INSIDE: WRESTLING FINISHES SIXTH IN THE NATION AT TOURNAMENT NORTH IDAHO COLLEGE Booster Club News APRIL/MAY 2014 NIC Joins NWAACC Basketball, Volleyball get two more seasons in NJCAA

he landscape of athletics will change on the NIC campus with the approv- T al by the NIC Board of Trustees to transition from the NJCAA to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Col- leges (NWAACC) over a two year period. The move was strongly influenced due to financial reasons affecting the college bud- get. With the decision, the outdoor sports of fastpitch softball, men and women’s soc- cer and men and women’s golf will begin competing in the NWAACC in Fall 2014. The indoor sports of volleyball, men’s bas- ketball and women’s basketball will remain in the NJCAA for two more seasons. Wres- tling will remain in the NJCAA since the NWAACC does not offer wrestling as a con- ference sport. Over the past ten years NIC enjoyed un- precedented growth, but consistent with national trends, enrollment has begun to decline. Last semester NIC’s enrollment declined 10% and this semester has contin- ued with an 11% decline. In planning for the fiscal year 2015 budget it was projected that enrollment will continue to decline by up to another 10%. With a commensurate travel costs, national championship tourna- NWAACC, travel partner Community Col- decline in tuition revenues, the reduction ment travel, and NIC’s reduction in tuition leges of Spokane is only 35 miles away and in FY 2015’s budget will be approximately grants awarded to the athletics department most region members are within a 2-4 hour $2.3 million for NIC. Based on the finan- made this decision essential. drive. Local conference rivals and region cial budget reductions affecting all depart- The NWAACC voted unanimously to in- championships in nearby areas should con- ments on campus, the athletics program was vite NIC to join over a two year transition tribute to more fan support and the ability to faced with a decision of cutting programs period, but it was contingent on all programs attend championship events. or switching conferences. With a vision for making the switch. In the NJCAA, NIC’s With the move NIC will forego national long term program and jobs sustainability, closest conference rival was the College of championships opportunities with the excep- the decision to opt for the less costly finan- Southern Idaho (515 miles away) and as tion of Wrestling, but will gain affiliation in cial model to join the NWAACC was rec- far away as the College of Southern Ne- a 34 member conference. The NWAACC is ommended. Increased NJCAA conference vada, near Las Vegas (1,120 miles). In the - See NWAACC, Page 3 -

LUNCHEON SCHEDULE: 4/29: Noon: Coeur d’Alene Resort • 5/13: Noon: Outback Steakhouse BOARD OFFICERS Tradition of Excellence PRESIDENT t’s been a few months since we had a newslet- Jon Parson ter come out, and as you can imagine much Ihas happened this semester. In addition to the VICE PRESIDENT conference realignment to the NWAACC (see page 1), we hosted the 2014 NJCAA National Wrestling Roger Stewart Championships. Special thanks to the Spokane Sports Commission and our tournament commit- TREASURER tee for making this a memorable tournament for Mark Hampe all 42 schools represented, and over 250 wrestlers. Congratulations to NIC Wrestling for a 6th Place SECRETARY National finish. Kudos to our tournament Direc- Ginni Lenz / Patty Stewart tor Craig Hanson for an outstanding job. The next tournament host privileges were awarded to Coun- BOARD cil Bluffs, Iowa as the NJCAA decided to return MEMBERS to a three year cycle in one location for the future Wrestling Championships. Des Moines will host AL WILLIAMS Robert Cliff next year in the last year of the current bid cycle. Patty Stewart Congratulations to the winners of the Athletics MALE ACADEMIC NOMINEES Department faculty and staff awards, voted on by Steve Casey Basketball- Bryce Leavitt the coaches and student-athletes. The Squirt Keat- Wrestling- Kyle Godhino Tom Messina ing Faculty Award went to Physical Education In- Golf- Chris Cremer Julie Stark structor Ryan Hayes. The Floyd Rosenlund Staff Soccer- Adam Garman Frank Darlington Award went to Adam Mortensen of the Mainte- Mike O’Brien nance staff. In addition over 90 students earned a FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Jon Berger GPA of 3.0 or better for the semester to earn Aca- Basketball- Renae Mokrzycki John Marcheso demic Honor Roll recognition. Congrats to all of Soccer- Kellsi Parson A.D, Al Williams our honorees. Golf- Jennie Williams ([email protected]) Volleyball- Russia Robinson NIC ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT AWARDS BANQUET Softball- Marissa Tarin PHOTOGRAPHS Join us for the Annual Athletics Department Don Sausser Awards banquet. Team MVPs, Scholar Athletes MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR and Booster Club Member of the Year will be rec- Basketball- Bryce Leavitt CONTACT ognized on May 3rd at the NIC Edminister Student Wrestling- VJ Giulio Union Building. This year’s nominees include: Soccer- Christian Botuli Patty: 208-769-3348 Golf- Angus Montgomery P.O. Box 492 FEMALE ACADEMIC NOMINEES Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816 Softball- Kylene Hatton Tickets are $30. Please reserve your seat with [email protected] Soccer- Alex Rodriguez the Athletics Department at (208) 769-3348. Din- Golf- Maddie Hauck ner choices include a choice of salmon or chicken Volleyball- Allison Meehan so reserve your selection in advance. Plan on an Basketball- Jansen Butler exciting evening revisiting the memories that Cheer- Raquel Halverson make NIC an exceptional college!

