STATE GIRLS BASKETBALL: A goal well within her grasp ... Symons, once cut from AAU basketball team, gets back to work, earns Division I scholarship to Wyoming

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

It wasn’t a conversation that either Corey or Nicole Symons wanted to have with their daughter at the time.

Madi just wasn’t elite enough.

Well, as Corey says …

“She’s always been a gym rat, but she hasn’t always been good,” Corey said. “We laugh about it now but we used to run (the AAU basketball program) North Idaho Elite with the Carlsons (Chris and Carey, the former North Idaho College women’s basketball coaches). We were managing 20-something teams. When Madi was in the sixth grade, our North Idaho Elite coach cut her. We went to dinner that night and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ We’re going to have to put her in music, dance or something else she likes.’”

That’s when the work started.

“We had some conversations about goals, setting goals and how to achieve them in the sixth grade,” Corey said. “And she wrote on this little ribbon after that she wanted to play Division I basketball when she was 11 years old. We told her, 'Well, you’re not very good,' and she said she really wanted to do it. We told her it’s going to be a lot of hard work. She’s not the most god-given, gifted kid. She’s just not and she’ll tell you that. But she’s where she’s at by the amount of work she put in because she wanted to.”

Madi's parents are Corey Symons, the head men's basketball coach at North Idaho College, and Nicole Symons, the girls basketball coach at Coeur d'Alene High. Corey Symons played at Falls Christian Academy and at NIC before transferring to Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash. Nicole, the former Nicole Nipp, played her first three years of high school basketball at Coeur d'Alene, then transferred to Lake City when it opened for the 1994-95 school year. She also played at Northwest. Madi's younger brother, Caden, is a freshman at Coeur d'Alene High.

But it wasn’t always basketball that Madi, who has signed to play basketball at Wyoming, had her dreams on.

“I’ve grown up in the gym and really in a basketball family,” Madi Symons said. “Up until my freshman year, I was planning to play college volleyball. It was kind of my sport growing up and then freshman year, I fell in love with the game of basketball and getting into the gym. I decided to focus on basketball because of the competitiveness and team aspect of it. It’s all goal-oriented, like-minded people and putting myself around those kinds of people has been great. As well as having parents that understand and can help me through the process as well, it kind of changed that for me.”

Nicole Symons is in her fourth season as Coeur d’Alene girls basketball coach, where Madi, a 6-foot forward, is a four-year starter.

“We had a pretty big family discussion before I applied for this job,” said Nicole, an assistant for one season before taking over as head coach. “We discussed a lot of things that were going to have to take place should I apply for it, and if she was OK with it. Because being a coach's kid is not an easy thing to do. When she felt like it was OK and the right decision, I applied. We’ll have discussions from time to time where I’m not mom, I’m coach, and she’s handled it well. From her freshman to senior year, it’s been a big growth and that comes from maturity and having to cope and deal with it.

“It’s great, but challenging for both of us," Nicole added. "She’s always been the hardest worker, so it makes it easier not to deal with that part. But there’s been some challenges, but those moments are few and far between. I’m really thankful to be part of that journey with her through that process and being a part of her and her teammates lives. It’s been something I’ve been blessed to have, and sad that chapter is closing soon.”

In her first two years on varsity, Coeur d’Alene won regional titles in 2020 and 2021, advancing to state. In 2020, Madi's freshman year, Coeur d’Alene went 0-2 at state. The Vikings advanced to the semifinals in 2021, but finished 1-2 in the tournament after losing in the third-place game to Rigby.

Last year, her junior year, Coeur d’Alene did not advance to state, falling at home in the regional title game to Lake City, then being upset by Post Falls in the second-place game. This season, Coeur d’Alene raced through the Inland Empire League and beat Lake City 56-35 in the regional championship game, advancing to state for the third time in four years starting Thursday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

“I think some years we took that for granted,” Madi Symons said. “Last year, we kind of got put back in our place a little bit.”

Madi added that after last year’s second loss at regionals, she didn’t watch the state tournament.

“I remember being really upset after not making it to state last year,” Madi said. “I think that made me want to get in the gym because I didn’t want to feel like that again. And it’s the case for the rest of our team, even the transfers that came in took on that persona as well.”

She noted that unlike previous years, she was back in the gym almost immediately after the season.

“My freshman and sophomore year, I think it was a solid week where I didn’t shoot or do anything after the season,” Madi said. “Last year, I was so angry, I got in the gym right away, and in the weight room.”

Her hard work has also paid off in the classroom, where she is ranked 19th in her graduating class. She is done with high school classes by 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, allowing her to take some time to herself.

“Before each game, I’ll take a nap,” Madi said. “I’ve got to have my pregame nap before each game. In volleyball, whether it was a half-hour or two hours, I have to have a nap before the game.”

Sometimes, Madi had to get creative on game days.

“This year, it’s way easier because I can plan it,” Madi Symons said. “Sometimes last year, I’d miss my seventh-period class just so I could get my nap in before the game. If we leave on the bus, I’ll nap on the bus. That’s kind of my thing, and everyone knows it too. They know not to text or call me during those hours because I’m sleeping.”

