NIC will host 2011 nationals
North Idaho College wrestling has won 13 National Junior College Athletic Association tournament titles, all a long way from home.
The Cardinals will have a chance to change that in 2011.
NIC, in conjunction with the Spokane Regional Sports Commission, has been awarded hosting rights to the 2011 NJCAA tournament. The 2009 event will be held in Rochester, Minn., which has been the tournament site for the last decade. The tournament moves to Des Moines, Iowa, in 2010, to the HUB (formerly Sports USA) in the Spokane Valley in 2011 and Rochester in 2012, the NJCAA announced.
“I’m pretty excited,” NIC athletic director Al Williams said. “It’s good for our region and the sport. Wrestling is popular with the high school programs in the Northwest and hopefully it will be a benefit for them, too.”
In 2005, NIC submitted an unsuccessful bid to host the 2007-09 NJCAA tournaments.
“I have to give Al all the credit,” Cardinals wrestling coach Pat Whitcomb said. “He pushed it and pushed it and that’s big. Once we get it here and they see the fan base, I think they’ll be impressed.”
That could be important when the NJCAA awards future tournament sites. The tournament will be up for bid after three-year rotation concludes in 2012.
The NJCAA tournament has always been staged in the Midwest, including sites in Rochester, Chicago, Worthington, Minn., and Bismarck, N.D. Whitcomb won individual titles as an NIC wrestler in 1986-87 in Chicago.
“The weather has been so crappy the last few years, I think people were getting frustrated getting in and out of Rochester and Minneapolis,” Whitcomb said.
NIC, which will host next year’s Region 18 tournament, and Boise State drew 2,000 for a November dual match at North Central High.
“In 2010, Iowa Central will have their fans (in Des Moines), but we’ll have ours out here the next year,” Whitcomb said. “It can be pretty big. In 2003, when we won it, we kind of got the (Rochester) crowd behind us and we probably won a couple of matches we shouldn’t have.”