MISSION STATEMENT

The North Idaho College Booster Club supports all NIC recognized in- athletic Cardinal Kids outreach pro- Club is a nonprofit organization, tercollegiate athletics as a lifelong grams. The Booster Club holds vari- committed to providing financial learning experience that will enhance ous fund-raising events throughout support to all recognized intercol- the value of sportsmanship and pro- the year including an annual auction, legiate athletic programs at NIC vide a positive experience for stu- awards banquet, 3-on-3 basketball through various fund-raising and en- dent athletes, students, and fans. tournament, and golf tournament. It dowment activities for student ath- The club also recognizes the commit- also sponsors a booth each year at the lete grant-in-aid and team benefits. ment our athletes make to the young North Idaho Fair and operates a con- Organized in the 1960s, the Booster people of our community through our cession stand at all home events.

PAGE 2 NIC CARDINALS HOME EVENT SCHEDULE

DATE EVENT TIME DATE EVENT TIME Apr. 25 Softball vs College of Southern Idaho (Game 1) 1 p.m. May 2 Softball vs Colorado Northwestern (Game 1) 1 p.m. Softball vs College of Southern Idaho (Game 2) 3 p.m. Softball vs Colorado Northwestern (Game 2) 3 p.m. Apr. 26 Softball vs College of Southern Idaho (Game 1) 12 p.m. May 3 Women’s Soccer ALUMNI GAME 1 p.m. Softball vs College of Southern Idaho (Game 2) 2 p.m. Softball vs Colorado Northwestern (Game 1) 12 p.m. Apr. 27 Women’s Soccer vs University of Montana 11 a.m. Softball vs Colorado Northwestern (Game 2) 2 p.m.

Long time NIC Wrestling Coach John Owen (center, blue shirt) was hon- ored with the Chris- tianson Gymnasium Wrestling Room dedicated on his be- half. Owen is joined by members of his family, NIC Board of Trustee members Ken Howard and Todd Banducci and NIC AD Williams, as the room was dedicated during the Tri-State Wrestling tournament.

