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

LUNCHEON SCHEDULE: 10/31: Noon: Cd'A Resor t • 11/14: Noon: Outback Steakhouse • 11/28: Noon: Cd'A Resort

NOVEMBER 2017

C R U I S I N ' W I T H T H E C A R D I N A L S : P A G E 3

Cardinals Nationally Ranked

IN MEMORIAM: STEVE GANNON

Men's Basketball recognized in 2017-2018 Street & Smith poll

The NIC Athletics Department and Wres-tling family mourns the loss of Cardinal great Steve Gannon, who passed away on October 5, 2017. Gannon was a charter member of the NIC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009, and was honored as NIC’s first wrestling individual na-tional champion in 1974. Gannon had a tremen-dous wrestling career as a two-time All-Ameri-can, and helped lead the Cardinals to their first NJCAA national title in 1974, and runner-up finish in 1973.

“Gannon was known for his gregarious

laugh that was contagious, and his humility be-lied his many accomplishments” said NIC Ath-letic Director Al Williams. “He lit up the room at the HOF induction ceremony and made the night truly memorable. He will be missed.”

A Celebration of Life will be held on Sat-urday, Nov. 11 at 11 am at CenterPlace Event Center (2426 N. Discovery Place, Spokane Val-ley). Followed by food and libations at the Cor-ner Club (2208 N Park Rd, Spokane Valley). In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contri-butions to the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.

The North Idaho College men’s basketball team is ranked No. 19 in the nation in the 2017-18 junior college basketball poll released by Street & Smith’s annual college bas-ketball edition. This marks the 4th consecutive year that the Cardinals have been recognized nationally in preseason polls. The Sporting News tabbed the Cards in the top 20 head-ing into the previous three seasons.

NIC is coming off of a 25-5 sea-son which included the Northwest Athletic Conference East Region ti-tle, and No. 1 ranking in the NWAC final poll.

Street & Smith’s also recognized two former Cardinals in the listing of top JUCO athletes moving on to NCAA Division I programs. Former NWAC All-Region selections, soph-omore point guard Sam Dowd (Ida-

ho State University) and freshman wing Markus Golder (Valparaiso University), were recognized as top incoming NCAA Division I recruits.

The Cardinals open the season on November 17 with two games against NJCAA foe Northwest (WY) College. The tough preseason schedule also includes the presti-gious San Jose City College Clas-sic, which includes #18 nationally ranked City College of San Fran-cisco, and several California ranked JUCOs.

The Cards only return one starter from last season’s team, Jalen Bur-kett, but welcome several highly touted freshman recruits.

Check out the NIC website for the complete men’s basketball schedule at www.nic.edu/athletics.

BOOSTER CLUB LUNCHEONSIf you want to gain a lot of

knowledge, in a short amount of time, in an entertaining fashion, block some time to join us at the NIC Booster Club luncheons. We meet the second and last Tuesday of each month and the speakers have been outstanding. Special thanks to NCAA foot-ball official Steve Hudson, and Fatbeam CEO Greg Green for enlightening our members at the last two luncheons.

Join us on Oct. 31 at the CDA Resort to hear John Beutler,

owner of Century 21- Beutler & Associates, at noon. On November 14, Washington State Uni-versity football legend Paul Sorensen will be the guest speaker at the Outback Steakhouse. Sorensen was recently inducted into the WSU Hall of Fame after and All-American football ca-reer and 14 years as a football radio broadcaster. Don’t miss these great speakers. The luncheons are open to the public.

SPECIAL NEEDS GAME IS BACKThe annual Special Needs Basketball Extrava-

ganza will be held at NIC’s Christianson Gymna-sium on Tuesday, November 7, 2017. Game times are 5:30PM and 6:45PM. The games are sponsored by the NIC Athletics Department and community volunteers, and honor the special needs athletes in the community, with players from 18-40 years old. Come out and enjoy the games!

WINTER CARD-NIVALThe annual Winter CARD-nival will be held on

Wednesday, December 13th at the Coeur d’Alene Inn/ Best Western Plus at 5:00PM. Tickets for the dinner, live auction, silent auction and games are $30 and reserved table for 8 for $240.

