Booster Club NewsN O R T H I D A H O C O L L E G E

LUNCHEON SCHEDULE: 8/25: Noon: Cd’A Resort • 9/15: 11:30: Cd’A Inn - Coaches Showcase • 9/29: Noon: Cd’A Resort

AUGUST 2015

COACHES SHOWCASE SET FOR SEPTEMBER 15 LUNCHEON / Pg. 2

Fei Gao came to the United States in the fall of 2009 from Qingdao, China, to play college volleyball. Fei arrived on

the NIC campus as a talented, but raw 6’1 outside hitter, with a delightful smile and quiet demeanor.

It was difficult to have a lengthy conversa-tion with Fei as a freshman, primarily because she was uncomfortable speaking the English language, although her comprehension was more than passable. In the early years Fei let her game do the talking, and she helped the Cardinals reach the NJCAA national tourna-ment as a freshman.

As a sophomore Fei continued to blossom, helping the Lady Cardinals win the Scenic West Athletic Conference on the Cardinals home court, earning NJCAA All Region and All-Tournament honors. Fei closed her ca-reer as a Cardinal in style, helping NIC finish 5th in the nation, the second highest finish in NIC history.

After earning her NIC degree with aca-demic honors, Fei was recruited by several large universities but decided to attend Con-cordia College, an NAIA school in Irvine, California. In Fei’s career at Concordia, the Eagles’ two-year record was 75-2 overall

and 38-0 in the Golden State Athletic Con-ference, with the program’s first two GSAC championships. In 2011 the Eagles were ranked #1 in the nation for the first time in school history.

As a junior Fei’s team lost in the NAIA volleyball championship, but they ran the ta-ble in 2012, winning the championship with a perfect 38-0 record!

Despite missing part of her senior season due to an ACL injury, Fei recovered in time to help her team dominate down the stretch,

- Continued on Page 3 -

Fei Gao returns to the NIC campus this summer. Left Assistant Athletic Trainer Quin Mariano, center Gao, and right Athletic Trainer Randy Boswell.

Where Are They Now?

#1 in the final NWAC poll and #18 nationally, and lost a lot of key personnel, including con-ference MVP Adam Talley and six additional all-region play-ers. The cupboard is not bare though. Check out the roster in the men’s soccer report on Pg. 4.

Second year volleyball head coach Kelsey Stanley had a tough run in the SWAC last sea-son, but look to improve upon the 4th place conference finish. The current roster appears to have significant depth over last year’s squad. Coach Stanley is confident they have the athletes to be a contender in the always

competitive SWAC, as the Cardinals hope to earn that bid to national tournament in their final year in the NJCAA. Good luck ladies!

LUNCH IS SERVEDThe NIC Booster Club luncheons will resume

with the start of the school year, following the sum-mer break. The first luncheon is scheduled for Au-gust 25 at noon at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. The September schedule is slightly different with lun-cheons on September 15 and 29. We will resume our normal schedule of luncheons on the 2nd and last Tuesday, beginning in October.

NOTE: September 15 is a special luncheon- The Annual NIC Coaches Showcase! This year the Showcase will be held at the Coeur d’Alene Inn- Best Western on Highway 95 & Appleway Blvd. The special Showcase begins at 11:30am with season previews from the entire Cardinal coach-ing staff. The luncheon is open to the public and includes a 2014-15 highlight video, raffle and give-aways.

Check out the luncheon schedule on page one of the newsletter and the NIC Website.

BOARD OFFICERS

PRESIDENT Jon Parson

VICE PRESIDENTRoger Stewart

TREASURERMark Hampe

SECRETARYRann Haight

BOARD MEMBERS

Robert CliffTom Messina

John MarchesoJon Berger

Frank DarlingtonPatty StewartRich Dussell

JJ JaegerAl Williams (ex-officio)

aawilliams@nic.edu

PHOTOGRAPHSTom Greene

CONTACTPatty: 208-769-3348

P.O. Box 492Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816patty_stewart@nic.edu

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The North Idaho College Booster Club is a nonprofit organization, committed to providing financial support to all recognized intercol-legiate athletic programs at NIC through various fund-raising and endowment activities for student athlete grant-in-aid and team ben-efits. Organized in the 1960s, the

Booster Club supports all NIC rec-ognized intercollegiate athletics as a lifelong learning experience that will enhance the value of sportsmanship and provide a positive experience for student athletes, students, and fans. The club also recognizes the commit-ment our athletes make to the young people of our community through

our athletic Cardinal Kids outreach programs. The Booster Club holds various fund-raising events through-out the year including an annual auction, awards banquet, 3-on-3 bas-ketball tournament, and golf tourna-ments. It also co-sponsors the Coeur d’Alene Crossing and operates a concession stand at all home events.

