friends from grade school who I’m still friends with today left our grad school after sixth grade and went to Malvern as a middle schooler,” Ingersoll said. “That kind of put it on my radar.

“I visited the campus and watched a couple hockey games. And my dad went to Penn Charter, so I think he kind of understood the value a place like Malvern could provide to me.
“So it really was my number one school from the seventh grade when I started looking at high schools. As soon as I went on campus it was a perfect fit for me.”

When it came to adjusting to high school, Ingersoll found his greatest challenge was dealing with increased responsibility. “There is a lot more accountability in your classes,” he said, “and the teachers are a lot more demanding and expecting more out of you.

“One of the things from my perspective that Malvern is very good at is kind of pushing you out of your comfort zone. And trying to really set you up and prepare you for college and then post college and into the real world. So, my transition was more just kind of getting acclimated and managing my time. You’ve got a lot of different things going on and you have to think about things you didn’t have to before.”

In addition to playing hockey, Ingersoll played soccer at Malvern Prep. He notes that effective time management was necessary, to survive academically.

“You’re going to practice every day after school,” he saod. You’re not getting home until later at night and you’ve got your schoolwork, you really hard to learn how to take advantage of free time during your school day. During lunch breaks you’d do your activities, but any time you can use to maybe study for an exam and get some homework done, any work you can do during the day just kind of helps you. 

“You learn pretty quick that you’re not going to survive if you try to cram everything into a couple hours when you get home from practice and you’re already tired. It’s finding little windows to keep up with your work and get everything done.”

Ingersoll says when he was attending Malvern Prep it was virtually imperative to go to his teachers for extra help. 

“If you weren’t going to them for help and asking questions, you were going to be falling behind,” he said. “That was just part of the expectations, that you were interacting with your teachers outside of that specific class. They encourage it and its part of the expectations that you’re putting in that extra effort and making sure you fully understand what the teacher is teaching.

“There are difficult concerts in the subjects you’re going through, whether it’s a language or math, whatever it is, you need that extra help and the teachers were always available. They had specific times set up throughout the day where they would just sit there where anyone coming into ask questions could get help.

“Really, it falls on you and your accountable for how successful you are. They provide you every opportunity to be successful. Whether you take advantage of it or not separates kids that succeed and don’t succeed at Malvern.”
After graduating from Malvern Prep, Ingersoll went on to Penn State where he earned a degree in Management Science and Information Systems. He says his time at Malvern gave him a solid academic foundation and the discipline to succeed in college.

“The accountability is a big thing and holding myself to a high standard,” he said. “Going into college I was going from Malvern which is a fairly small school to Penn State. I’d have a classroom of 4 or 500, 600 people. You can get away with anything. 

“Just having that discipline to seek out the teachers in a big school like that, they’re available to you if you take advantage of it. So, having the discipline to go to class and get your work done and manage your time with all the extracurriculars and distractions in college, Malvern kind of sets you up for that.”

Ingersoll cherishes his time behind the Malvern Prep bench, alongside head coach Bill Keenan, whom Ingersoll coached for two years when Keenan was skating for Bishop Shanahan and Ingersoll was an assistant coach there.

“I had such a great experience at Malvern,” he said, “specifically during my hockey career. Our ultimate goal is to win a Flyers Cup. I don’t necessarily need that for myself. I would like these kids to look back on their Malvern hockey experience the same way I do.

 “I’m still best friends with a lot of the guys that I played with at Malvern and have memories that we still talk about today. I really hope that this group of kids looks back on their hockey experience the same way I do.”

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