In some situations there is nowhere to go but up. For some programs the feel of success can be short-lived. And for some

teams, the rare taste of success can fuel a new tradition!

Competing in the highly competitive Sce-nic West Athletic Conference, the NIC vol-leyball team was mediocre at best for years in the 1990s and early 2000 decade. Prior to 2003, the program had never experienced a conference finish higher than 4th, and had never earned a berth in the NJCAA National Volleyball Championships.

However, a coaching change in 2003

sparked a resurgence.Bret Taylor, was a former member of the

Cardinal coaching staff, and after experienc-ing an NJCAA national championship at the College of Southern Idaho as an assistant coach, he returned to the helm of the Cardi-nals.

After a two win season the previous year, in Taylor’s first season as head coach the Cardinals played for the NJCAA District championship.

Despite the loss in that game, the Car-dinals had finally tasted success, with a 20 win season. In 2004, with several return-

ers from the breakout season, the Cardinals finally earned a berth to the NJCAA tour-nament. They obviously learned from the experience! The Cardinals have now been to the NJCAA national tournament seven times in the past 10 seasons, including a current streak of four consecutive berths!

In 2006 the Cardinals earned the top fin-ish in school history with a 4th place na-tional finish. Taylor retired in 2008, and de-spite a coaching change promoting assistant coach Chris Kosty, the Cardinals returned to the tournament.

- Contined on Page 3 -

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

LUNCHEON SCHEDULE: 1/14: Noon: Outback Steakhouse • 1/28: Noon: Cd’A Resort Shore Room • 2/11: Noon: Outback Steakhouse

DECEMBER 2013

Building a TraditionCardinal Volleyball Program Exemplifies NIC Motto

INSIDE: WRESTLING MAT ROOM TO BE NAMED AFTER FORMER COACH OWEN

FORMER WRESTLING COACH JOHN OWEN TO BE HONORED

The Wrestling Mat Room in Christianson Gymnasium will be dedicated on Dec. 21, 2013 to honor retired head wrestling coach John Owen.

The mat room will be named after Owen, who guided the Cardinals to 8 NJCAA National Championships in his storied career. Owen was selected to the NJCAA and Idaho Sports Hall of Fame, and he was a charter member of the NIC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.

The dedication will be held prior to the finals of the Tri-State Wrestling Tournament finals on December 21st at 5:00pm. The public is invited.

CARDINALS BACK IN THE RANKINGSThe defending national champion Wrestling

team is back in the lead dog spot as they are No. 1 in the most recent NJCAA national polls!

The Lady Cardinals hoops team (12-2) is also back in the top ten in the No. 10 spot.

The Men’s hoops team (12-3) makes their first appearance in the polls, slipping in at the No. 23 spot in the December 11 listing.

BOARD OFFICERS

PRESIDENT Jon Parson

VICE PRESIDENTRoger Stewart

TREASURERMark Hampe

SECRETARYGinni Lenz / Patty Stewart

BOARD MEMBERS

Robert CliffPatty StewartSteve CaseyTom Messina

Julie StarkFrank Darlington

Mike O’BrienJon Berger

John MarchesoA.D, Al Williams

(aawilliams@nic.edu)

PHOTOGRAPHSDon Sausser

Jackie McNeel

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 en-dowment activities for student ath-lete grant-in-aid and team benefits. Organized in the 1960s, the Booster

Club supports all NIC recognized in-tercollegiate athletics as a lifelong learning experience that will enhance the value of sportsmanship and pro-vide a positive experience for stu-dent 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 pro-grams. The Booster Club holds vari-ous fund-raising events throughout the year including an annual auction, awards banquet, 3-on-3 basketball tournament, and golf tournament. It also sponsors a booth each year at the North Idaho Fair and operates a con-cession stand at all home events.

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

AL WILLIAMS

Holiday Greetings from North Idaho Col-lege Athletics! As the first semester con-cludes our students gear up for final

exams, and travel plans become a priority. It has indeed been a busy Fall semester.

Our Fall sports had great seasons with all qual-ifying for post season, and the golf teams experi-enced unprecedented success in their intercolle-giate tournaments.

Conversations related to the proposed Sports Complex generated interest and excitement in the community, with the realization of the poten-tial opportunities for NIC and the Coeur d’Alene community if this project is approved. Our city is now under new leadership with the departure of Mayor Sandy Bloem, and the election of former NIC Board of Trustee member Steve Widmyer.

NIC student enrollment growth has steadied to traditional levels with the resurgence of the local economy. Through it all, the Cardinal athletic teams have remained consistent in the national rankings and in the classroom. Come out and visit the campus and the new gymnasium floor.