BOARD OFFICERS

PRESIDENT Rich Dussell

VICE PRESIDENTRoger Stewart

TREASURERMark Hampe

SECRETARYRann Haight

BOARD MEMBERS

Robert CliffJeannette Davidson

Janie GivasTom Messina

Frank DarlingtonPatty StewartJon ParsonJJ Jaeger

Tony MukhamediyevAl Williams (ex-officio)

aawilliams@nic.edu

PHOTOGRAPHSTom GreeneDon Sausser

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

Well it seems like our weath-er system is now back in order. After the warmest and driest summer in recent history, we by-passed fall and went straight to winter. Well, maybe not that dra-matic, but most of our home soc-cer games seemed to be chilly. We used that as our home field advantage to build a 9-2-1 con-ference record against NWAC East Region foes for both the men and women. Meanwhile in Christianson Gymnasium the volleyball team hasn’t dropped a home match this year, or on the road either in conference play. The Fall sports have taken the challenge seriously, when it comes to “Protecting Our House!”.

As you read in the coach’s updates, all of the Fall sports are in contention to make the playoffs and volleyball and women’s soccer are serious contenders to win the NWAC East. The home schedule for Fall sports is coming to a close quickly with only one volleyball game remain-ing, but you can join us for the NWAC region championships for both soccer and volleyball in the Sea-Tac area. Check out the NIC website for the post season tournament schedules at www.nic.edu/athletics.

Thanks to our many corporate and individual sponsors that have already returned their annual NIC Booster Club membership forms. We are al-most ready to go to print for the NIC Athletics Department Annual Media Guide but there is still time to place your business ad in the program if you act fast. Your sponsorship and support pro-vide the foundation of our fundraising efforts which supplement our college operating budgets. Our success would not be possible without your contributions. Thanks for your continued support as a true Cardinal!

Tradition of Excellence

Athletic Director Al Williams

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A MESSAGE FROM THE NIC BOOSTER CLUB PRESIDENT:

DATE TIME EVENT

Oct. 27 7 p.m. WRESTLING: Red vs Gray II

Oct. 28 7 p.m. WRESTLING: Alumni Dual

Nov. 3 6 p.m. VOLLEYBALL vs Columbia Basin College

Nov. 17 12 p.m. W. BASKETBALL vs Northwest College

Nov. 17 4:30 p.m. M. BASKETBALL vs Northwest College

Nov. 17 7:30 p.m. WRESTLING vs Clackamas C.C.

Nov. 18 11 a.m. M. BASKETBALL vs Northwest College

Nov. 18 1:30 p.m. WRESTLING vs Umpqua CC (Cardinal Duals)

DATE TIME EVENT

Nov. 18 3 p.m. WRESTLING vs Highline College (Cardinal Duals)

Nov. 18 8 p.m. W. BASKETBALL vs Southwestern Oregon CC

Nov. 19 1 p.m. W. BASKETBALL vs Bellevue College

Dec. 9 7 p.m. WRESTLING vs Montana State University - Northern

Dec. 10 2 p.m. WRESTLING vs Warner Pacific University

Dec. 17 8 p.m. M. BASKETBALL vs Chemeketa CC

Dec. 18 8 p.m. M. BASKETBALL vs Shoreline CC

Dec. 19 2 p.m. M. BASKETBALL vs Highline College

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

Hello Booster Members, Stu-dents and Future Booster Mem-bers.

Fall and winter sports are coming into the picture…which means Men’s and Wom-en’s Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball and Wrestling!

I can hardly wait to watch the awe-some games and matches that are about to take place. If you have been attending our Booster Luncheons you know that the teams are doing well at practice and there are hopes of a great year. I challenge all of you to attend these events and show your Cardinal Colors and Spirit by coming out and cheering your student -thletes to vic-tory.

You can go to the website at http://www.nicathletics.com and lookup the team schedules or see any of our Coaches to get your own personal pocket schedule.

Our next big fundraising event is the CARDNIVAL which happens December 13, 2017 and is held at the Best Western Plus/CDA Inn. This is our biggest fund-raising event of the year to help our stu-dent-athletes. It’s a great dinner with a live and silent auction and lots of good compa-ny. Contact Al Williams or Patty Stewart or any of the coaches for your tickets. See you at the events!!

