Boosters: Forget the fight, go back to SWAC

COEUR d’ALENE — To some of its biggest athletics supporters, North Idaho College seems like the kid on the playground that nobody wants to play with.

They’re bigger.

They can get better players.

And to those other schools in the Northwest Athletic Conference, they really don’t want them around anyway.

“Historically, they’ve never wanted us in there,” longtime former NIC men’s basketball coach Rolly Williams said during a public comment period at Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting at the Edminster Student Union Building on the school’s campus. “We’ve got no friends in the NWAC.”

In August, a list of penalties issued by the Northwest Athletic Conference against its men’s basketball program for league violations including vacating league championships from the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, the loss of four scholarships for each of the next three years, a 10-game suspension of head coach Corey Symons, a three year-ban from postseason play, three years’ probation for the athletic department and a $30,000 fine. NIC must also fund an annual audit for the next three years by a company chosen by the NWAC.

“When I first read about the NWAC sanctions and possible dismissal of (athletic director) Al Williams and Corey Symons, I thought this must be a joke,” local real estate agent John Beutler said. “As it went on, I was outraged and asked myself how leadership at NIC could not stand up for these fine men, the individuals, the college and students themselves. Both Al and Corey are incredible citizens and ambassadors to this community, and they’re not being treated fairly. Their reputations have been tarnished by these violations.”

Symons won’t be eligible to return until the Pima Invitational in late December.

“When I heard that, I was about to lose it,” Beutler said. “For someone that has been with this college for so long and done so much, for someone not to stand up for him. I believe that leadership thinks that if it’s not talked about, it will go away, and it won’t. This isn’t right and needs to be corrected. By accepting these sanctions, it gives the perception that we’ve done something wrong. We’re a strong, proud community and can-do community. We need to be loyal to NIC and not the NWAC. They want us out of here.”

The school was fined $30,000, with $10,000 suspended pending review in 2021 and the executive board’s determination of satisfactory progress.

“It looks to me like that this is a textbook example of not applying common sense,” Dr. Paul Berger said. “To me, frankly, and it’s tough to say, I think this is a failure of government leadership. It feels like we’ve fumbled the ball and given it to the other team. In the same process, we’ve hurt members of the community and college itself, and the community at-large. That being said, the unbelievable response was to roll over and play dead. We’ve got to fight. My conclusion is how this happened, my only conclusion is that it’s a monumental failure of leadership. I’d asked the board to reconsider this. It’s hurting everyone.”

Al Williams — who has been the athletic director at NIC since 2003 — recently announced his retirement. His final day with the school is Friday.

“I’m very angry about this, because I see a quality person crucified in public, and he doesn’t deserve this,” developer John Stone said. “In 17 years of service, school and community, to be cast off and pushed away like this is not the right answer. I was involved with Gonzaga when they were just about bankrupt, and been around athletics, and raised a lot of money in this area. Coeur d’Alene isn’t the same town that it was 10 years ago, or even five years ago. And I know there’s a lot of money here.”

NIC opted to move from the NJCAA to the more regional-friendly NWAC in all sports in 2016. Rolly Williams, who coached the Cardinals for some three decades when they played in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, added that a move back to the Scenic West might be the best for everyone involved.

“We’re a national junior college program,” Rolly Williams said. “There’s various ways to raise money and do things. When we qualified for nationals, we paid the expense for the team to go to nationals. I happen to think in the terms of national competition being the best you can be. You don’t strive for mediocrity. Being the champion of the NWAC — what the hell does that mean? If you have an undefeated team, you wonder if you had a chance to go be the best you can be. It’s obvious that we have no friends and nobody wants us there to start with. I don’t think they thought we’d take the fine and sanctions. I felt they thought we’d say ‘the hell with it, and go to the national level.’”

All told, six people spoke at the board meeting during a comment period which lasted some 25 minutes. All defended the athletic program.

Board chairperson Christie Wood said they may address the conference situation again.

“I’d imagine we’ll have the discussion about the conference in the future,” Wood said. “For this year, there’s no time for that now. We want to get our credibility back, follow the rules and make good on what we’ve been charged with. We’re doing everything we can to fix those issues.”