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

LUNCHEON SCHEDULE: 11/8: Noon: Outback Steakhouse • 11/29: Noon: Cd'A Resort • 12/13: Noon: Outback Steakhouse

NOV 2016

M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L R A N K E D 1 8 T H T O K I C K O F F S E A S O N

Road to NWAC Championships

Men's Basketball Coaching Staff Recovering from Auto Accident

It seems like its been a while since practices stat-ed for Fall sports in early August. As the final days of the regular season come to an end, men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball have all achieved goal number one on the road to the NWAC cham-pionship: QUALIFY FOR THE PLAYOFFS.

The NWAC East Region is arguably the most competitive region in the conference on a consis-tent basis. Last year alone the NWAC champion came from the East Region in volleyball, men's basketball, women's soccer, and NIC added the women's golf championship.

This year in Fall Sports the Cardinals earned the second seed in all three sports.

Both soccer teams got a "semi- home game" in the first round of the playoffs. Eisenwinter Field be-came unplayable at season end with the near record rainfall in Coeur d'Alene this fall. As a result final regular season games and first round playoff games were moved to nearby Spokane Falls Community College and their turf field. The finals of NWAC soccer will be held at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, WA near Sea-Tac on November 11-13. The entire NWAC volleyball tournament, with 16 qualifiers, will be held at the Tacoma Convention Center in Tacoma, WA on November 17-20.

The road to the NWAC championship is just a nearby drive away! Stay tuned!

MEN SOCCER PTS REC

Spokane 40 13-1-1

North Idaho 23 7-6-2

Walla Walla 23 7-6-2

Columbia Basin 17 4-6-5

Wenatchee Valley 16 5-9-1

Treasure Valley 10 3-11-1

WOMEN SOCCER PTS REC

Spokane 40 13-0-1

North Idaho 33 10-1-3

Walla Walla 28 9-4-1

Treasure Valley 22 7-6-1

Wenatchee Valley 19 6-7-1

Yakima Valley 12 4-10-0

Columbia Basin 10 3-10-1

Blue Mountain 0 0-14-0

VOLLEYBALL PCT REC

Walla Walla 0.923 12-1

North Idaho 0.857 12-2

Spokane 0.667 8-4

Blue Mountain 0.615 8-5

Columbia Basin 0.539 7-6

Wenatchee Valley 0.385 5-8

Yakima Valley 0.357 5-9

Treasure Valley 0.154 2-11

Big Bend 0.000 0-13

Fall teams prepare for playoff runs as the Cardinals end the regular season

Howard Shultz, the chairman and CEO of Starbucks, once said: “In times of adversity and change, we really discover who we are and what we’re made of.”

The last few weeks NIC men’s basketball has been faced with an enormous amount of adversity. Our coaching staff was involved in a major acci-dent on Interstate-90 that left 2 assistants, Chris Kemp and George Swanson, in intensive care for a number of days and even weeks.

Early morning before dawn on September 22, an SUV carrying the entire basketball staff on a re-cruiting trip to Portland struck a deer on the inter-state. While waiting for the disabled vehicle to be loaded on the tow truck, three NIC assistant coach-es, standing well off the road, were hit by an on-coming vehicle that never saw the stalled vehicles until it was too late to stop.

“All three of the coaches are recovering ex-

tremely well but this has left a major burden on our team and players” said head coach Corey Sy-mons. “Due to our sophomore leadership, we have grown closer together and have made enormous strides in the right direction. Through this we have discovered that we are a tight family made up of strong young men. This incident has allowed us to see first-hand what we already knew. Our boosters and community are extremely incredible and have supported our team and coach’s families with an enormous amount of love and support. Without you these times would be even tougher. Thank you so much for your support.”

Contributions to support the families can be made payable to NIC Men’s Basketball Recov-ery Fund, and mailed to: NIC Athletics, 1000 W. Garden Avenue, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814, or payments are accepted at any Coeur d’Alene area STCU outlet.