OPEN HOUSE FOR FUTURE NIC STUDENTSNIC will be hosting multiple high schools on

campus over the holiday break and throughout the year, but the biggest events are this month. The annual TRI-STATE wrestling tournament will be held on December 20-21 at Christianson Gym-nasium, and the event will attract over 50 high schools from Idaho, Washington, Montana and Oregon, with nearly 500 participants. The 6th An-nual Coeur d’Alene INNvitational is a 3 day boys high school basketball tournament on December 26-28, with teams from Idaho, Washington and Canada. Save the date for the 11th annual Idaho Statewide All-Star basketball games on March 15, 2014 at Christianson Gym.

Stop by the campus and take in some high school sports and welcome these potential future students when you see them on our campus.

Tradition of Excellence

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DATE EVENT TIME

Dec. 20/22 Tri-State Wrestling Tournament All Day

Dec. 26-28 Cd’A INN-vitational High School Tournament TBA

Dec. 27 M. Basketball vs Treasure Valley Community College 8:00 p.m.

Jan. 2 W. Basketball vs Snow College 5:30 p.m.

M. Basketball vs Snow College 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 4 W. Basketball vs Salt Lake Community College 3:00 p.m.

M. Basketball vs Salt Lake Community College 5:00 p.m.

DATE EVENT TIME

Jan. 11 W. Basketball vs College of Southern Idaho 5:30 p.m.

M. Basketball vs College of Southern Idaho 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 16 W. Basketball vs Colorado Northwestern CC 5:30 p.m.

M. Basketball vs Colorado Northwestern CC 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 18 W. Basketball vs Utah State University - Eastern 3:00 p.m.

M. Basketball vs Utah State University - Eastern 5:00 p.m.

Jan. 23 Wrestling vs Simon Fraser University 12:00 p.m.

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

- Continued from Page 1 - In 2009 the program again reached new

heights, earning the first No. 1 ranking in NIC history for volleyball. Colleen Frolich was hired in 2010 as the new head coach after Kosty departed for the University of Indiana, but the program never missed a beat. In her only season, Frolich won the SWAC title out-right, won Coach of the Year honors, led the Cardinals to the Region 18 championship on our home court, and guided the team to a 5th place National finish!

Frolich relocated to Arizona with her fam-ily at the conclusion of the season, and first time head coach Kandice Kelly was hired to lead the Cards.

Taking over a team with a depleted roster, Kelly guided NIC to arguably the best two

year run in school history, and became the first NIC Coach to lead the Cards to back to back national tournament appearances. After winning the SWAC and earning Coach of the Year honors, Kelly led the Cardinals to the No. 1 national ranking, and consecutive top ten finishes at the NJCAA championships. Kelly resigned for family reasons in 2013 and former Eastern Washington Head Coach Miles Kydd was selected to guide the Cardinals.

Kydd’s approach with his young team was to teach early, learn from your mistakes and peak at season’s end. The formula was suc-cessful, as the 2013 Cardinals earned the 4th consecutive top ten finish at NJCAA nation-als, with a 6th place finish.

Despite the fifth head coach in the past seven seasons, the tradition of NIC volleyball is firmly entrenched with success.

With the team’s success, individual ac-colades followed. NIC’s first NJCAA All-American was recognized in 2005 with Col-lese Dornan earning 1st team honors.

Since then several additional Cardinals have been recognized as All-Americans and NJCAA All-tournament selections, including three additional 1st team selections: Cintia Alessi, Marketa Hanzlova, and Tina Strahin-ic. All three also added SWAC MVP honors.

In the past 10 years the Volleyball team has also been exemplary in the classroom with NJCAA team Academic recognition, and a program GPA near 3.0 every semester.

The recent success of NIC volleyball mirrors the NIC athletic department motto: Building on a Tradition of Excellence.

Regardless of who is at the helm, the pro-gram appears to be on the right course!

RAFFLE CAR TICKETS ON SALEGet your tickets now for a chance

to win a 1999 Volkswagen Beetle! Single tickets are on sale for $5

or five for $20. The drawing for the car will be

held in May 2014 at the NIC Athlet-ics Department Hall of Fame and Awards dinner.

Tickets are available at the NIC athletics office or from any NIC Coach. All proceeds benefit Car-dinal Student-Athlete scholarship programs.

SAVE THE DATE: BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB DAY

The local Boys & Girls Club will be the guest at the NIC basketball games vs Utah State University- Eastern on January 18. NIC Women at 3:00pm and 5:00 for the NIC Men. Support the youth of today and make a difference in their life’s forever!