RICH DUSSELLBOOSTER CLUB LUNCHEON SPEAKERS: John Beutler (left) and Paul Sorensen

The NIC Student Wellness and Recreation Center officially opened on Sept. 8

GRAND OPENING

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

for the 2017-2018 season. NIC men’s basket-ball 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 paced philosophy. We are always working to continue the rich tradi-tion of Cardinal bas-ketball. We recently returned from Salt Lake City, UT com-peting in the SLCC Jamboree. There we faced other NJCAA top 20 teams like Salt Lake and CSI, and also squared off with defending SWAC champion Snow College, and former SWAC rival Utah State University-Eastern. The Cards more than held their own, and our coaching staff is really excited about this group and we look forward to tackling the upcoming season. 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 with the NIC Tip-Off Classic beginning on November 17th. Thanks again for all of your support.

GOLFWe are nearly done with our fall season

with three tournaments finished and one more tournament coming up. Neither the men's or women's team got off to the start this season that I would have liked, but the talent is there. The men's team started off the year taking third at the Pacific Lutheran Invitational and then second place at the Olympic NWAC league match. The women took fourth at both events.

At the Pacific Lutheran Invitational, host-ed at the Home Course in Dupont, WA, both teams got off to a good start after the first day. The men were in first place and the women in second place, but just couldn't keep their play going into the second and final round. Individ-ually, the men's team was led by Sean Lang-ham and Todd Henderson who both shot a two day total of 146, good for a 12th place tie. On the women's side, sophomore Madi Brown led

the Cardinals with her two day total of 157 giving her a 3rd place finish.

The second event was the Olympic NWAC league match, hosted at both Gold Mountain golf course and Mc-Cormick Woods golf course. The women again got off to a great start after the first round, leading the entire field as a team. However, once again they struggled the second day and had way too many double bogeys and worse numbers that really cost us the event. The men played steady and remained where they were after the first round which was in second place as a team. It was difficult for us at this event because it was held at two different courses and we were only able to play a practice round at one of the courses. Getting to know the course is one of the big-gest advantages in competitive golf. None the less, there were some solid individual perfor-mances, with both Brady Nelson and Ben Har-vey finishing in the top five on the men's side and Madi Brown finishing in 4th place on the women's side.

The Cards competed in the NWAC Com-mittee Invitational on October 22-23, hosted at Apple Tree Golf Course in Yakima, WA. We specifically added this event because it is the site for our NWAC championship tournament in May 2018, so it was a good chance for both teams to get to know the course. The men fin-ished 3rd and the women finished 5th. After Yakima we will either head to the Highline In-vitational in Seattle, Washington or the Whit-man Invitational at Wine Valley golf course in Walla Walla, WA the following weekend. Once that last event wraps up at the end of October we will continue practicing outside as long as the weather will allow us to.

VOLLEYBALLThe Lady Cardinals are in the home stretch

of NWAC East Region play and currently stand unblemished at 11-0. The team strug-gled at the beginning of the year with minor injuries and illnesses, and some chemistry is-sues with only one returning starter. Howev-

er, the team slowly got healthy and continued to improve, and appear to be peaking at the right time for a strong finish. Currently, the Cardinals, with an overall record of 27-5, are ranked #1 in the latest NWAC poll, and win-ners of 18 straight games. Due to a lopsided conference schedule the Cardinals played 7 of 8 conference games at home in the first half and will now be on the road most of the second half of the season. We are hoping to see a lot of growth these next couple weeks so that we can carry that over to the NWAC Championship tournament. The Cards tuned up for post season tournament play by com-peting in the 8-team NWAC Crossover tour-nament and swept the field without losing a game on the way to the Championship. Halle Hess was the tournament MVP, and four additional players made all-tournament team.

The Cardinals line-up is stronger than ever, with 3-4 players in double-digits for kills. Halle Hess, Kayla Neumann, Macy DuCoeur, and Hailee Etter have prov-en that if you can get them the ball in the right position they will put it down. Hailee Etter has already been selected as the NWAC Of-fensive Player of the Week on two occasions and continues to improve each week. Defen-sive specialist Rachel Leshikar’s strong play has been the key to the defense, and freshman setter Haylee Templeton has come on strong since securing the starting spot. Both ladies were recognized as East Region Players of the Week as well. After losing the first two games of the season, the Cardinals are unde-feated against two-year colleges, with their other 3 losses coming against 4-year schools at the Carroll College Invitational. Our last home game, on November 3, is also Sopho-more Night against #5 ranked Columbia Ba-sin College. Make sure to come out one last time to cheer on your Cardinals at home. The NWAC Volleyball Region Championship tournament will be held in Tacoma, WA on November 16-19.

