The NJCAA wrestling tournament will return to Spokane in 2014 after North Idaho College athletic director Al Williams and Chris Frye of the Spokane Regional Sports Commission won their bid at the NJCAA meetings in Daytona Beach, Fla., on March 26.

NIC and Spokane hosted wrestling nationals in Spokane for the first time in February.

After cycling through Des Moines, Iowa, and Rochester, Minn., the tournament will return to this area in what Williams hopes can become a regular event.

"This worked out well for us," Williams said. "We wouldn't have minded getting it every other year, but it doesn't hurt to have it every three years. That way, we're not burning out our tournament volunteers."

Original plans called for the 2011 tournament to be held at The Hub in Spokane Valley, but was later moved to the Spokane Convention Center.

"The whole tournament committee is really happy about this," Williams said. "When the tournament comes around, we'll be ready for it again."

The NJCAA tournament was held on Feb. 25-26, one week after Washington's state high school tournament and the same weekend as the Idaho state high school tournament.

Williams hopes the NJCAA tournament in 2014 can avoid a conflict with both state high school tournaments.

"We're going to plan it better with the high school tournaments," Williams said. "The Washington fans came out, but all the Idaho fans were at state."

Williams said NIC and the Spokane Regional Sports Commission may consider bidding on the NJCAA volleyball tournament in the future.

“We’ve got a shot at volleyball if the interest was there,” Williams said. “With the amount of success in our region, it could be well attended. Most of these teams are used to going to obscure places for the tournament like West Plains (Mo.) — why not here?”

Bidding on other tournaments such as the men’s basketball and women’s basketball is a little different. Both tourneys are held in Kansas.

“Men’s basketball will be a tough one to bring out here,” Williams said. “They’re one of the biggest money makers along with baseball.”

Williams said he also didn’t rule out a bid on the NJCAA softball World Series in the near future.

This year’s tournament will be played in St. George, Utah, May 19-21.

The NJCAA voted to keep the same rule they voted in last year concerning foreign athletes playing overseas on teams with professionals.

Before last year, a foreign player could play on a team with pros, and still be eligible by the NJCAA, as long as they weren’t paid. Last year, the NJCAA changed the rule so anybody who played with pros or in a league with pros, even though they didn’t get paid, were ineligible to play in the NJCAA.

“Nothing has changed for this year,” Williams said. “Everything is status quo for right now. There are so many different rules that had their own criteria that it was best to leave it this way for right now.”

Fear not, fans of the Cardinal women’s basketball program, the bench boss says he isn’t going anywhere.

“A lot of people have asked me about that,” said NIC coach Chris Carlson, whose team won the NJCAA championship two weeks ago in Salina, Kan. “I’m pretty happy with things right here. I’ve got kids in middle school and can’t see uprooting my family unless someone came at me with an offer I couldn’t refuse. You never know, once coaches start moving around, all kinds of wild stuff starts happening.”

With 9 of 11 players from this year’s squad graduating in the spring, some have sights set on their next destination.

Carlson has received calls on Camille Reynolds from some four-year schools, including Penn State, South Alabama, Liberty and James Madison. Kiki Edwards-Teasley, who verbally committed to the University of Portland in the fall, is now weighing offers from Old Dominion and Cincinnati after an issue with some credits earned at NIC not transferring to Portland.

“We’ve found out that’s the toughest school in the WCC to accept transferable credits,” Carlson said. “She was a qualifier out of high school, but I guess the admissions office couldn’t accept some of her credits so she’s still on the open market.”

Tugce Canitez is also attracting interest from some four-year schools, though they’ll likely have to wait for her to complete some summer classes.

Amanda Carlton has signed with Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alberta.

Others are still weighing options, Carlson said.

“Deanna (Dotts) is really interested in Pfeiffer (University) in North Carolina,” Carlson said. “Rocky Mountain (Billings, Mont.) would like to get Timena (Shebala) also. Both Chantel (Divilbiss) and Amy (Warbrick) have been getting quite a bit of interest from some four-year schools also.”

College of Idaho in Caldwell, Northwest College in Kirkland and Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston are among the schools interested in both Divilbiss and Warbrick.

Kama Griffitts has already committed to the University of Arizona.

“We’ve got a lot of kids to replace,” Carlson said. “But I’m going to enjoy the season for as long as I can.”

Men’s sophomore guard Michael Hale will make visits to Hawaii, Creighton, Montana and University of Texas-San Antonio, but hasn’t made a decision yet, according to coach Jared Phay.

“Nobody has signed or really done anything yet,” Phay said.

Men’s and women’s players can’t sign letters of intent for Division 1 programs until April 15.

“Usually by the middle of April things start to settle down,” Phay said. “It’s tough right now with coaches getting hired and fired. We’ll wait it out for the next month and let things settle.”

The NJCAA late signing period begins on April 8.