Mike Mattson | Daily Press St. Ignace senior Linnie Gustafson, right, gets a hug from Coach Dorene Ingalls after checking out of the game late in the fourth quarter.

ESCANABA — So “The Machine” rolled into Escanaba this week and did some damage in the Class C girls regional basketball tournament.

The Machine — led by head coach Dorene Ingalls and her Gladstone-bred husband/assistant coach Doug Ingalls — is St. Ignace LaSalle High School.

The Saints brought their show to town Tuesday and eliminated Houghton 68-34 in the regional semifinal and capped their time at the Escanaba High School gym with a 70-56 championship win Thursday against Ishpeming.

The Machine appears to be well-oiled and humming along in the latest chapter of the St. Ignace girls basketball history book.

Shame on you if you are an area girls’ basketball enthusiast and you weren’t at EHS for this week’s regional. You only get a pass if you were in Kingsford following Bark River-Harris in its quest for a regional title.

The Ingalls’ body of work is well documented — five state championships and three state runner-up finishes since 1999 with a few other serious runs along the way.

Doug Ingalls was enjoying his time back in Delta County, patronizing some of his favorite eateries like Main Street Pizza and D&M Subs.

But Doug and Dorene came back focused with a team hungry for a regional title and more. This is an interesting squad with seniors, sophomores and two — yes two — starting freshmen guards.

“We’ve had a real fun year,” Dorene said before Thursday’s tipoff. “We have a little mix of experienced seniors, some freshmen and sophomores who mold well together. We’ve been getting better every day.

“The kids go to work everytime we go to practice and that’s something we take a lot of pride in — how hard we work in practice and how it transcends into the games.’

St. Ignace beefed up its schedule this season, going deep downstate to beat Ann Arbor Pioneer 50-34, Jackson 74-51 and Goodrich 87-56. The Saints’ lone loss (88-56) came Feb. 17 against powerhouse Detroit Edison Public School Academy, which is regarded as one of the top teams in any class.

“We try to get down there a few times to get some different experiences,” Dorene said. “These kids, especially with the freshmen, they don’t have a lot of experience in the high school game.

Hopefully, it will pay dividends when we come into big games like this that we can come in and be able to play anybody and not be intimidated.”

We’ll see how next week shapes up as the Saints’ journey will get tougher along the way. The goal is to get to the state championship game, where Detroit Edison PSA should be waiting.

I wonder sometimes why some coaches don’t move on to something bigger after climbing to the top of the mountain. The Ingalls appear to be content oiling The Machine year after year in St. Ignace, the small town on the north end of the Mackinac Bridge where people often pass through for a burger en route to their destinations.

“I love it,” Dorene said about St. Ignace. “It’s the community. It’s just a fan-base community. Everybody wraps around each other. You ‘re not going to find too much of that in the bigger schools downstate.

“We’ve had some options with college. But this is where the pure basketball game is. It’s all about heart and hustle and who you have. You kind of devise different things with different years that come up. We are pretty blessed to be there and that’s where I’m happy.”

The Ingalls have created a culture of excellence where girls in St. Ignace grow up wanting to be a part of something special. The Ingalls don’t make any promises — they just provide a roadmap for the destination.

Senior Keshia Davis was all smiles after scoring eight points and helping the Saints to another regional championship trophy. She will graduate from St. Ignace with a ton of memories and life lessons from her time in the girls’ basketball program since second grade.

What lessons will she take with her on her life journey?

“If you want it, you just have to keep working hard and push yourself to the limit,” Davis said. “Even if you are tired you have to keep pushing yourself. You can’t get anything handed to you. We didn’t get this trophy handed to us. We had to work hard for what we wanted. We wanted the trophy and we worked hard for it.”

The Ingalls’ story is well-known around the state. It includes Dorene, who is confined to a wheelchair after being paralyzed since giving birth to her second child, Jonathan. She had a C-section delivery involving an epidural that led to paralysis in her right leg.

Dorene has been an inspiration to many people.

Doug has been Dorene’s assistant since 1999. Together, they’ve moved the St. Ignace girls’ basketball program forward.

Doug, like Dorene, doesn’t mind the scene in tiny St. Ignace either — and not because some of his favorite eateries are only two hours away down U.S. 2.

“It’s a situation where there are kids and families who love it and will fight and compete for your town and your community,” the former standout guard at Gladstone said.

“In a small town, it’s fun to get things done. Every year, we are literally one of the smallest Class C schools in the state. Being from Gladstone, we had the smallest school in the conference. It’s fun to be the little guy.”

The Saints will carry the U.P. banner toward another serious state-championship run.

Beware to the big guys, The Machine wants another trophy and plans to work hard to get it.