SAVE THE DATES ment will be held on Friday, June 6 at Avon- BOOSTER CLUB LUNCHEONS: The annual Coeur d’Alene Crossing, the dale Golf Club. NEW SCHEDULE 2.4 mile swimming event will change dates Register online or call the NIC Athlet- Join us for the last two Booster Club lun- from Sunday to Saturday. Come join us on ics Department at 208 769-3348. 1:00pm cheons of the school year on April 29th at August 16 at the Coeur d’Alene Resort golf Shotgun Start. $100 per player or $375 for a the Coeur d’Alene Resort and May 13 at course starting point. Go to www.cdacross- team, includes golf, cart, dinner by Outback Outback. This summer we will suspend the ing.com for more details. Steakhouse and an NIC Shirt. Register by Booster Club luncheons until school returns, Scott Hague Memorial Golf Tourna- May 30! Space is limited! on August 26 at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

kima Valley College, Blue Mountain College, be able to earn individual and academic All- NWAACC Treasure Valley CC, and Wenatchee Valley American accolades and national rankings - Continued from Page 1 - College. In addition the NWAACC has ath- through the various National Coaches Associ- letic scholarship limits that are lower than ations. Also, affiliation in the NWAACC may comprised of community colleges in Wash- the level that NIC currently awards under the allow the ability to return former eliminated ington and Oregon and Douglas College in NJCAA. The NWAACC allows their member sports like baseball and cross country back to Vancouver, British Columbia. They do not colleges to recruit student athletes in Idaho, the campus. participate in national competition in the post Montana, Oregon, , California, Most important, in addition to being fis- season after their regional championships. Alaska, Hawaii and the province of British cally responsible, NIC will be able to pre- NIC will become a member of the Eastern Columbia, Canada. Recruitment of athletes serve athletic and gender equity opportunities Region of the NWAACC with the Commu- in these neighboring states still allows the op- for all of the current nine intercollegiate pro- nity Colleges of Spokane, Walla Walla CC, portunity for diversity in team rosters. grams, plus the cheer team, without eliminat- Columbia Basin College, Big Bend CC, Ya- NIC student athletes and teams will still ing jobs for coaching staff or athletic trainers. PAGE 3 Coaches’ Reports

WRESTLING a NJCAA DI Honorable Mention All- her 4th win for game four for the Cardi- The Cardinals wrapped up their season American. nals. The Cardinals combined had 11 hits, 3 with a sixth place finish at the NJCAA Na- The team finished the season with a walks, and 13 runs on the Coyotes in 5 in- tional Tournament in Spokane on Feb. 28th 22-10 overall record capping off the tenth nings during game and March 1st. consecutive 20+ win season for Coach 4 of the series. V.J. Giulio came away with the 197 lb Chris Carlson. Congratulations ladies! Madison Antho- National Title and After taking two weeks off, our fresh- ny started the first was voted the Out- men have been working hard in skill devel- inning off with a 2 standing Wrestler opment, weights, agility, and open gyms. run home run, giv- of the tournament Our recruiting efforts have been focused on ing the Cardinals becoming only the bringing in just the right freshmen next year the lead. The Car- sixth NIC wrestler to go along with this soon to be sophomore dinals had back-to- in our history to do heavy team. back-to-back home so. runs from Hayley DON DON WILLIAMS Heavyweight MEN’S BASKETBALL Fields, Samantha SOFTBALL Taylor Kornoely The NIC Men’s Basketball team is look- Luna, and Allison and Derek Booth, ing to add a few pieces for next year but Paladeni in the 3rd 174, also earned fortunately the Cardinals will have several inning helping the Cardinals to a 7-1 lead. All-American hon- PAT WHITCOMB players coming back. CSN rallied together in the 4th inning ors by placing sixth. WRESTLING The Cardinals will lose Braxton Tucker, with a 3 run home run from Ariel Frantz. V.J. was also who recently signed The Cardinals blew the game out of the voted North Idaho College Hall of Fame to play at Portland water by rallying for 6 more runs for the Athlete of the Year. State University. 13-5 victory. We are busy recruiting for next year and Nathan Rathbun, Hailey Fields went 9-14 on the weekend sending our sophomores on to other Uni- Jason Wheelock and with 1 homerun, 5 doubles, 2 singles, 1 versities. Bryce Leavitt are all walk, and 9 RBI’s. The Cardinals next two We will keep you up to date on our sign- still weighing their weekends were on the road, where we took ees. options. Cole Kelser 3 of four from Snow College in Ephraim, Thank you for all of your support. will be heading on UT. The scores were 9-3 and 8-0 on Friday his LDS Mission to and 8-0 and 6-7 on Saturday. WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Russia this coming After a long bus ride to Carson City, The Lady Cardinals finished off the sea- summer. JARED PHAY Nevada the following weekend, the Cards son fighting as they took it down to the The Cardinals MEN’S BASKETBALL again took 3 of 4, defeating Western Ne- wire with eventual Region 18 tournament have replaced some vada in a tough series to reach 25-15 in champion College of Southern Idaho. of the offense they are losing by signing SWAC play. The next home games will be The game could have gone either way, Lake City High star Kyle Guice for next April 24th and 25th vs. CSI. and we were ex- season. Guice, a 6’8 skilled forward is ex- tremely proud of pected to contribute significantly for the GOLF the heart that was Cards. Both golf teams have continued their displayed on the The rest of the Cardinals are busy with strong play this spring. Each team has court that night. Spring work outs and focusing on academ- played 3 times. Renae Mokrzycki ics and are expecting big things for next The spring season opened up in earned Region 18 season! Thanks for all your support! Clarkston, WA where the weather was the All-Tournament main story. High winds and cold tempera- recognition to go SOFTBALL tures kept the scores high but the men man- along with her First With our first SWAC games at Memorial aged to battle to a 1 shot win over Lewis & Team All-SWAC Field the Cardinals faced No. 8 College of Clark State College. Angus Montgomery honors. CHRIS CARLSON Southern Nevada. After dropping game one earned a 7th place finish, his 5th straight Georgia Stirton WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 5-2, the team rallied to take the next three top 10 of the year. was also named games. Game two earned Brittany Hecker The women’s team earned a 4th place First Team All-SWAC and freshman Kara her 11th win with a 8-3 score. Game three finish in the event. The team then traveled Staggs was Honorable Mention All-SWAC. earned Miranda Powless her 6th win of the to Nampa, Idaho to play in the Northwest In addition, Mokrzycki was recently named season with a 8-5 win. Tori Almos takes Nazarene Invitational. Montgomery fired a

