Ex-NIC wrestling coach Whitcomb claims damages

COEUR d'ALENE — Former North Idaho College head wrestling coach Pat Whitcomb, who was fired in January in the middle of his 22nd season, has filed an intent to sue the college for alleged damages.

The tort claim to the NIC Board of Trustees from attorney James Piotrowski on behalf of Whitcomb accuses the college of discrimination, reputational damage, retaliation and misconduct.

The filing estimates Whitcomb's damages to be between $50,000 and $100,000 to date, but Piotrowski said it's premature to say what he or Whitcomb believes would be a sufficient settlement.

"During the past several years, NIC has suffered through a series of allegations of wrongful, corrupt and unlawful conduct," the tort claim states. "Pat Whitcomb, previously employed as a wrestling coach for NIC, attempted to prevent such misconduct where he could, and to bring to light the misconduct he could not prevent.

"As a result, he has suffered extensive retaliation, ultimately ending in the loss of his employment, interference with his business relationships and other harms and damages."

A tort is a filing that alleges civil wrongdoing that caused loss or harm from an action. Torts allow the opportunity for cases to be settled out of court before a suit is filed.

"Unless the school wants to find a way to solve this problem, we plan to file suit on Pat's behalf," Piotrowski said. "NIC is a wonderful resource and it's important that we're all insistent that it's run with transparency and full compliance of the law."

College officials offered limited comment.

"It is the responsibility of NIC's leadership to make the difficult decisions to ensure employees who serve our students operate with integrity and align with the college's values of student success and academic excellence," said Laura Rumpler, NIC's chief communications and government relations officer.

"While I (or the college) cannot comment specifically on the possibility of pending litigation, NIC denies any wrongful conduct and is confident that any judicial process will afford clarity and bring the truth and facts to light."

Rumpler said she couldn't comment further due to the possibility of litigation.

NIC Athletics Director Al Williams referred questions to Rumpler.

Piotrowski also filed a complaint similar to the tort claim to the Idaho Human Rights Commission.

"The true victims in this are the student-athletes," Whitcomb said. "Things need to be done legally and in the best interest of the student-athletes. It's got to be a safe place to work and go to school."

Whitcomb earlier stated, and the tort claim emphasizes, that he believes he was fired for speaking out over possible rights and security violations the college was allegedly committing against NIC students and employees, not for academic integrity violations as the college stated.

Among the concerns Whitcomb said he expressed was a lack of ADA-mandated access for a double-amputee wrestler inside Christianson Gymnasium.

"Nothing still has been done about it to this day," Whitcomb said.

Under Whitcomb, NIC won four national team titles as a head coach and one as an assistant. The Cardinals also had 18 individual national champions and 108 All-Americans. He was honored as National Coach of the Year twice and Region 18 Coach of the Year eight times. Whitcomb is a member of the NJCAA Wrestling Hall of Fame and NIC Hall of Fame.

"Pat was an instrumental park of the NIC community for more than 20 years," Piotrowski said. "He was deeply committed to serving students. The problems that have come up at the college are not just about Pat. This (tort claim) should not be a surprise to anybody at the college."

Whitcomb moved from Coeur d'Alene to Sandpoint two months ago.

Through a public records request, The Press in March obtained a redacted report of the investigation that apparently led to Whitcomb being fired and Keri Stanley, one of his assistants, resigning earlier this year. Names were among the information that was redacted from the report for confidentiality reasons.

Grades given to students who rarely or never attended class was among the findings of the investigation. However, Whitcomb has denied any wrongdoing throughout the ordeal.

"The 'investigation' uncovered no wrongdoing by Whitcomb, yet he was terminated, while other athletic coaches who were named in the investigation as having been more directly involved in alleged wrongdoing received no discipline," the tort states. "The investigation became a pretext for NIC's decision to terminate Whitcomb."

Whitcomb's firing is just one matter facing NIC's athletics program this summer.

A Northwest Athletics Conference investigation alleges violations at NIC with the use of booster club funds for athletics.

NIC officials said the specific findings recommended sanctions and NIC's appeal will remain confidential through the appeals process, citing the NWAC codebook.

The tort claim states that Whitcomb expressed concerns about how the booster fund was being administered.

" … having booster fund bookkeeping performed out of state by a person with little or no connection to NIC was not in the best interest of NIC," the tort states.

The tort also states concerns about profits from a high school wrestling camp that Whitcomb developed and was paid for because it was not part of his regular NIC duties. NIC also received revenue from the camp.

"College administration had informed Whitcomb that it wished and intended to take over the camps, so that NIC (or perhaps its administrators) could seize those profits, denying Whitcomb the benefit of his work," the filing states.

Whitcomb's other efforts, including T-shirt sales as a fundraiser, funding school supplies for elementary students in need and the Tri-State High School Tournament, were praised by administrators until Whitcomb spoke out about the ADA matter, the tort states. A corrective action plan that served as a "written warning" was issued to Whitcomb by NIC administration regarding financing behind those efforts.

The tort states the plan was "retaliatory discipline" intended to silence Whitcomb about his ADA, booster club and other concerns. Whitcomb also complained NIC's response to a reported battery on campus last fall was "wholly inadequate."