M I S S I O N S T A T E M E N T

Summer is still on-going so I’m not quite ready to call this a back to school issue! Summer travel took me back to home-town Chicago, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the White Sox World Series Champion-ship. The AD photo is a tribute to Chicago and the Sox, and cour-tesy of long time NIC Booster Club member Alan Golub.

The days of summer in Coeur d’Alene have been busy for the entire staff, and much has hap-pened since our last Newsletter at the end of the school year. Our Scott Hague Memorial Cardinal Classic had a record turnout of teams, and Outback Steakhouse supplied an out-standing meal of grilled salmon and steak for the tournament players. Our fall tournament, the Rolly Williams Cardinal Classic, is scheduled for Friday September 18 at Avondale, so get your spot re-served on the NIC website. The summer season also means the return of camps. NIC was host to camps for wrestling, boys and girls basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, karate, mixed martial arts, youth ju-jitsu and futsal. As a result we attracted over 1,000 kids to the NIC campus and our facilities, including the use of the campus dorms. Great marketing of our campus!

Our Fall sports will have a new look, sort of. The Eisenwinter Field, home field of our men and women’s soccer team, got a new overhaul this spring to level the playing surface. As we go to print the field is looking green with natural grass and should be ready for the home openers on September 1. Both soccer teams got a taste of playoff action in our return to the NWAC last season. Men’s Head Coach Ken Thompson hopes to make that one final step to success after losing in the men’s conference final. The Cards finished

Tradition of Excellence

Photo Courtesy of Alan Golub

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DATE TIME EVENT

Aug. 22 12:00 p.m. W. SOCCER vs NIC Alumni

Sept. 1 4:00 p.m. M. SOCCER vs Whitworth University (Exhibition)

Sept. 1 6:00 p.m. VOLLEYBALL vs Whitworth University

Sept. 12 11:00 a.m. W. SOCCER vs Treasure Valley Community College

Sept. 12 4:00 p.m. M. SOCCER vs Treasure Valley Community College

DATE TIME EVENT

Sept. 16 4:00 p.m. M. SOCCER vs Columbia Basin College

Sept. 19 12:00 p.m. W. SOCCER vs Yakima Valley Community College

Oct. 2 6:00 p.m. VOLLEYBALL vs Utah State University - Eastern

Oct. 3 1:00 p.m. VOLLEYBALL vs Colorado Northwestern C.C.

Oct. 11 & 12 M. & W. GOLF - NIC Invitational @ Avondale

N I C C A R D I N A L S H O M E E V E N T S C H E D U L E

NEW FOR 2015- COACHES TELEVISION SHOWThis season the NIC Athletics Department

will host The Cardinals Coaches Show. The half hour Coaches Show will be hosted by the NIC Marketing Department, with coaching staff and player interviews, as well as high-lights and previews of upcoming Cardinal events. Stay tuned for more details!

CRUISE TIMESave the date of September 9, 2015 for

the annual Cardinal Cruise! The double boat float departs Independence Point in front of the Coeur d’Alene Casino, with boarding be-ginning at 6:00. The two-hour cruise begins at 6:30 and includes music, a no-host bar and refreshments. See an NIC Athletic depart-ment coach or staff member for tickets, or contact www.nic.edu for more details. It’s a great time to meet fellow Boosters, coaches and team captains. The public is welcome. Good weather is guaranteed!

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - Continued from Page 1 -

culminating with her selection to the NAIA Championships All-tournament team. At the conclusion of year senior year Fei was honored as an Academic All-American with a GPA of 3.85. On her recent return to the NIC campus this summer, Fei stopped by Christianson gym-nasium to see old friends and check out this year’s Cardinal volleyball team. Despite the invitation to join in workouts with the current Cardinals, Fei respectfully declined. Not be-cause she couldn’t compete, but because she is now a wise veteran!

Speaking in fully fluent English and exud-ing the confidence of a champion, Fei is on her way to earning her MBA from Concordia, and completing the CPA exam.

