Four Nic Wrestlers Accused In Fight At Party ‘There Are Two Sides,’ Says Ex-Coach Owen, Who Resigned Before Incident

Four North Idaho College wrestlers face misdemeanor battery charges for their role in a fight that broke out at a Post Falls home last month.

Nathan Laslovich, 20, of Missoula, and Samuel Vandergaw, 21, of Anchorage, Alaska, both were cited for misdemeanor battery and trespassing. Benjamin Shane, 21, of Iowa Falls, Iowa, is charged with battery and assault, and Robert Buxton, 19, of Yamhill, Ore., faces one count of misdemeanor battery.

In addition to the charges, all four have been suspended from the NIC wrestling team, which is holding voluntary spring workouts. Only two of the wrestlers, freshmen Laslovich and Buxton, are expected to return next season.

Shane Ryan McGinnity, a University of Idaho student, was at her father’s Post Falls home to celebrate her birthday on March 21. According to partygoers, the house already was “packed” by the time a group of up to a dozen wrestlers arrived.

What ensued varies from story to story, but according to the police report, a fight that broke out inside the house spilled into the front yard after McGinnity asked the wrestlers to leave.

Several women told detectives they were either struck or kicked by the four men. One man, 20-year-old Chris Juhlin, said he cut his arm on a broken beer bottle when a wrestler pulled him to the ground. The cut required eight stitches to close, according to the police report.

Some at the party said it is yet another example of what happens when grapplers from the Coeur d’Alene junior college show up to party.

“They arrive in groups, and there’s always a fight,” said Jeremy McGinnity, whose sister was host for the party.

“I don’t want to stereotype all the wrestlers,” he said. “Not all of them are bad. But when they get in groups, they think they are invincible.”

NIC officials said the wrestlers were reluctant to talk about the case because of the pending criminal charges.

But NIC Athletic Director Jim Headley said the incident was simply another example of what can happen when young people abuse alcohol.

“To say it’s a particular concern with the wrestling team, no, I wouldn’t agree with that,” Headley said. “But it is a problem with young people.”

One condition of the wrestlers’ suspension, Headley said, is that if they are involved in another alcohol-related incident, they will be kicked off the team. The four also must pay for Juhlin’s medical expenses, he said.

“Basically, it’s a probation,” Headley said. “The biggest thing is to put them on notice.”

Former NIC wrestling coach John Owen, who retired just before the incident, said he doesn’t believe the team has a reputation for fighting.

He said that during any given year, two or three kids might be involved in altercations. But they aren’t representative of the group, Owen said.

“There are two sides to this story,” Owen said. After speaking with the four athletes, Owen said they planned to fight at least some of the charges.

The coach who took over the nationally acclaimed program, Pat Whitcomb, agreed this wasn’t an ideal way to start his tenure here.

The wrestling team still is feeling tremors from the alcohol-related death of an athlete in 1994, as well as a DUI-incident this winter that resulted in a wrestler being kicked off the team.

Even though incidents like the one on March 21 might occur without much notice among nonathlete students, Whitcomb said the team needs to be held to a different standard.

“I think that if this wasn’t the NIC wrestling team, we wouldn’t be hearing about this,” Whitcomb said. He said he spoke with his youngsters following this latest incident.

“I told them, ‘You’ve got to understand you’re in the spotlight,”’ Whitcomb said. “You’ve got to be extra-clean.”

But Juhlin, whose stitches were removed two weeks ago, is convinced the March 21 incident is not isolated.

Like McGinnity, Juhlin said he doesn’t want to be seen as “a guy who goes against the wrestling team.”

“I probably would have been friends with some of these guys if I’d known them,” the NIC sophomore said.

At the same time, however, something has to be done about the fights, he said.

“I wouldn’t say they have a good reputation around the school,” Juhlin said. “Every year, they have had fights, and they think they can get away with it.”

Post Falls police detectives said that in addition to considering more battery charges, they also plan to look into assertions that minors were drinking alcohol at the party. No alcohol-related charges have been filed yet.

, DataTimes