Cards Stress Positives Of Season

When your team has made it to a placing game on Saturday of the NJCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament, there’s not much difference where a team finishes.

Unless of course the team is playing in the national championship contest. The title “National Champions” is much better than “Runner-up”.

And “Runner-up” is much better than third through eighth, to be sure.

North Idaho College finished sixth Saturday instead of fifth. But don’t send the Cardinals any sympathy cards.

“There weren’t any tears in the locker room,” said NIC coach Greg Crimp, whose team succumbed 71-59 to Kansas City (Kan.) Community College.

No tears doesn’t mean the Cardinals didn’t care. But when you make it to a placing game - like NIC did for the first time in school history - it’s bonus action.

To explain the success NIC enjoyed this season one must back up two weeks and recall the storybook comebacks the Cardinals made at the Region 18 Tournament in Coeur d’Alene.

Maybe some of the Scenic West Athletic Conference coaches were right when they told NIC’s first-round national opponent that the Cardinals were fortunate to be in Tyler.

Actually, the word the coaches reportedly used was much more crude - lucky.

So here’s NIC’s response to those coaches: Sixth place in the nation, baby.

It wouldn’t have been possible if not for a pair of courageous comebacks at regionals in the semifinal and championship games.

MVP? Tough choice

When the NIC players hold their season-ending banquet and pass out awards, the choice of MVP will be difficult.

It could end in a tie. It probably should. How could you pick Shawna Rainer over Jana Nearing, or vice versa?

Rainer, a 6-foot post from Shadle Park HS, will end up at an NCAA Division I school where she’ll play a more natural position, forward.

The 5-10 Nearing, of Bonners Ferry, may be too short for her position (wing) to play Division I.

Mandy Jacques (5-6, Sumner, Wash.), Jamie Richards (5-7, Polson, Mont.) and Angie Dickson (5-5, Federal Way, Wash.) deserve an opportunity to play at the NAIA level.

Sixth is heavenly

Rainer found it easy to talk about the season despite losing Saturday.

“We had a great season,” said Rainer as the Cards finish 29-6. “This is the most-fun team I’ve been on. Both on and off the court we’ve had a great season. We finished sixth and we’re really proud of that. Our hard work really paid off.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Just getting here was a great accomplishment.”

Hearts as big as Texas

That’s what Crimp said his players possess.

There was a hint of disappointment in Crimp’s voice Saturday, but there was more pride in the season’s accomplishments.

“We play a little bit on emotion and we don’t have quite the athleticism that some teams down here do,” he said. “Sometimes when you get as high as we were two nights ago, it’s hard to get it pumped back up again.”

Crimp said his team surpassed expectations this season.

“I knew we had a good group of sophomores back,” Crimp said. “I wasn’t sure when I first looked at us that we were as deep as we were. But the kids on the bench kept coming and coming. Then they started to believe in themselves, which was a key. We liked playing together.

“Chemistry is a magic thing. It has to do with your players, you can’t create it through coaching. I just told them that when they’re my age - if they live that long - they won’t remember if they were 29-6 or 30-5. But they’ll remember a lot of things about the season. There were so many positives.” , DataTimes