GO CARDS!

Coaches’ Reports

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KELSEY STANLEY

RUSSELL GROVE

COREY SYMONS

SOFTBALL We are getting close to wrapping up fall

ball at the end of October. We have played 3 of our 4 fall dates so far and have seen im-provement daily on the field. The team had the opportunity to scrimmage Montana State

University-Billings and the University of Montana in Missoula a few weeks ago. The Cardinals upset MSU-Billing in the first game and com-peted with U of M the whole game before eventually dropping the game in late in-nings. The Cardinals will travel to Ellens-

burg, WA on October 29th to play a double-header vs. Central Washington University to finish out the fall season. Starting in Novem-ber the team will continue to train indoors pre-paring for their February 24th season opener in Richland, WA.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALLThe Lady Cardinals have been hitting it

hard in practice, in the weight and condition-ing facility, and in the classroom and they are ready to go! We have away scrimmages scheduled at Lewis Clark State College and at Montana Tech in Butte, Montana on Octo-ber 27th at 4:00 PM. In addition, we have a home scrimmage against Okanagan College

out of Kelowna, Brit-ish Columbia, Can-ada on November 16th at 11:30 AM. We look forward to going to battle with this talented and hard-working crew.

The Lady Cardi-nals have made a big impact on the com-munity already. The

entire team did a fantastic job as court moni-tors at the Coeur d’Alene Shootout, and par-ticipated as volunteers at the CDA Ironman, assisting athletes with their biking needs at Higgins Point. Team members also coached an entire weekend at a Breakthrough Basket-

ball Shooting Camp in Liberty Lake, WA. In addition, they are regulars in the NIC gym on Sundays, coaching 3rd – 5th grade girls in the afternoon as well as high school girls in the evening.

Our first official game of the year is No-vember 17th at home when we take on Northwest College out of Powell, Wyoming at noon. On November 18th we play South-western Oregon Community College at 8:00 PM and on November 19th we play Bellevue College at 1:00 PM. Our complete schedule can be viewed at nic.edu/athletics. Go Cards!

WRESTLINGThe Cardinal’s Wrestling Team began of-

ficial practices for the 2017-2018 Season on Tuesday, October 10th. In preparation for the season, student-athletes stayed active in weeks leading up to this date with individual work-outs. To signal the conclusion of the pre-season and beginning of wrestling season, the Wres-

tling team has created a tradition of a moun-tain climb in Hope, Idaho. The 2017-2018 season marks Coach Whitcomb’s 15th mountain climb. This year’s climb took place at Moose Lake. Wrestlers were broken up into teams and embarked on a 9-mile trek at ~6000

ft. in elevation, with food and camping sup-plies around Blacktail Lake and into Moose Lake, where they would set up camp and stay the night.

Besides the physical and mental benefits, the hike offers a great opportunity for prospec-tive members of the squad to bond and get to know one another, while working in a team en-vironment to set up camp. Many wrestlers on the roster come from around the country (in-cluding North Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alabama) and between school, work, and ath-letics, few have the opportunity to explore all that North Idaho has to offer. With the moun-tain climb completed, the Cardinal Wrestling squad will look to focus their efforts towards a successful 2017-2018 campaign. Wrestling action will begin October 25th at 6:30 pm with

the Red v. Gray Duals at Mead High School in Spokane, WA, in which wrestlers will com-pete for positions in the starting line-up. The first home match is Red-Gray Duals number two on October 27 at 7:00pm.

WOMEN'S SOCCERWe are almost at the end of the regular sea-

son with only one game remaining as we go to print. At this time we have an overall record of 12-5 with an NWAC East Region record of 10-3, and clinched a playoff spot. We are current-ly in 2nd place, one point ahead of the Com-munity Colleges of Spokane, and we finish against the Sasquatch at their place in the sea-son finale on October 25th. To be honest, this is about where I thought we would be when the season started. We only had one starter return-

ing from last year’s team and no return-ing forwards. It has been a major teaching season and the ladies have learned a ton.