East Region Standings

is in full swing with the school year underway. Join us on the second and last Tuesday of the month for your latest update on Cardinals athletics and booster club events. Thanks to our recent guest speakers: NIC President Rick MacLennan, Centennial Trail Foundation Executive Di-rector Teresa MacLennan, Eastern Washington Athletic Director Bill Chaves, and CDA Resort Director of Sales John Rovie. Check out the website for more details. The luncheons are held at the Outback Steakhouse in Coeur d’Alene, and

the CDA Resort Shore Room. The public is wel-come. Invite a friend and enjoy great speakers, a tasty meal, and a touch of Cardinal news

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!Well, yes it is. But more important, the NIC Ath-

letics Department and Booster Club CARDnival is coming! Mark your calendar for DECEMBER 14 at the Coeur d’Alene Inn- Best Western Plus. Looking for Christmas gifts? We got ‘em! Look-ing for that fun Get-Away trip or golf at an amazing country course? It’s HEEEERE! Looking for a fun evening with games, adult beverages, and amaz-ing food! That’s us! Looking for a way to support Cardinal Athletics? You found it! Tickets available now at the NIC Athletics Department, only $30 or a reserved table of 8 for $250. Call for more infor-mation at 208 769-3348 or visit the NIC website at www.nic.edu.

JOIN THE BOOSTER CLUBDon’t forget to send in your Booster Club mem-

bership renewal form. Home dates for the winter sports are about to start and you need your season passes! Don’t miss any of the Cardinal Action! Sup-port your home team!

BOARD OFFICERS

PRESIDENT Rich Dussell

VICE PRESIDENTRoger Stewart

TREASURERMark Hampe

SECRETARYRann Haight

BOARD MEMBERS

Robert CliffTom Messina

Frank DarlingtonPatty StewartJon ParsonJJ Jaeger

Tony MukhamediyevDuane Oliver

Al Williams (ex-officio) aawilliams@nic.edu

PHOTOGRAPHSTom Greene

Duane Rasmussen

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

We are now in, full force, in the Northwest Athletic Conference and the competition is high level. Currently all of the NIC teams are in second in the East Region in volleyball, women’s soccer and men’s soccer. Men’s Golf is in first place after the first NWAC tournament of the season and the NIC lady golfers are in second. NWAC Championships will be held in November in the Seattle area for soccer, and the Tacoma area for volleyball. The advantage of competing in a regional con-ference is the proximity of confer-ence championships within relatively easy driving distance. With the entry of NIC into the NWAC we were able to submit a bid to host the softball region championship in a partnership with the Community Colleges of Spokane and the Spokane Sports Com-mission. The NWAC approved the bid and we the NWAC softball championships will be in nearby Spokane for the next three years. Gas up your car for the trip!

I hope you were able to attend the Special Needs games on October 26 at NIC’s Christianson Gymna-sium. It’s truly a special event to see the basketball players of all ages enjoying the center stage, playing a game that they truly enjoy, in uninhibited fun. This really is their Super Bowl moment, and the games have become a hit in the community since the in-augural games 4 years ago. Thanks to Cal DeHaas, Real Life Church, Lake City HS Band, NIC Cheer team, NIC Athletic teams, and the many supporters and volunteers for this fun event. The NIC Board of Trustee members even took a break from their monthly meeting to visit the festivities. Thanks for making this another night to remember!

BOOSTER CLUB LUNCHEONSThe NIC Booster Club luncheon speaking circuit

Tradition of Excellence

Athletic Director Al Williams

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A MESSAGE FROM THE NIC BOOSTER CLUB PRESIDENT:

DATE TIME EVENT

Nov. 2 3 p.m. W. SOCCER vs Green River CC (@ Spokane Falls CC)

Nov. 2 5:15 p.m. M. SOCCER vs Pierce CC (@ Spokane Falls CC)

Nov. 4 6 p.m. VOLLEYBALL vs Treasure Valley CC

Nov. 12 7 p.m. WRESTLING vs University of Great Falls

Nov. 18 7 p.m. WRESTLING vs Clackamas CC

Nov. 19 12 p.m. WRESTLING vs Cardinal Duels

Nov. 26 1 p.m. W. BASKETBALL vs North Idaho All-Stars

Dec. 2 7:30 p.m. M. BASKETBALL vs Pierce College

DATE TIME EVENT

Dec. 3 TBD M. BASKETBALLL - Bigfoot Cardinal Classic

Dec. 4 TBD M. BASKETBALLL - Bigfoot Cardinal Classic

Dec. 9 7 p.m. WRESTLING vs Eastern Oregon University

Dec. 10 1 p.m. W. BASKETBALL vs North Idaho College Alumni

Dec. 28 7:30 p.m. M. BASKETBALL vs Grays Harbor

Dec. 29 TBD M. BASKETBALL - CDA Inn-vitational

Dec. 30 TBD M. BASKETBALL - CDA Inn-vitational

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

Today I want to talk about the Booster Club, Membership and what you can do to help. The Booster Club's Mission Statement reads:

The North Idaho College Athletic Booster Club is a non-profit organization committed to providing financial support to all recog-nized intercollegiate athletic programs at North Idaho College through various fund-raising and endowment activities for student athletes and team benefits.