Coeur d’Alene (21-2) is the top seed into this week’s state 5A tournament at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. The Vikings will face eighth-seeded Eagle (14-12), which upset Lake City 47-39 in a play-in game on Saturday at Lewiston High, on Thursday at 6 p.m. PST.

Coeur d’Alene added a pair of transfers, junior Teagan Colvin (Liberty High of Spangle, Wash.) and senior Kendall Omlin (Ferris) this season. Fellow senior Libby Awbery transferred from Central Valley as a junior. All four played AAU ball together.

“I’ve played with Teagan since the fifth grade, and same with Libby,” Madi said. “I started playing with Kendall in seventh grade, so us four, we’ve played together a lot of years and have traveled a lot on the AAU circuit. Our chemistry is like no other that I’ve played with in high school. It’s really cool because we’re all personable with each other. It’s not just the basketball side of things. We help each other with the little things too.”

Madi added that accepting outcomes — whether good or bad — has been something she’s tried to improve on as a senior.

“I’m a perfectionist,” Madi said. “I want everything to be perfect. And when it’s not, I can get really upset with myself. Just accepting failure and learning to find success from those setbacks has been one of the biggest things I’ve been working on. And that’s been a huge part going off to college and giving myself grace. My freshman year, if I missed a shot, you could see it in my face. As we’ve worked through that stuff, it’s gotten a lot better on and off the court.”

In early November, Madi signed with University of Wyoming in Laramie.

Having extra eyes on her last year gave her some extra motivation to perform during games as a junior.

“For me, I felt a lot of pressure midseason when some coaches were coming to watch me play,” Madi Symons said. “And maybe I felt I wasn’t performing the best, or what I thought was my best. But the pressure this year is the same. Sometimes, I want to prove myself, but the team that we have this year has taken a lot of that off of me because we can rely on each other. They’ve also helped me through the mental side of it too.”

Coeur d’Alene enters state on an 11-game win streak dating back to the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas in mid-December. The Vikings lost to California schools Sierra Canyon and Mater Dei on back-to-back days (Dec. 21 and 22).

“Playing Sierra Canyon, they were No. 2 in the country and have Juju (Watkins, who has signed with USC), the No. 1 girl in the country,” Madi said. “Being able to compete at that level, if we can do it against them, we can compete against anyone. And it was a huge thing for us. Being able to face some adversity was good for us. Facing that adversity in the game, and seeing how we responded to each other, was great for us.”

Earlier this season against state-bound Timberlake on Jan. 10, Madi passed 2009 graduate Kama Griffitts (1,293 points) as the school’s all-time leading scorer. She now has 1,410 points.

“Kama is one of the best players to come out of Coeur d’Alene High, ever,” Madi said. “Being in the same sentence as her is a great achievement. I really got to know her at NIC and watched her play a lot. She’s an insane athlete, and to be able to go pro and have that opportunity is so cool. It was so surreal that it was her record I passed because I know her more on a personal level. It was really cool to have her come to the district championship game, see her and take a picture with her afterward.”

It was at a kids’ camp recently where Madi realized the big picture.

“I really started trying to get involved with the kids' camps when I was a freshman,” Madi said. “I’d have parents coming up to me and telling me that their child looks up to you and it was so cool that you talked to them after the game. I didn’t even think that was a thing, but being able to have an impact on kids is insane. After the district championship game, I got a bunch of pictures with some little kids that came to watch me, and I’ll go watch their games. I just want to make the best impact on them as possible. And who knows, one of them might be the next star.”

Something that her father appreciates more than anything.

“You can look at her accomplishments, both with volleyball and basketball, and she could be one of the best female athletes to come from Coeur d’Alene High,” Corey Symons said. “And that means nothing to Nicole and I. We’re proud of the unbelievable woman she’s become. Sports have taught her how to grind and fight through tough times. She’s had some tough moments growing up athletically and being a coach's kid. And she’s learned to fight through those things. She’s a leader on the team, in the community and loves being around those younger kids because she was them once. She just loves that kind of stuff.”

And, as Nicole explains, be able to take a moment to be a kid.

“There was a time where we’d tell her it’s OK not to get up in the morning and shoot, because you’re tired and a high academic kid too,” Nicole Symons said. “I think she’s really found that balance in the last year. She still works extremely hard, but has learned to play extremely hard and enjoy her friends too. We’ve told her that basketball can’t be her identity. It can be part of who you are, but you’ve got to have something outside of it. And she loves being outdoors, the water and is into photography and hanging out with her friends too.”

Madi has also drawn from seeing some former NIC athletes, and their success in basketball to lead her path.

“All of my dad’s players were really cool, and Braian (Angola-Rodas) was really like family to us,” Madi said. “He kind of influenced me a lot in my work ethic and what it took to be successful. When he was playing for the Magic (Summer League team), we went to Vegas and his hotel room. It was an insane room and he told me that if you want this, you’ve got to put in the work now to get this later. Just seeing how much my dad’s players were in the gym, I realized that’s what I needed to do to get the same result.”

As for the next result …

“We’ve been working to get this program to where it was since I’ve been here,” Madi said. “The opportunity to get here is insane and really awesome, but it’s still just an opportunity until we make it a reality. We really need to focus, because nothing is permanent right now. We’ve got three more games to make it happen.”