Our three losses have come to teams that are more aggres-sive (meaning they are more willing to hit their opponents). It was an issue we rec-

ognized and we’re working to adjust our own play before the playoffs begin.

The current standings show that our team, Walla Walla and CCS have all clinched play-off berths, and we are now jockeying for play-off positioning. All three of us are ranked in the top 8 of the NWAC. The rankings have Peninsula at 1, Highline at 2, Walla Walla at 3, Spokane is 5th and NIC is 8th.

Linnea Pretzer, a freshman from Idaho Falls is our leading scorer at this time with 14 goals, followed by Chelsea Love, a sophomore from Newman Lake, Wash., with 9 goals. Ellory Ferris, a freshman from Ellensburg, Wash. is playing great in the midfield and our starting back line of Ashley Camacho, Nora Kennedy, and Brooklyn Rankin is helping Kinzie Hunt-er, sophomore goal keeper from Reno, NV, keep the ball out of the net.

With only one game left, we can still fin-ish as high as 2nd in the NWAC East and earn a home playoff game. The first round of the

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Coaches’ Reports

CHRIS CARLSON

DAN HOGAN

DON DON WILLIAMS

PAT WHITCOMB

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Coaches’ Reports

CASSONDRA MOTLEY

KEN THOMPSON

playoffs begin on Wednesday, Nov 1, and the Quarterfinals are on Saturday, Nov 4 on the road if we win. Our goal is to make it back to the NWAC Final 4 in Tukwila, WA on No-vember 10-12. Stay tuned! The post season should be good! Go Cards!

MEN'S SOCCERThe Cardinals were unable to recover

from a mid-season slide, and bowed out of the playoff picture with a tough loss to 2nd place Walla Walla CC, 3-2, on Octo-ber 21st. The Cardi-nals needed to win out down the stretch and made a gallant effort, but fell just short in their quest to make the playoffs. The men lost center-back Travis Williams five minutes into a two game road trip to Blue Mountain and Treasure Valley and were without two key attackers that weekend (September 29-30). Coming away with a loss and a tie proved costly in the playoff chase,

despite going 4-1-2 since dropping those road points. The last two home games were exciting ones at Eisenwinter Field. Against Wenatchee, the Cardinals went up 2-0 only to forfeit their lead by giving away two penalty kicks in the first four minutes of the second half. The Cardinals then went up 5-2 and eventually won 5-3 on goals by Cade Roske, Conner Kinnune, Riley Glover, Omar Her-nandez, and Parker Gorrill. NIC then hosted East Division leaders CBC who came into the match ranked third in the NWAC. Conner Kinnune headed an Oscar Padilla free kick into the net at the 60 minute mark only to see the Hawks tie it at 10 minutes later. Need-ing a win, the Cardinals changed formations trading a defender for an attacker and put the pressure on in the remaining minutes of the game. With 3 minutes to go, Omar Hernandez headed home an Oscar Padilla corner kick for the game-winner. Luis Hernandez is fifth in save percentage in the conference and second in the NWAC East for saves. Cade Roske is tied for fourth in the division for goals as he splits time between forward and midfield.

The Cardinals needed a win against Walla Walla to stay in playoff contention, but now end the regular season with a game at Spo-

kane Falls Community College on Wednes-day, October 25th, at 7:15pm.

CHEERThe Cheer team is developing nicely in

preparation for the annual national cheer competition. Howev-er we recently found out that our National Competition this year will be held a month sooner than usual! This is equivalent to approximately 30 less hours of practice time than we tradi-tionally have sched-uled. With that knowledge, we are kicking our practices into high gear and will be get-ting the choreography for our routine within the next few weeks. The team is doing great! We are on track with our skill-level and still gaining! It is so exciting and motivating to see so many athletes trying and successfully performing new skills! We look forward to showing off some of our progress in the up-coming games! Go Cards!

The wrestling team takes a break at their annual mountain climb along Moose Lake outside of Sandpoint.

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Go Cardinals!

Good Luck NIC

Athletes!

The women's basketball team prepares for court monitoring duties at the CDA Shootout.

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

The volleyball team sends a message to the Walla Walla Warriors at the net.