NIC soccer programs will be out of NWAACC after ‘04 season

Soccer, one of the most successful sports at North Idaho College in the program’s short history, is temporarily in limbo.

The Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges voted Friday at its annual meeting in Bellevue to eliminate NIC soccer’s associate member status, leaving the Cardinals without a conference to play in after the 2004 fall season.

NIC’s five-year old soccer program was the only Cardinal sport affiliated with the NWAACC. Other NIC sports are part of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

“We are disappointed because our students have enjoyed our involvement with NWAACC soccer,” NIC athletic director Al Williams said in a school release. “Our commitment to soccer at North Idaho College is unshakeable and our programs will continue to grow and thrive.”

The Cardinal women won the NWAACC championship last fall for the second time. The men lost in the championship game and were undefeated in league play in 2002.

“I’m a little disappointed but not really surprised,” NIC coach Dan Hogan said. “I heard rumblings this spring (while out recruiting) that the athletic directors were looking for full members… . We’ll probably do a little more traveling. Most of the Northeast Region (of the NWAACC) is open to playing us.”

Community Colleges of Spokane athletic director Maury Ray said the original intent of associate membership was a three-year plan for schools to become full members. NIC started women’s soccer in 1999 and men’s soccer the next year. After the three years elapsed, the time frame was extended another year and then another.

Four British Columbia schools are also associate members for golf.

“There has been some concern with a number of schools and a number of issues,” NWAACC executive director Dick McClain said. “The reality is (the executive board) took away associate membership. If they’re going to be in, they need to be in all the way with every sport we have.”

The decision to follow the original intent of associate membership had to be approved by a two-thirds vote of the three dozen NWAACC schools.

“My personal opinion is I hoped NIC would join the NWAACC in other sports,” Ray said. “They would be a rival for all Eastern Region schools, not just Spokane.”

Now NIC will probably have to play an independent schedule that could include a number of NWAACC schools.

The nationally prominent NIC wrestling program competes in NJCAA Region 18, which ironically has several NWAACC schools. Other Cardinals programs compete in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.

Dixie College is the only SWAC member with a women’s soccer team. There are no SWAC men’s teams, though a few schools have club teams.

The NWAACC is not affiliated with the NJCAA and therefore cannot for NJCAA national championships, academic and athletic All-American honors.

“We believe, and history has shown, that North Idaho College can be and is a competitor on a national scale,” Williams said in the release. “We made no secret early on to the NWAACC that our long-term goal with soccer was to bring it to the same level as the rest of our athletic programs.”

Williams said NIC would look at scheduling four-year colleges as well as other junior colleges after the upcoming season.