Whitcomb suspended for wrestler's ejection

The rocky season for the North Idaho College wrestling team, well, has found another detour on its road to the national tournament.

Due to the two-match suspension of a NIC sophomore Deondre Wilson due to a flagrant ejection against Southwestern Oregon on Jan. 22, it also meant NIC coach Pat Whitcomb had to miss two matches due to NJCAA rules.

“It’s how things work,” NIC athletic director Al Williams said Monday. “The wrestler has to sit out two matches, including the coach.”

The not-so-funny thing is, the official in charge of the match didn’t indicate as such on his post-match report, Williams said.

“He never called it a flagrant ejection, just a regular disqualification, which meant he only had to sit one match,” Williams said.

Wilson did as such, sitting out the Cardinals’ dual with Clackamas on Jan. 23 the following day and returning to the lineup for the Clackamas Open on Jan. 24.

“Because the referee didn’t record it that way, he didn’t sit his second match,” Williams said. “It wasn’t until 10 days later, and it was late by the reporting school and him, that it was discovered.”

NIC’s final two events — a home match vs. Simon Fraser and a trip to the Apodaca Duals in Powell, Wyo. — were canceled due to injuries.

“We just didn’t know,” Williams said. “Since it wasn’t properly reported by the official, we didn’t sit him out. If we’d known, he would have sat in a meaningless open (tournament) in Clackamas. It was too late and the NJCAA denied the appeal. Since our last two matches were canceled, and we didn’t get a majority vote (in the appeal), we couldn’t change it.”

As a result, Whitcomb, who did not coach the team in last Saturday’s West District championships in Des Moines, Wash., will also not be able to coach the Cardinals at the NJCAA tournament Feb. 26-27 in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

“It’s too bad,” said Williams of Whitcomb, in his 19th season as NIC coach, and has won numerous Coach of the Year awards at the regional and national level. “But we have our two assistants (Keri Stanley and Tyson Springer) that will go back with the team. We’ll still have a guy at each mat if they wrestle at the same time (NIC qualified two wrestlers to nationals). It’s unfortunate that it happened, but with the way this season has gone, it doesn’t surprise me.”