Congratulaions to Fei on an excellent vol-leyball career, continuing on the strong Athletic Tradition of a Cardinal for Life!

If you have an interesting story on former NIC athletes, contact the NIC Athletics De-partment at aawilliams@nic.edu.

NIC Athletic Director Al Williams presents a framed jersey from the Idaho Statewide High School Basketball games to Time Warner representative Coreen Stauffer. Time Warner co-sponsored the annual event, now in its 13th season.

Aug. 22-23 Coeur d’ Alene Shoot-Out

Sept. 9 Booster Club Cruise

Sept. 15 Coaches Showcase

Sept. 18 Rolly Williams Cardinal Classic

Dec. 9 WINTER CARDNIVAL

SAVE THE DATE

MEN’S SOCCERMen’s Soccer returns eleven players from

last year’s team that went 17-2-2, reached the NWAC final, and achieved a top twenty rank-ing in the final NSCAA poll. Of the eleven, six were starters on the 2014 squad. Cen-terback Jake Kraut was an All-Star se-lection last year, and forward/midfielder Braden Ridgewell and goalkeeper Mitch Markovetz were All-Region selections in the NWAC’s East Division. Ridgewell is the top returning scorer and initially made the Spokane Shadow semi-pro team in April before suf-fering an injury.

Incoming freshmen include locals Gunnar Skindlov, Max Mularski, Kade Murphree, Garrett Boyce, and Alec Maldonado. All are expected to challenge for starting spots, and goalkeeper Garrett Boyce will help give the Cardinals the most competitive group of goalkeepers in years. Also new to the team but returning to the area are Chris Wheelock and Tanner Horton. Wheelock is transferring from Westminster University in Salt Lake City where he played basketball this year. Horton returns to the team from McPherson College in Kansas where he had the fifth lowest goals against average for NAIA men’s soccer in 2014. Vince Cavalin will also join the team as a second year student. Cavalin is a versatile, 6’3”, midfielder with a crisp left foot. Jorge Carmona, Cobi Brower, and Luis Gutierrez will join the team as freshmen from Idaho Falls. All three were starters for the Ballistic U18 team that were state champions in May. Carmona was selected the Post Reg-ister Player of the Year for high school soccer in southeastern Idaho. With Wheelock, Mal-donado, and Carmona coming in, the Cardi-nals have three players that have the potential to break Adam Talley’s scoring mark of 20.

Rounding out the recruiting class are Morgan Olson, Tristan Crowl, and Kieran Wood. Olson may be the most underrated player coming out of Idaho this year and can play in midfield or in the back and is a threat

to score on set pieces at 6’2” and growing. Tristan Crowl is a 6’3” defender from Boise, and Kieran Wood is a centerback joining the program from Chandler, Arizona. Wood was a starting centerback for the Arizona high school champions at Chandler High School. He also played for one of Arizona’s top club teams as a midfielder.

The Cardinals have their first home game on September 1st when they play Whitworth University in an exhibition. They hope to kickoff on their recently seeded field by the lake at 4pm. League play begins Saturday, September 12th at home at 2:15pm against Treasure Valley CC.

WOMEN’S SOCCERBelieve it or not, summer is almost over!

Shortly 9 returning players and 13 newcom-ers will be on campus preparing for the up-coming season. Right now my biggest worry is getting the players registered for a class schedule that will work with our train-ing and travel sched-ule as well as help the player achieve progress toward graduation. There have also been sev-eral inquiries about students enrolled at NIC for the 2015-16 school year who would like to try out. I will try to get as many as possible to a tryout August 10th & 11th when we start training so they will not be be-hind the other players.

We’ll start play with two “friendlies” Au-gust 28th and 29th in Eugene, Oregon with our first league game at home Sept. 12th against Treasure Valley CC at 11:00 AM. I look forward to seeing everyone cheering on the Cardinals soon!

GOLFThe Cardinals golf team looks to have a

prosperous 2015-2016 season as we are add-ing 7 new incoming freshman and 1 transfer student to the men’s roster and 4 incom-ing freshman to the women’s roster. On the men’s side there are three local recruits: Jesse Lambert a Kellogg H.S. graduate and

transfer student from the University of Great Falls; Austin Quant a Lake City H.S. gradu-ate, and Tyler Azevedo also a Lake City H.S. graduate. There are two recruits from the state of Utah: Jackson Shaver and Braydon Swapp; two from the state of Nevada: Luke Logan and Dalton Butler; and one from Washington: Conner Hayes. Looking to headline the incom-ing freshman class are Braydon Swapp and Dalton Butler. Swapp finished his high school sea-son with 8 out of 12 rounds under par and a 70.9 scoring aver-age. Butler finished the high school season with a 72.6 scoring average and recently just missed qualifying for the U.S. amateur by one shot with rounds of 65, 73. The only returning sophomore for the men’s team is Adam Power.