PAGE 4 Coaches’ Reports score of 5 under par for the 3 rounds earn- cruits who will be kane Shadow’s first team. The Shadow will ing a 2 shot victory, his 2nd win of the a part of the 2014 compete in the season. The men’s team tied for the victory recruiting class, of Washington. Though the league is classi- with Northwest Nazarene. For the women, Jadan Ross and Ni- fied as an amateur division, EPLWA serves Madi Hauck aced the par 3 12th hole. It kaya Johnson. Ross as part of soccer’s fourth division in the was her second hole-in-1 on the season. She is an outside hitter . also aced the 17th hole at Avondale Golf from Frenchtown, Adam Talley, Christian Botuli, and Rod- Club on the first day of practice in Septem- Montana and Idaho ger Bucknor all made the squad. Additional ber. Athlete of the Year, freshmen may join the team at the conclu- Jennie Williams joined Hauck in earning Johnson is a libero sion of spring training. top 20 finishes. The team finished 5th in the from Eagle, Idaho. Though the window for spring training is event. Our latest INTERIM COACH We are excited short in the NWAACC, the Cardinals have event took the team KELSEY STANLEY about these two two rivalry games set up for May. On the to Lewiston, Idaho VOLLEYBALL signees and look 2nd, the men play at Spokane Falls Com- to compete in the forward to more munity College against CCS. On May 8th, Frontier Confer- commitments in the the program expects to meet Walla Walla ence Tournament next month. CC who are under the direction of a new hosted by Lewis Next week we will have our end of the coach, Ben Rotert. Until then, the men will & Clark State Col- year meeting to discuss summer training be training and studying hard. lege. and next year’s agenda. We look forward to The women another great volleyball season! WOMEN’S SOCCER played well, earn- Spring training has ended for Major DERRICK THOMPSON ing a 4th place fin- MEN’S SOCCER League Baseball, but it is just getting going GOLF ish in the field of 8 Though Cardinal Men’s Soccer only of- in earnest for Cardinals’ Women’s Soccer teams. Again, Jen- ficially began spring training on April 8th, Team. Their first spring scrimmage was nie Williams and Madi Hauck earned top several of the men have already served the against the University of Idaho and was a 20 finishes. college and the department well by earning rather eye opening The men struggled to play the golf honors beyond campus. experience for some course and earned a 5th place finish. Angus Earlier this spring, Waldorf Athletics of the NIC women Montgomery led the men placing 2nd in- named Alex Olmos their male athlete of the as Idaho beat them dividually. Both teams end their regular year due to his second straight year of all- 7-1. Head men’s season at the Bigfoot Invitational in Liberty conference honors, coach, Ken Thomp- Lake, Washington hosted by The Commu- his work ethic, and son, was helping out nity Colleges of Spokane. his character. Olmos and he commented, In the most recent coaches polls the played in goal for “The score probably men are ranked 7th in the country and the the Cardinals in should have been women ranked 14th. 2009 and 2010. 6-2 as Natalie Mid- Alums Kyle DAN HOGAN dleton was fouled VOLLEYBALL Hammond and Elis- WOMEN’S SOCCER in the penalty area The volleyball team is wrapping up the eo Santana, who and while she was last week of off -season practice for the now play for Cor- down and players were confused a foul had year. The ladies had their annual spring ban University in not been called, Idaho counterattacked and tournament at Gonzaga where they played KEN THOMPSON Salem, recently vis- scored.” Great Falls, Gonzaga, Carroll College and MEN’S SOCCER ited Gonzaga Uni- The Cardinals women had 3 more scrim- Western Montana. NIC walked away with versity for a spring mages. They faced 2 wins against Western Montana and Car- training match. Hammond earned a start University Friday, April 18th in Cheney. roll College and lost to Gonzaga and Great against the Division I program. Santana en- NIC will host University of Montana on Falls in three. Overall, they did well and tered as a substitute due to a muscle strain, Sunday, April 27 at 11am and the Alumni had a great time playing different rotations but it didn’t take long for the former Cardi- game will be May 3rd at 1pm on NIC’s and line-ups. nals to combine for a goal in which Santana Eisenwinter Field. With just 5 freshmen coming back we slammed one into the upper right corner I’ve been scrambling to get geared up for are having to focus hard on our recruit- from 25 yards. playing in the NWAACC this Fall and a big ing. We are excited to welcome two re- Several current Cardinals made the Spo- part of that has been working with current