The Booster Club supports all recognized intercollegiate athletics at North Idaho Col-lege as a lifelong learning experience that

will enhance the value of sports-manship and provide a positive experience for our student ath-letes, NIC students, fans and es-pecially the young people in our community through our athletic outreach programs.

We all love sports and the positive outcome of being a par-ticipant or a spectator. It is not only up to the Booster Board members to foster this mission, but all of us in the community. Membership is so reasonably priced it is well worth the ex-

penditure to support this worthy cause. I encourage you to reach out to friends, family, business acquaintances and anyone else you can think of to join with us as a member of the NIC Athletic Booster Club. All of the games are fun and exciting. Bring some-one to a game with you and let them experience this for them-selves as the best coaches in the area teach and inspire their teams

to positive accomplishments. See you at the games!

RICH DUSSELL

The Sporting News released the 2016-17 College Basketball edition and the North Ida-ho College men’s basketball team was tabbed as the 18th best team in the nation in the pre-season polls. The national poll considers all two-year colleges in the nation, including the NJCAA, California, and the Northwest Ath-letic Conference.

The Cardinals, coming off the best season in school history at 31-2, only return 2 play-ers from last year’s roster, but reloaded with a talented group of freshmen, redshirts, and transfers.

NIC joins the NWAC this season after reaching the Sweet 16 at the NJCAA Na-tional Tournament in Hutchinson, KS in their final year in the NJCAA.

The Sporting News Top 201. Northwest Florida State2. Georgia Highlands3. Lee College (TX)4. Hutchinson CC (KS)

5. Salt Lake CC (UT)6. Trinity Valley (TX)7. Cape Fear (NC)8. Eastern Florida State9. Connors State (OK)10. Vincennes (IN)11. Saddleback College (CA)12. John A. Logan (IL)13. South Plains (TX)14. Indian Hills (IA)15. Iowa Western16. Chipola (FL)17. City College of San Francisco (CA)18. NORTH IDAHO19. Dayton State (FL)20. College of Southern IdahoThe Cardinals open the season November

18-19 in the Portland Community College tournament. The first home games are sched-uled for December 2-4 in the Bigfoot-Cardi-nal Classic, hosted by NIC and the Commu-nity Colleges of Spokane.

Men's Basketball ranked 18thThe Sporting News names NIC in pre-season national poll

VOLLEYBALLThe Lady Cardinals are finishing the sea-

son strong as they prepare for the NWAC playoffs. After a tough win on the road in five games against the defending NWAC cham-pions Blue Mountain, the Cards are 12-2 in the NWAC East, and 17-12 overall. The Cardinals' two league losses are both against Walla Walla, which puts us in second place in the East region. Four teams will advance to the NWAC championship from each region in November. We are treating each day as a learning curve and hope when Novem-ber comes we are at our best! The NWAC Crossover tourna-ment scheduled for Coos Bay, Oregon in mid-October against many of the Southern NWAC teams was cancelled due to bad weather. We wanted the competition but we are fortunate that we didn't travel, with tornadoes and high winds hitting the Oregon coast. We hosted our annual Dig Pink Cancer Awareness game against Big Bend on Octo-ber 19 and won in 3 games in a high energy match wearing our Pink apparel! The home finale is against Treasure Valley on Nov 4 as we celebrate Sophomore Night. Follow the Lady Cards in the NWAC playoffs, Novem-ber 17-20 , in Tacoma, WA! GO CARDS!