On the women’s side, the only returning sophomore, Mackenzie Phillips, looks to lead the team this year. Mackenzie finished last season with second team all league honors. As for the incoming freshman there is only one local, Sierra Tingey, who is a Lakeland H.S. graduate. The other three recruits in-clude Amalia Negrette (Boise, ID), Kerrin Reynolds (Gold Bar, WA), and Nicole Miller (Renton, WA).

The Cardinals typically player a lighter fall schedule and as of now have three tour-naments confirmed. The Cardinals will start their season off at the Centralia Invitational at Riverside G.C. on September 27th & 28th. They will then host their annual Cardi-nal Invitational at Avondale G.C. on October 11th & 12th, and end their fall season with the Walla Walla Invite at Wine Valley G.C. on November 1st and 2nd. We are looking to add one or two more events to the fall sched-ule to develop and ultimately get the team ready for the NWAC championships in the spring.

SOFTBALLWith the summer wrapping up we are also

wrapping up our roster for the 2016 team.

Coaches’ Reports

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KEN THOMPSON RUSSELL GROVE

DAN HOGAN

We will have 12 newcomers to the pro-gram this year. Key additions will be com-ing from our local area with Coeur d’Alene High School stand-outs Ana Raynor, Abby

Howard, and Bryce Catt. From Lake City High School Brit-tany Gay, Amber Hawkes, and Jamie Yurick. We are also excited to announce the addition of Trey Ray to our coaching staff. Trey comes to NIC from Lake City High School and cur-rently coaches for the

North Idaho Xtreme program. Trey brings a lot of coaching experience with him and we are looking forward to having his help on the field. We will be hosting a few scrim-mages during the fall season. They will be announced on the website. We are looking forward to seeing everyone come out to Me-morial Field to support the team and kick-off the new season.

MEN’S BASKETBALLWith summer winding down and school

right around the corner, we are looking for-ward to the start of the fall semester. Looking back on our first season with a new staff we are pleased with our results and look forward to avenging our Re-gion 18 champion-ship loss this year. As it is every year, we are losing a good portion of our team with the departure of 6 sophomores, that won’t be easy to re-place.

Jamaal Robateau has moved on to Gardner Webb Uni-versity, an NCAA Division I program located in Boiling Springs, NC.

D’Adrian Allen will continue his career at Southern University, a Division 1 program located in Baton Rouge, LA.

Fuquan Niles is headed to the University of Texas-Permian Basin, a NCAA Division II

school in Odessa, TX. Ty Higbie is moving on to LCSC located

in beautiful Lewiston, ID. Austin Pope has signed a letter of intent

to play at North Carolina Central, a NCAA Division 1 located in Durham, NC.

Jordan King is still speaking with a num-ber of schools including Southern U, Seattle U, Seattle Pacific U, and U of Houston, and trying to decide which opportunity is best for him. It has been an absolute pleasure hav-ing these young men in our program, and we wish them the best of luck academically and athletically in their futures.

Returning for the Cardinals are 6’6 Braian Angola-Rodas, 6’3 PG Lucas Antunez, 6’7 wing Kyle Guice, 6’11 Charlie Lockwood, and 6’6 redshirt Zeaquan Satterthwaite. It is always a huge advantage to have a number of guys that have been through the trenches of a SWAC season.

Our staff has been hard at work to bring in some more student-athletes that can step in and help right away, and our recruiting class is loaded with talent. Your players are always your best recruiters, and with the as-sistance of our foreign players, we were able to land 7’2” Casper Wildemast from The Netherlands. Casper played prep school ball in Los Angeles with returners Braian and Lucas. We have also been fortunate to land a couple high caliber transfers. 6’7 Brayon Blake transferred from Cochise College in Arizona, where he led the team in points and rebounds and helped take Cochise to the NJCAA National tournament. 6’6 Kaleb Warner is a transfer from Pacific University of the West Coast Conference. Kaleb was a top west coast recruit out of high school, and he has faced the great Gonzaga Bulldogs in the McCarthey Center. 5’6 Sam Dowd is a transfer from Carroll College. Sam played his high school days at Gonzaga Prep in Spokane. Sam is a small fierce guard that is willing to do whatever it takes. I will guaran-tee he will be the crowd favorite. 6’7 Scott Turner is a Lake City High grad that went on to Boise State out of high school and has since decided to chase his basketball dreams. Scott is an athletic wing that can do just about everything. We are excited to have him in our program.