Join us at the NIC annual winter CARDNIVAL on Wednesday, December 18 at the Coeur d’Alene Inn.

This year’s event is sure to have the best items and prizes ever! Special Thanks to Pan-handle State Bank for sponsoring the Gold Coins used for the Key Prizes. The lucky hold-er of the key item that opens one of 5 locks will receive $1,000 in Gold Coins!

Other items sure to get your attention:• 3 night stay at Atlantis Reef Resort private

suite in Paradise Island - Bahamas.• Walla Walla Vacation Rental package in-

cluding Wine, and Wine Valley Golf Course• Seattle Mariners Baseball Premier seats and

Red Lion Hotel lodging in Seattle• Gonzaga basketball tickets and lodging at

Davenport, Northern Quest or Red Lion

• Stay and Play golf packages at Coeur d’Alene Resort, Arrow Point and Coeur d’Alene Casino

• Golf at Black Rock, Gozzer Ranch, Hayden Lake Country Club, Avondale, Circling Raven and more

• Ski Packages, Sports Apparel, and Fishing/Camp Gear

• Salon packages, Artwork, Wine baskets, • Spokane Shock, Spokane Chiefs, Eastern

Washington Football and Idaho game tickets• Dinner packages in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene

and Post FallsDoors open at 5:00 p.m. and dinner begins

at 6:30. Come play games, meet people, have fun and support NIC athletics.

December 18 is a great day to get an early jump on Holiday Gifts! We’ll see you there!

Don’t Miss the Annual WINTER CARDNIVAL!

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLThe North Idaho College Lady Cardinals

won their seventh home game in a row after beating the NIC All-Stars 105-48 on Sat-urday, December 7. Renae Mokrzycki led NIC with 23 points. Ryleigh Swagerty had 19 points and Georgia Stirton 17.

The Lady Car-d ina l s a r e now 12-2 and ranked No. 10 in the latest NJCAA poll. The Cards opened con-ference play with a tough overtime loss against Utah State University-Eastern in Price, Utah, 88-80. They faced Col-orado Northwestern Community Col-lege in Rangely, Colorado on December 14. All NIC SWAC conference games can be viewed at http://www.njcaatv.com/NIC.

The Lady Cardinals will compete in the Lower Columbia College Holiday Clas-sic to end the calendar year, with our next home game Jan 2 vs Snow College in the SWAC home opener.

MEN’S BASKETBALLThe Men’s Basketball team is off to a

12-3 start to the season, and just joined the NJCAA polls in the No. 23 spot. Con-sidering the Cardinals have 10 new play-ers, 9 of which are freshman, the Cardinals are happy with their start.

The Cardinals have been led in scoring by freshman forward Braxton Tucker with 16.4 points per game followed by Wash-ington State trans-fer Bryce Leavitt at 13.6. Freshman point guard Will Dorsey is third with 12.2 points per game and newcomer Shi-kei Blake is the fourth Cardinal averaging double digits in scoring with 11 points per

game. Leavitt is also leading the Cardinals in rebounding with 7.5 per contest, as well as in assists (4.8) and steals (2.2).

The Cardinals are getting contributions from all 12 guys in different areas. Big man Fuquan Niles leads the team in blocks with 1.5 per game and returning big man Nathan Rathbun is averaging 1.4 blocks per game. The Cardinals are about to start conference play and the conference looks as tough as ever. Southern Idaho, Salt Lake and Utah State University-Eastern are all ranked in the top 20 and the current combined record for SWAC teams is 55 wins and 17 losses.

We look forward to seeing you at the games again soon! Thanks for all your support!

WRESTLINGThe wrestling team hosted their final

three big duals before the Christmas break, with matches against the #2 ranked and #4 ranked NJCAA teams. The Cardinals look to sophomores Jeremy Golding at 149, Nico Moreno at 157, and VJ Gi-ulio at 197 to be the leaders in these highly anticipated duals.

The first match against #2 ranked Northwest (WY) College on Decem-ber 13, featured six of the ten #1 ranked wrest lers in the NJCAA. NIC has wrestlers ranked #1 at 149, 157, and 197, and Northwest is ranked #1 at 141, 165, and 184. Combined, the two teams had a total of 13 ranked wrestlers competing in this dual. It was a great measuring stick for the first half of the season for the Cardinals. This marks the 3rd consecutive year that Cardinal Wrestling fans got to watch a #1 vs #2 dual at home.