MEN'S SOCCERCardinal Men's Soccer clinched a playoff

berth in the NWAC Region tournament af-ter missing the playoffs last year. The team played well down the stretch, going 4-1-1 in the last six games to get back into playoff contention after a slow start. NIC tied for sec-ond with Walla Walla in the NWAC East, but earned the second seed due to head-to-head tiebreaker rules. After losses at Wenatchee and Spokane in early October, the Cardi-nals seemed to get back on track with wins against Walla Walla CC. and Treasure Valley CC on the road with identical 2-1 scores. The Cards returned for the final 4 games of the season and had to settle for a tie with Colum-bia Basin after taking a 2-0 lead. The Cardsd

bounced back with another 2-1 victory against Walla Wal-la which gives the Cards the tiebreaker if both teams fin-ish even. The team appears to be deep at centerback with Victor Bustamante, Morgan Olson, and Garrett Flolo sharing duties. At the same time, the midfield seems to be starting to combine more frequently re-sulting in more possession and more shots on goal. The men have had six different players score in league play, and goalkeeper Gar-rett Boyce is currently second in the NWAC overall with seventy-five saves. The weather played a factor in the final home games with heavy rain making Eisenwinter Field unplay-able for the last two games of the regular season. Games against the Community Col-lege of Spokane were moved to their home field because they have turf, and their facility was also rented for the "home" finale against Wenatchee.

The Cardinals lost to CCS but overcame an 0-2 deficit to defeat WVCC 3-2 in the fi-nale. With the win the Cards earned the sec-ond seed in the East Region, and a playoff home game.

WOMEN'S SOCCERThe Cardinals Women's Soccer team has

clinched second place in the NWAC East Di-vision and another spot in the playoffs. The Lady Cards were undefeated in confer-ence play with only two games remain-ing, with only two ties. One of the ties came against the #1 NWAC ranked Com-munity Colleges of Spokane on their field, 1-1. The other tie came against Co-lumbia Basin College on a muddy field, also with a 1-1 score on a late goal by CBC. In the battle for first place and the first round bye in the playoffs the weather again was a factor as

the Cardinals hosted undefeated CCS again. Played in a steady rain and muddy field with several spots of standing water the Cards fell 3-1. With the win CCS secured first place and NIC earned the second spot. The Cards tied Wenatchee Valley 1-1 in the season finale, played at Spokane Falls CC. The Lady Cards will host Green River CC, the #3 seed from the NWAC West Division, in the first round of the playoffs at Spokane Falls CC on Nov 2 at 3:00pm.

The Cardinals have been led so far by Em-ily Aspden, a sophomore forward from Vic-toria, B.C., Jocelyn Cook-Cox, a midfielder from Nine Mile Falls, Wash., and hometown product Meg Lowery. The brand new back line has been holding steady because of sophomores Tiegan Horton, in goal, and Jes-sica Scott who is playing as a defender for the first season in her life. Follow the Lady Cards in the playoffs as they hope to advance to the NWAC championship tournament in Tukwila, WA on November 11-13.

SOFTBALLFall season just wrapped up and the team

made great progress from the start of the se-mester. We have had an opportunity to have fall scrimmages against University of Mon-tana, MSU-Billings and Central Washington University in the past few weeks.

The girls did a great job competing against these 4-year schools and are start-ing to work together. We are seeing some strong performances from sophomore, Nikki Miller from Tualatin, OR and Coeur d'Alene High School graduate, Ana Raynor. Our last fall scrimmages was on October 15th at Spo-kane Falls Commu-nity College campus against local summer ball teams from Spo-kane.

The ladies played well and we finished Fall season with two solid wins. Fall ball will continue for a few more weeks and then we will transition into our winter work-out schedule indoors.

Coaches’ Reports

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KEN THOMPSON

DAN HOGAN

KELSEY STANLEY

DON DON WILLIAMS

GOLFOur teams have gotten off to a great start

for the 2016-2017 season! Both the men and women won our first event on our home course at Avondale GC, the NIC Invitational. At the Invitational the men had a rough start the first day, shooting a team total of 306, impacted by our number one player, Luke Logan, being disqualified for signing an incorrect score-

card. However the guys bounced back the second day on a tougher course. With a score of 298 the Cards took the title by 13 shots over second place Community Colleges of Spokane. Freshman Ross Gil-bert took individual medalist honors af-

ter winning a playoff on the second hole, and ended with a two day total of 150. The women had a little bit easier time at our home event and cruised to a 32 shot victory over second place Columbia Basin College. Freshman Madi Brown had the standout performance, shooting 86-79 which put her in second place.

Our teams carried the confidence with them into our second tournament which was the NWAC League Match hosted by Gray's Har-bor. The men again got off to a slow start the first day and were 5 shots back going into the second day. However, led by Ross Gilbert and Sean Langham's pair of 66's we posted a team score of 272 the final round and ended up win-ning in dominating fashion. The women came up just shy and took second place (6 shots be-hind Spokane CC).