PAGE 5 players and committed players to adjust their The routine had a couple drops in skills, scholarships to conform to the NWAACC and some bobbles (movement in stunts). standards so we can possibly compete in the After a few adjustments, and a turnaround in NWAACC playoffs next season. The change their performance the Cards were moved up of conferences may actually help us sign two spots for the final results. more players from Seattle or Portland as USA Nationals was the first time a majori- now we’ll be playing games closer to those ty of our cheerlead- locales and families will be able to watch ers had competed at daughters or sisters play more often than in the national level. past years. The returners for I hope all of you enjoy your Spring, play 2014-15 are taking a little golf, and come watch us play in one this experience, and of our scrimmages. using it as guid- Go Cardinals! ance for next year. The squad tenta- CHEER tively has 6 return- This year the cheerleading program raised ers. This will be a LESLIE PULLEY enough money to compete in USA College little less than half CHEERLEADING Nationals. It was exciting to return to the na- for the 16 member tional platform after a year absence. competition routine next year. The team returned with a fifth place finish Right now, the focus is on completing try in the small coed, Jr. College division! The outs, and getting next year’s squad ready. We competition was held in Anaheim, California hope to bring the college cheerleading camp the third week of March. back to NIC’s campus in August as a start to They made it past preliminaries night one, major skill development, and it helps the pro- being ranked 7th. gram get a jump start on fundraising.

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