Lingenfelder named new Fever coach

The Tri-Cities Fever reached back to its history to find its new head football coach.

Ryan Lingenfelder, the defensive coordinator for the 2011 and 2012 Fever teams that made it to the United Bowl, the Indoor Football League’s championship game — was introduced by Tri-Cities owner Teri Carr on Tuesday at a news conference at the Toyota Center.

Lingenfelder signed a two-year deal.

He replaces Adam Shackleford, the Fever’s head coach for the previous six seasons.

Shackleford is the head coach of the Spokane Shock, which officially joined the IFL on Tuesday morning.

For Lingenfelder, returning to the Tri-Cities is a dream come true.

“I’ve tried twice to walk away from the game (in the last few years),” he said. “It just gets in your blood.”

After the 2012 season, Lingenfelder left the Tri-Cities to become the head coach of the Wyoming Cavalry in the IFL.

It was rough going for those two seasons. The team had a tough time getting players to come to Casper, and it couldn’t get much time to practice indoors.

Lingenfelder stepped down after the 2014 season.

Last season, he was the line coach for the New Orleans VooDoo of the Arena Football League. But the league took over the team because of finances, and at season’s end, the VooDoo was folded.

Lingenfelder thought he was done coaching football when Carr called.

“Beyond a qualified coach, I needed someone I could trust, who is loyal, be a presence in the community, and be here long term,” Carr said.

Those roads led to Lingenfelder, who left the Fever on good terms.

“I know what he can do,” Carr said. “And he deserves a shot with organizational support.”

The first thing Carr did when she signed Lingenfelder was call all 15 players on the roster and tell them what she did. Shackleford signed them after the 2015 season.

“They work for Teri Carr,” Shackleford said last week in an interview. “She would be unwise to release any of them.”

Carr got the answers she was looking for from the players.

“I got the same reply from every one of them: ‘The Tri-Cities is where I want to be,’ ” Carr said.

Lingenfelder followed up with his own calls.

“They were all fired up,” he said. “There was not one guy hemming or hawing about playing here. Not one.”

Lingenfelder will take charge of the defense. He’s interviewing candidates for offensive coordinator and looking for a younger coach to run special teams.

“I’m happy to be back,” he said. “The reality is I want to be here. This is my home. The longest tenure in my career has been here.”

▪ IFL Commissioner Mike Allshouse was present for the Tri-Cities news conference after attending the Spokane conference in the morning, when the Shock became the 11th team in the IFL for 2016.

“You guys have been alone in the state of Washington far too long,” Allshouse told the Fever fans in attendance.

Allshouse said the league’s teams would expand their schedules from 14 games to 16 next season. The IFL is expected to add a 12th team next week in the Midwest.

The schedule won’t be put together until later this month, but Allshouse and Carr confirmed the Fever would play four games each against the Shock and the Billings Wolves.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Lingenfelder named new Fever coach."