More Than Fans Cheer Juco Hoop Tourney At Nic Slice Of March Madness Shot In The Arm For Businesses

It’s Coeur d’Alene’s slice of March Madness.

That’s how North Idaho College Athletic Director Jim Headley likes to refer to the Region 18 men’s and women’s basketball tournament playing out this week in Christianson Gymnasium.

Both men’s and women’s finals will play out today with NIC going for the title in both games.

The end of the Scenic West Athletic Conference season is nothing like the big national collegiate tournament for the four-year schools, but the games have the same intensity for boosters and parents of players.

Jim and JoAnne Greene drove the eight hours from Rexburg to watch son Adam play for the Ricks College Vikings in the tournament. “We’ve been here before with our daughter, who played high school volleyball and basketball,” explained JoAnne Greene. “We enjoy it.”

The two didn’t quite have time to slip down to the Post Falls Factory Outlets, but did get into Spokane for some sightseeing, Jim Greene said.

For local restaurants and hotels, the tournament is a shot in the arm. The Days Inn along Northwest Boulevard sold 16 rooms to tournament participants, some for several days, said Carlotta Cary, who works at the motel’s front desk.

Early March traditionally does not set the hospitality business afire in Kootenai County. A week of rabid basketball rooters “gets people in town, and I like to see it,” Headley said.

North Idaho College hadn’t hosted the men’s tournament since 1985, or the women’s tournament since 1988, he said. With a capacity of only 1,480 fans in Christianson Gym, the college won’t likely make much more than the $20,000 the conference demands from the host, Headley said.

“We’d need to make more than $35,000 to have some of the money come back to us,” he said. “We’re not going to quite get there. But the tournament has been run wonderfully and I’m extremely pleased.”

For Dennis and Bonnie Williams of Hayden Lake, the games provided a great diversion from the pall of winter. “It sure gives us something to do after the winter doldrums,” said Dennis Williams, an NIC alum and booster who attends all the Cardinal home games.

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