THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016
After North Idaho College dropped from the NJCAA’s Scenic West Athletic Conference to the Northwest Athletic Conference, it might have seemed like more of a task to find a particular athlete that could excel in one sport.
Getting them to shine in mulitiple sports, it almost seems common anymore — especially in women’s athletics.
AFTER A year away from the game of soccer, Jocelyn Cook-Cox, who was recruited to North Idaho College on a basketball scholarship, added soccer this fall after playing all four years on the soccer team at Lakeside High in Nine Mile Falls, Wash.
Recruited by colleges for soccer as a senior, offers fell off after the Washington state tournament. Cook-Cox still earned a scholarship, but for basketball from NIC, appearing in all 29 games for the Cardinals, who finished 20-9 in their final season in the SWAC.
“In high school, I was talking with some different coaches but after the state tournament, they kind of fell through,” Cook-Cox said. “So basketball became the only option.”
Cook-Cox averaged 4.9 points and 3.2 rebounds a game, averaging 16.2 minutes a game as a freshman. Cook-Cox, as well as Brittany Gay (volleyball/softball) and Emily Aspden (softball/soccer) are among contributors in two sports at NIC currently.
Cook-Cox didn’t venture far from the soccer field once she arrived at NIC.
“I went to every single home game the girls had last year,” Cook-Cox said. “And I missed it so much. So I emailed (NIC women’s soccer coach) Dan (Hogan) and told him who I was, and then he emailed me back and told me he knew exactly who I was and I’ve had girls that have played with you. Come by, let’s meet and kind of see what happens. I love it so much.”
And so far at least, the crowds for the school’s Wednesday league games have been good. NIC beat Treasure Valley 3-1 in an NWAC match last Wednesday.
“I think these regional rivalries have been a good thing,” Hogan said. “When we play Spokane and go over there, we’ll have a bunch of fans travel over there with us. It’s usually a pretty good crowd because we usually play the game at night. When we play here, it’s usually in the mid-afternoon. Even today with that and playing at 1 in the afternoon, there was a lot of people that showed up.”
NIC travels to Columbia Basin College of Pasco, Wash., today.
“So far based on the results from around the league, that should be an easier game for us,” Hogan said. “But I don’t want to take everything for granted. We’ve still got to travel and get off the vans and play well.”
WITH THE amount of soccer fields available to most area high school soccer teams, often times they’re not playing home matches on a football field.
Sure, there’s a few that still do it, but most of the large schools opt to play on a soccer field somewhere on campus.
Coeur d’Alene’s girls soccer team was able play a game for the first time under the lights of Viking Stadium on Thursday, beating Post Falls 5-3 in a 5A Inland Empire League match.
“For sure it was a little bit of an adjustment to play under the lights,” Coeur d’Alene coach Andy Vredenburg said. “We do it every year (for senior night) at Lake City. It was a special night for our seniors to get to do it. It took us a while to get used to playing under the lights, and play moves quicker. But we adjusted well to it.”
Coeur d’Alene will visit Lake City in another late kick, playing at 7 p.m. at the Lake City High football field next Thursday in the regular-season finale for both schools.
“Our goal is to play at least one game a year under the lights,” Vredenburg said. “That’s what we’re hoping to do going forward.”
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.