Following the Northwest match, Clacka-mas Community College was the next chal-lenge. The Cougars came in ranked 4th in the country with 9 athletes ranked out of 10 weights. This was a highly competitive dual as Clackamas and NIC have won 2 of the last 3 national titles. The Cards finished off

the first semester wrestling with a dual with Southwestern Oregon, who is always com-petitive with several wrestlers ranked.

The Cardinals will be hosting the an-nual Tri-State wrestling tournament on Dec 20-21. Tri-State is one of the toughest high school tournaments in the Northwest with schools from Oregon, Washington, Mon-tana, and Idaho.

WOMEN’S SOCCERWe finished the year improving as we

went along, but just didn’t improve enough to win the NJCAA District C semi-final match against Otero JC.

It was a tough year with many injuries, but the girls competed well in every game and trained hard. It was just one of those years where things don’t seem to come together to produce wins.

Laramie County CC went to the na-tional tournament from our District made up of Region 9 and Region 18. They represented us well losing in a national semi-final match in penalty kicks to the eventual champion Iowa West-ern CC.

This result should help give us incen-tive to work hard and recruit well in the off season knowing with just a little bit more of “something” could have put us in the top 4 in the country.

MEN’S SOCCERMen’s soccer finished the 2013 season

with an overall record of 11-6-2 last month after falling to Laramie County in the Re-gion IX semifinal.

The Cardinals clinched playoffs with three games to spare in early October which is the earliest the program has clinched playoffs in several years. With the fourth seed in the Region IX tournament, the Car-dinals met Northwest College for the third time of the season.

Coming into the third matchup of the

Coaches’ Reports

PAGE 4

CHRIS CARLSONWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

DAN HOGANWOMEN’S SOCCER

JARED PHAYMEN’S BASKETBALL

PAT WHITCOMBWRESTLING

year NIC was 2-0, with a 2-1 win at home and a 3-2 overtime win in Powell. The Cardinals got the first goal in the quar-terfinal game, a free kick by Christian Botuli just before the half. The Trappers

were able to tie the game up later to force overtime, but the Cardinals didn’t take long to get the sudden death victory. After the Trappers cleared a Cardinal corner to midfield, Kur-tis Kanenwischer knocked it wide to Alec Johnson who served a forty yard

ball into the box. The rebound came to Rodger Bucknor who quickly evaded two defenders and slid it to Botuli whose shot ricocheted off the Trapper keeper.

With the ball bouncing, Adam Talley pounced on it first for the game winner, celebrated in typical Talley style with a backflip.

The next day, the Cardinals met Lara-mie County, who’d earned a 9-0 game the day before in the match-up between the one seed and the eight seed. Despite creat-ing some good opportunities, the Cardinals were shutout by the Golden Eagles 2-0, and LCCC advanced to the title game.

Although it was a disappointment to lose, the Cardinals’ 11-6-2 finish is the program’s best season under Coach Ken Thompson. The eleven wins are almost equal to the team’s twelve wins in 2011 and 2012 combined, and the team scored 37 goals in 2013, a steep improvement from 2012’s 21.

Adam Talley led the team in goals with nine, followed by Rodger Bucknor with eight.

Goalkeeper Tanner Jones spent much of the season in the top ten for saves, and mid-fielders and captains John Ray and Chris-tian Botuli provided tremendous leadership to a tight-knit group.

Several of the players are weighing their options for beyond NIC and are expected to be impact players at the next level.

VOLLEYBALLPicked to finish fourth in the Scenic

West Athletic Conference pre-season poll, and entering the season un-ranked nation-ally, the 2013 edition of Cardinal Volleyball concluded their season with a trip to the NJCAA Championships in Casper, Wyo-ming and returned home as the nation’s sixth best team!

While finishing with an 18-12 overall record, the team took on the best in the country for most of those matches. Of the team’s 12 losses for the season, only one loss (a narrow 3-2 loss to #15 ranked Snow College) came to a team ranked outside of the top 7 in the NJCAA polls. But included in the team’s wins were victories over #7 ranked Miami-Dade College, #8 ranked

College of South-ern Idaho (twice), #11 Hutchinson, #12 ranked Arizona Western College, and #4 ranked Iowa Western CC.

The season began with a match with #1 ranked Western Nebraska CC, and a tough 2 – 3 loss. And the season ended with Western Nebraska at the na-

tional championships at the NJCAA tour-nament in the battle for 5th place. Unfor-tunately, that also ended in a 2-3 loss, but the Cardinals finished with the 3rd highest finish in school history.

The Cardinals opened the Region 18 Tournament versus Colorado Northwest-ern CC and proceeded to crush CNCC 3 – 0 (25-13, 25-6, 25-6). The win set up a rematch with CSI in the semi-final with the winner of the semi-final grabbing a spot at the NJCAA Championships.

