An allegiance to the east coast won out with Jillian Ingram, a 5-9 point guard from Providence Day School in Charlotte, N.C. chose to sign a Letter of Intent to attend Georgia Tech this fall rather than the University of Minnesota.

Barbara Nelson, Ingram's coach at Providence Day, said that Ingram wanted to stay within driving distance of her family.

"She loved the coaches and the kids at both schools, and that's what made this a difficult decision," Nelson said in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "But Georgia Tech centralizes her to the Atlantic Coast Conference, and she said that was a bigger factor than even she thought it would be."

Needless to say, Georgia Tech Head Coach MaChelle Joseph was delighted by Ingram's decision to join what was ranked as the fifth-strongest recruiting class in the country by USA Today

"Jill was invited to USA Basketball this past summer as part of the Junior Development team for some of the top players in the country, so that experience alone and in itself just separates her from a lot of the players around the country," said Joseph upon Ingram's signing last November.

"I've been watching Jill play over the past four or five years and the thing that's always impressed me about her is her leadership ability and take-charge mentality," said Joseph. "I knew that, with this class, the most important position that we would have to fill was the point position because we lose (graduating seniors) Alex Stewart and Nina Berlin. We really won't have a veteran point guard coming back, so it was really important that we not only signed a point guard, but that we signed one that could be an impact player as a freshman. Jill Ingram is definitely that type of player. I look for big things early out of Jill next year, and we're really excited because we feel that we went out and signed one of the elite point guards in the country."

Following her junior year, Ingram was rated the 5th-best point guard in the country and 26th best player by All-Star Girls Report, and ranked 47 by the Blue Star Index. She was a member of two-time AAU national champion Team North Carolina. Ingram was also cited as an Honorable Mention High School All-Americans by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Off the court, she's a member of the Honor Roll, Beta Club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and National Big Brother Big Sister organizations.

Article written by Gball Associate Editor Jim Catalano.

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