These are just a few of the new faces you

will see in the upcoming season. We have also had a few changes in the coaching staff.

Coach Jeff Johnson has moved on to an-other opportunity. This allowed me to bring on former player, Michael Hale III. Michael was a two time All-American at NIC and helped us achieve the overall #1 ranking for the first time. He then went on to play and graduate from the University of Texas San Antonio. We are excited to bring him on staff and look forward to seeing him in a coaching role.

Thanks again for all your support with NIC athletics, and we look forward to seeing you this upcoming season.

WRESTLINGAs the school year approaches the NIC

wrestling team looks towards winning an-other national title this year with good mix

of returners and new comers. Joining the Cardinals this season are Jordan Hall from Lowell MI, Alex Aguilar from Omak WA, Kevin McLean from Spokane, Seth Lowen from McCall ID, Damian Trujillo from Roy Utah, and Landon Bailey from Helena MT. The in-

coming freshmen come from very successful programs and had great high school careers.

The returners are led by NJCAA national runner-up Dajour Reece, NJCAA qualifier Isaac Aguilar, and redshirt freshmen Deondre Wilson, Junior Godinho, Jordan Lacelle.

The Cardinals will also have lots of walk-ons who look to battle for spots in the start-ing lineup. The Cardinals also hired former NIC Wrestler Tyson Springer who wrestled for the Cardinals from 2001-2003 and was part of the 2003 National title team. He went on to be a 2-time NAIA national finalist and National Champion for Dickinson State. He has a tremendous amount of knowledge and coaching experience that he brings to NIC.

The Cards look forward to getting the sea-son underway once school starts.

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Coaches’ Reports

COREY SYMONS

DON DON WILLIAMS

PAT WHITCOMB

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Join us for the 9th Annual Rolly Williams Golf tournament on Friday September 18th at Avon-dale Golf Course. The tournament is a scramble format for only $75 and includes golf, cart, NIC shirt, and catered dinner by Texas Roadhouse! Shotgun start begins at 1:00 and all proceeds benefit the NIC Athletics department.

COEUR D’ ALENE SHOOT-OUT

August 22-23 on NIC Campus

SPACE STILL AVAILABLE!Go to the NIC.edu to sign up.

All age groups open(3rd Grade – Adult)

ROLLY WILLIAMS GOLF TOURNAMENT

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Last year’s NIC Booster Club member of the year John Marcheso continues to serve as the event director for the CDA Crossing swimming fundraiser. This marks the fourth year of the an-nual event and the count is currently on record pace for participating swimmers, surpassing 213 in 2014.

The CDA Crossing is a 2.4 mile swim from the Arrow Point (Discovery Marina) to the Hagadone Event Center at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course. The CDA Crossing is the second event of the Official Coeur d’Alene Iron Series, sandwiched between the CDA Marathon and the Coeur d’Fondo. Athletes that complete all three events receive the prestigious CDA Iron Series medallion. The CDA Crossing benefits three area not-for-profit groups: The NIC Booster Club, Union Gospel Mission and the CDA Area Swim Team (CAST).

If you miss the fun on August 16 check out the official website for results and more informa-tion at www.CDA crossing.com

Marcheso at helm of CDA Crossing

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ABOVE - NIC Head Wrestling Coach Pat Whitcomb, in the back, poses with students from Miss Madsen’s first grade class at Sorenson Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities. The NIC Wrestling team distributed its 14,000th book this year through the Shirley Parker Reading Program, which was established in 2002 in partnership with Parker Toyota.

BELOW & RIGHT - North Idaho College and the NIC Men’s Basketball team sponsored the Cardinal Hoop Shoot as part of the DAY FOR KIDS, in support of the Boys and Girls Club of Kootenai County. Kids from Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene participated in the day-long event, and enjoyed Cecil the Cardinal as well!