NIC brass just doesn't get it
No.
No, no, no.
They simply do not get it.
Apparently, folks atop the North Idaho College food chain are partly (or maybe completely) unaware of why the public is so upset about NIC’s reaction to those penalties slapped on the school’s athletic department.
That wouldn’t be a complete shock, since high office in academia often doesn’t require much knowledge of athletics — or in this case, how a department overseeing sports competitions should be effectively run at a community college.
Hopefully, you saw my opinion column in Wednesday morning’s paper or somewhere online.
It was a critique of the absurd reaction from NIC President Richard MacLennan to those ridiculous charges and penalties sent our way from the Northwest Athletic Conference.
They were nothing more than an attempt to humiliate NIC.
The school’s trustees met Wednesday night, a gathering where several prominent members of the community showed up to blast any “apologies” for this trumped-up punishment — and perhaps we got our first hint how the NIC hierarchy intends to handle the whole thing.
SO WHAT will NIC do?
Nothing, I’m guessing, except just muddle forward in the minor-league NWAC — a conference that wishes we’d all go away.
Meanwhile, MacLennan and the trustees will continue to lick the boots of these same people who want NIC gone — and gone as soon as possible.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong, and that serious discussions are going on behind closed doors about another landing spot for NIC sports.
That might be wishful thinking, unfortunately.
Jason Elliott covered that Wednesday evening meeting for The Press, and his story contained a quote from Christie Wood, one of the trustees (and someone I admire tremendously in terms of character and social responsibility).
Unfortunately, I now have the sense that neither MacLennan nor the trustees have much idea how an athletic department works.
Nor what rules it should follow, either.
Here’s what Wood said, in part…
“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.”
Once more, I want to shout: NO!
No, no, no.
With all due respect to Ms. Wood and her fellow trustees, who have a huge responsibility on dozens of issues at NIC, I’m now positive that the school’s hierarchy doesn’t grasp two basic truths about this whole mess.
FIRST OF all, they seem totally unaware that the NWAC does not want North Idaho College in its midst.
The decision to join that conference — leaving the NJCAA and the historically successful Scenic West Athletic Conference — was made solely to save money.
The Scenic West didn’t want to see NIC depart, not at all, and would have us back in a heartbeat.
When the NWAC option was floated initially, MacLennan no doubt was enthused about it.
He’d worked in the NWAC before coming to Coeur d’Alene, and possibly saw the change as a way to hold down costs while still making a connection in athletics with honorable people whom he knew.
Yet unfortunately…
MacLennan came to NIC in 2010 after a stint at Garrett College in Maryland. Before that, however, he spent more than a decade as vice president for student services at Olympic College in Washington.
Scroll back the years, and the NWAC (with Olympic as a member) was very different in terms of athletic administration.
Commissioner Jim Jackson was highly regarded throughout the region and beyond.
THOSE DAYS are gone.
Jackson sadly has passed away, leaving Marco Azurdia to take the reins and remake NWAC in his version of a strictly local, low-key operation.
A school like NIC has had a high profile nationally in several sports and routinely boasts multiple athletes heading off for scholarships at Division I universities.
Bottom line: This was always going to be like fitting a giraffe into a pup tent.
And that brings us to the second truth that seems to be getting glossed over in this disgraceful bowing down to the NWAC.
Using Christie Wood’s comment as a starting place, I say…
NIC has not lost any credibility whatsoever.
The school certainly doesn’t need Azurdia to pass judgment on it.
No written rules were broken here, my friends — only some imaginary, this-is-what-we-meant inventions that the NWAC dreamed up to punish NIC and force its departure from the conference.
The NIC athletic department (and shoved-out director Al Williams in particular) should not have to apologize to anyone.
Again, I hate to make Ms. Wood a villain here just for saying what she’s been told — but her statement that NIC will try hard to “make good” on charges that were totally bogus, and “fix those issues” when there’s nothing needing to be fixed, well…
Ms. Wood cannot be faulted for lacking intimate knowledge of NWAC politics.
She and the other trustees have to trust MacLennan to handle the due diligence, and offer them some options on how to proceed.
Clearly, the president has not done that.
Either way, these decision-makers have to face those two critical trusts right now, which means…
North Idaho College must decide how to put the NWAC in its rear-view mirror.
Failure to do so will gut an honest, well-run athletic department that has known great success for decades.
I can’t believe the community would stand for that.
I just can’t.
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball once monthly during the offseason.
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