Deb Ingram

I am so proud to introduce our third Panda Alumni, Deb (Dyson) Ingram. Deb was a physical education teacher for about thirteen years and is now a Guidance counsellor in a Calgary high school. She has been married to Lorry for the twenty years. Lorry played volleyball at multiple colleges and currently works at ENMAX. They have two athletic kids, fifteen year old daughter, Regan and thirteen year old son, Keenan. She has been coaching her daughter in volleyball the last two years for Canuck Stuff, but is no longer coaching as her daughter moved to the Dino club. Keenan is a hockey player.

Deb had two different stints with the Panda team. She started off with the Pandas from 1987 til 1990 with Suzy Smith as her coach. She then got scooped up by the National team and played for Canada for two years. In 1992, she came back to the Pandas to play for Laurie Eisler. She captained the team and played outside hitter. Deb was my warmup partner during my rookie year as a Panda. Yes, she had the patience of a saint coming from the national team back to the Pandas to play pepper with a very fresh eighteen year old athlete.

Deb was happy to share her experiences with the Pandas. We didn’t even have to censor any stories and left a few things left unsaid:

I had two experiences with the Pandas. It was such a huge and important part of my life and still is. It has created me! Volleyball has helped me become who I am. The opportunity to become a Panda was amazing. The first time I was a Panda we were looooosers. I don’t remember a lot about the volleyball, what I remember is the people and overcoming adversity. Learning about teamwork, caring about others and playing for others were a key for me. When I came back and we became a winning team, it wasn’t a better experience because we were winning, it was just a different experience. I wouldn’t trade either. Both were great with great people. I am especially grateful for the opportunities volleyball created for me. I got to travel all around the world, first with the Pandas in Canada and then with the National team around the world to China, Japan, and Peru. I loved meeting new people. Because of volleyball I got to meet my teammates from all across Canada. It took my world outside of Calgary and gave me a whole new opportunity. Even now, when you connect with people from the Panda past you immediately have a shared experience. Even when you meet volleyball people or someone who was a UofA student, there is an instant connection, whether they played sport or not. It is neat! I always share little tidbits from my life as a Panda with my kids. I will tell them what I did and how I solved this problem. Because my kids are athletes too we can have shared experiences, whether they listen or not.