NIC jumped out to a quick start, winning 26-24 in game 1 and dominating 25-16 in game 2. But, defending National Champion CSI stormed back to grab games three and four - 25-18, 25-19 respectively. However the Cardinals were up to the task in game five to grab a 15-7 win and a trip to Nation-als!

In the Region 18 Final, the Cardinals once again squared off with #7 ranked (and undefeated in SWAC play) Salt Lake Com-munity College. And while the game scores were close (25-22, 25-21, 25-21), perhaps the Cardinals had used up their emotional reserves, and fell 0 – 3.

The Cardinals entered the 16 team NJCAA National Championships tourna-ment as the #9 seed, and went 2-2, defeat-ing #8 Arizona Western 3-0, and # 4 Iowa Western 3-1. The Cardinals lost to eventual National Champ and #1 ranked Blinn Col-legein the quarterfinals 1-3, before losing to Western Nebraska to end the season.

Congratulations to the 2013 Cardinal Volleyball Team on an outstanding season! Congratulations to all the student-athletes who made this season a memorable one and all the best to those who will move on to bigger and better things in volleyball, col-lege and life!

Volleyball Post Season AwardsRegion 18 All-Conference Teams: 1st

Team: Sophomore libero Russia Robinson- also 2013 Region 18 Libero of the Year. 2nd Team: Sophomore outside hitters Any-ssa Matheson (Worley, ID) and Leeta Grap (Kamuela, HI). Honorable Mention: Fresh-man outside hitter Larissa Claassen (Bad Essen, Germany)

Region 18 All Tournament Team: Soph-omore outside hitter Leeta Grap and Russia Robinson

NJCAA Championships All tournament Team: Russia Robinson.

SOFTBALLIt is fairly quiet with the softball pro-

gram right now. The team is finishing up our last week of individual training session

in hitting and pitch-ing. This is the time of year when we can get some one-on-one training with our players to help them develop for the spring season.

The team also had a great time volunteering at the Fall Festival at the

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Coaches’ Reports

KEN THOMPSONMEN’S SOCCER

MILES KYDDVOLLEYBALL

DON DON WILLIAMSSOFTBALL

PAGE 6

Harding Center last month. This is a festival put on for the community that helps needy families and feeds them a chili dinner.

We are now in a big push to finish strong in our classes for fall semester with finals starting next week. All of our players are carrying full loads and are feeling the pres-sures of completing the fall semester.

Our season is just around the corner. The team will report back to campus on Janu-ary 10th to run our winter hitting clinics that helps us fundraise for our pre-season tourna-ment and start practice on the 13th.

GOLFThe Cardinal men capped off their best fall

season in program history. The team earned 3 victories in their 4 events and also had 2 med-alists. They started the season off by winning the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Billings, Montana and setting some school records in the process. Chris Cremer won the medalist honors after rounds of 71 and 64. Chris set the tournament scoring record by finishing 8 under par. His 64 was also the lowest round

in school history. He shares this honor with teammate Angus Montgomery who also shot 64 that day. The Cardinals won the event by shooting a school record 267, 17 under par in the final round. That round was the low-est score shot by any team at any level in the entire country this fall.

The Fall ended with back to back victories at the Whit-worth Invitation-al and our hosted event, the Cardinal Invitational. Angus Montgomery was the medalist at the Cardinal Invitational and teammate Michael Porter finished 2nd.

The Cardinals have 3 players ranked in the top 100. Chris Cremer is ranked 80th with a scoring average of 75.00, Michael Porter is ranked 66th with an average of 74.56, and the team is led by Angus Montgomery who

is ranked 5th in the country with an average of 71.22.

Our Freshman class is ranked 3rd amongst NJCAA Div. I teams. The team finished with the 4th best scoring average amongst the NJCAA Div. I teams which earned them an 11th place ranking on golfstat, 13th in the NJCAA coaches poll and 11th in the GCAA Ping poll.

The women also got off to a good start this Fall led by Sophomores Jennie Williams and Madi Hauck. Madi shot a final round 80 in the Yellow Jacket Invitational which was the low round of the Fall for the team. In that same tournament the women shot their low team score of the fall, 339.

Three of the women are ranked in the top 100 amongst NJCAA players. Williams is ranked 64th, Hauck 72nd and Freshman Jenna Kaik is ranked 82nd.

The women finished the Fall ranked 14th in both the golfstat rankings and the NJCAA coaches poll. The team will continue their off season preparation through the winter and will begin competition again in March.

DERRICK THOMPSONGOLF

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