In the Whitworth Invitational at the Gam-ble Sands GC, freshman Sean Langham had an outstanding tournament and took medalist honors, shooting 72-68.

The men's team took 4th overall with a two day total of 587. Both Luke Logan (73-72) and Ross Gilbert (72 74) also finished in the top 10 individually. The women played well finishing 3rd against mostly four year schools, led by freshman Madi Brown who tied for 7th with rounds of 80-81. Freshmen Katie Fyall, Aly Mabey, and Mikal Jerman also all had top 20 finishes individually.

The Cardinals finished the Fall season with

a tournament at Walla Walla’s Wine Valley Course, and I'm really excited to keep improv-ing and see where we can take things.

MEN'S BASKETBALLNIC Men’s Basketball is off and running for

the 2016-2017 season. NIC men’s basketball will be a fun group to watch this year. They are a high flying and fast paced team that is looking to get up and down the court. NIC will be looking to put pressure on their opponents with a fast pace offensive and defensive phi-losophy. Sporting news magazine has come out with the preseason national polls, and NIC landed at #18 in the country. The team

travelled to Salt Lake Community College on October 22 for the SLCC Jamboree to face some familiar ri-vals from the SWAC. The games are played with a running clock and we played against preseason #5 Salt Lake, Colorado Northwest, and #20 CSI. The jamboree

gave the coaching staff a chance to play the entire roster and see who was ready to com-pete at the collegiate level. With only two re-turners from last year’s record season, this was the first college competition for many on this year’s roster. After months of 7:00am work outs and a lot of sweat, we are ready to get our season started. We look forward to seeing all of you at our home events. Thanks again for all your support.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL The Lady Cardinals have been busy prepar-

ing for the future with nine current freshmen, one sophomore transfer and two returners. Chemistry has been building each day, both offensively and defensively on the court and we played well in our scrimmages against Trinity Western University, the University of Idaho, and Lethbridge College. The team has also done a tremendous job of embracing our conditioning and strength training sessions. Our game schedule can be found at nic.edu/athletics and has us starting things off strong with three games in Arizona against NJCAA

programs. A big emphasis for

us this time of year has also been on giv-ing back to the com-munity. We have volunteered our time at the Coeur d’ Alene Shootout, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Green Dot By-stander Intervention Training, and our an-

nual October girls basketball camp as well as making our presence known at NIC volleyball and soccer games. The Lady Cardinals have been working hard in the classroom and in athletic department study halls contributing to excellent progress reports so far from NIC faculty.

WRESTLINGYour 14 time NJCAA National Wrestling

Champions have just concluded the preseason with the annual 16 mile round trip mountain climb. The preseason was filled with extensive workouts, as the team was running, lifting,

spinning and wres-tling to prepare for the upcoming season. Since 2001 the NIC wrestling team has concluded the rigor-ous preseason with a team bonding week-end, where they run up a mountain eight miles, camp out at the top, and then wake up

early and run back down the mountain. This team is shaping up to be one that could contend for that 15th National Title. The Cardinals just completed their wrestle-offs to establish the starting lineup with Red-Grey challenges. SSix of the 10 weight classes had to be decided on the third day of competition which shows the balance and depth of this year's roster. With the lineup set, we opened the season against the 2016 NAIA National runner-up, Montana State University-Northern. The Cards lost 25-16 in a tough match. The Cardinals first home match will be held November 11th against the University of Great Falls.

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Coaches’ Reports

CHRIS CARLSON

COREY SYMONS

PAT WHITCOMB

RUSSELL GROVE

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Board of Trustee Chair Ken Howard addresses the crowd at the Special Needs Extravaganza Basketball games, along with fellow Board of Trustee Members.

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Go Cardinals!

Good Luck NIC

Athletes!

Lady Cards Win OpenerThe Cardinal women started their 2016-2017 season right where they left off last spring season winning their first event, the NIC Invitational, in dominating fashion. The women posted a two-day total of 509, 32 shots better than second place Columbia Basin College. Freshman Madi Brown had the standout performance shooting 86-79 which put her in second place.

FOR THE MOST UP-TO-DATE INFO: NICATHLETICS.COM

Women's Basketball team members volunteer at Race for the Cure event.

Wrestling team relaxes after 8 mile mountain climb team bonding exercise.Pitcher Kayla Moore in the wind-up.