THE FRONT ROW with Bruce Bourquin, Nov. 22, 2013

North Idaho College men's basketball assistant coach Corey Symons may not be able to read Cardinals head coach Jared Phay's mind, but the 38-year-old, 10th-year coach and married father of two children has been around long enough to come close.

SYMONS' MOTTO, according to the Cardinals' team website, is "stay until the job is done."

"I got that from coach Phay," Symons said. "He uses that to describe me. It's making sure we do what we've got to do to get the job done. This is a tough business, that's the motto of our program, let's do whatever it takes to get the job done."

As you might expect, Symons and his fellow coaches burn the midnight oil.

"We're on the road all the time," said Symons, whose team travels all over the West for games. "We work about 60 to 70 hours a week during the season. Like last night (on Nov. 15 at NIC's Rolly Williams Court, in an 82-75 overtime win over Central Wyoming College), we had a great, tough win, but our coaching staff was up until around 1 or 2 in the morning watching film and trying to prepare for today's game (on Nov. 16 at home, in a 92-89 overtime loss to Arizona Western College). So it's a quick turnaround, but we do this because we love it."

Such is the life of a JUCO assistant coach.

FOR TWO seasons, Symons played varsity basketball at Falls Christian Academy in Post Falls, where he played on a league champion and graduated in 1992. The school no longer exists, but for one season, 1991-92, he played with Phay, a 36-year-old who is also in his 10th season coaching the Cardinals. Symons, who was born in Coeur d'Alene and was raised in Hayden, went to Falls Christian as a freshman, transferred to Lakeland High and transferred back to Falls Christian before his junior year.

Phay and Symons have done their fair share of damage - in a good way - while coaching NIC. Phay has a 205-85 career record and in 2011, the team was No. 1 in the NJCAA men's basketball rankings for the first time in school history. The Cardinals have won three Region 18 regular season titles and have produced four NJCAA All-Americans. Phay is a three-time Region 18 Coach of the Year.

NIC has a 5-1 record going into tonight's game at home against Dawson Community College of Glendive, Mont.

COREY'S MOTHER, Betty Symons, is a retired teacher who taught music at Falls Christian for 15 years. Symons' father, Sam Symons, has worked for the past 48 years as an electrical mechanic at Tiger Aluminum in Spokane. He also has two older brothers who both graduated from Lakeland High - Tim Symons, a former all-state tight end for the Hawks and Tom Symons, a former fullback and linebacker.

Phay has relied on Corey for his knowledge and leadership. Phay was asked before a recent practice whether he could live without his right-hand man.

"No, I can't," Phay said. "It's kind of unique that we go all the way back into high school (at Falls Christian). We played basketball together. He was a senior, I was a sophomore. He was a way better player than me. But just our friendship going back that far, he knows me really well, and having an assistant coach who can almost read the head coach's mind is invaluable. He relates to the players really well. He has their respect but he has a really good relationship to him."

Not to mention valuable insight to Phay and fellow assistant Thane Jackson, who is in his second season.

"There's constant in-game advice from him," Phay said. "I'm always bouncing something off of him. Probably very rarely will I make a decision without bouncing it off of him."

Symons returns the love and respect right back to his younger colleague.

"It's been nice over the years because we've been together for so much, we think alike," Symons said. "We understand what's going on before it happens together. So it's been a real blessing. I've been really fortunate to work for coach Phay for 10 years. His family and I have been longtime friends. We've known each other for 30 years. He was in the coaching ranks (in college), I was coaching high school (as an assistant at Post Falls High). He gave me the call, I jumped on it and this is my dream to use basketball to help young men. But as far as working for him, it's been awesome. We have a great relationship, our kids are friends with each other."

SYMONS HAS spent the past several years recruiting, grooming and developing talent for NIC. One example is the former Cardinal on Symons' screensaver on his computer, Jalil Abdul-Bassit. He is a 6-foot-4 junior backup guard who currently plays for Oregon. He averaged 13 points per game last season as a sophomore with NIC, and has been out with an ankle injury this season.

"We preach to our team to know where they're at and the opportunities that they have," Symons said. "My biggest highlight is watching kids move on and be successful. The whole reason - and I've had opportunities to work outside the coaching world - I've always said, 'If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life.' I love what I do and the reason being is I love helping young men achieve their goals. Basketball's such a great tool for life lessons. The most influential people in my life have been coaches and that's why I love investing in our program, we love investing in our young players. So the biggest highlight is this kind of stuff, when we get things in the mail from three former players that are all playing Division I (men's basketball) on the same team."

Symons was referring to former NIC players Edrico McGregor, Kaj-Bjorn Sherman and Keon Lewis, now at Texas-San Antonio. McGregor is a starting forward for the Roadrunners, Sherman is a 7-foot backup center and Lewis is a backup guard.

Other former Cardinals who are currently playing at four-year universities include forward Mike Middlebrooks (Illinois State) and Chris Sarbaugh (San Diego).

"For me, wins and losses, we all love that, we're all competitive, we all love to win games," Symons said. "But this is ultimately the goal is helping our kids achieve their goals and be successful, not only in basketball but obviously in life in general."

Symons has also contributed to helping more than 50 student-athletes move on to play for four-year schools, including 26 playing for Division I teams. NIC reached Academic All-American status for the first time in team history.

IN THE 1992-93 season, Symons spent a redshirt season attending NIC. In 1993-94, the 6-foot-5 guard started for one season at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Ore. He started his junior and senior seasons from 1995-97 at Northwest University, an NAIA school near Seattle in Kirkland, Wash.

In all three seasons playing college basketball, Symons averaged between 14 and 16 points per game. In 1997, Northwest University reached the second round of the National Christian College Athletic Association tournament. In 1996, Symons' Northwest University team lost in the first round of the NAIA tournament to eventual national champion Oklahoma City University.

He graduated from Northwest in 1998. From 1999-2003, Symons was a varsity assistant with the Post Falls High boys basketball team. Before that, he was head coach at Bellevue (Wash.) Christian.

"I'm born and raised here," Symons said of Coeur d'Alene. "My wife (Nicole Nipp Symons) was born and raised here. It's a really tight-knit community. We're pretty tied into the community. I was fortunate enough to play for (longtime former head coach) Rolly Williams for a year. So this is home and NIC is a great family, a great community."

Symons said he was offered the head coaching job in 2008 at Cascade College, an NAIA school in Portland, Ore., that was in the same conference as Northwest University. After discussing the opening with Phay and NIC athletic director Al Williams, Symons decided to stay a Cardinal. It ended up being a good decision, as Cascade closed in 2009.

"My wife and I were leaning toward taking it," said Symons, who said he has had other offers from four-year schools. "I sat down with Al and Jared and talked about it. They gave me an 8 p.m. deadline on a Sunday night, at the end of April that year. I called them back at 7 p.m. and said 'We've decided to stay.' I've had other opportunities the last few years to interview for other jobs, but it's tough to leave. We've got such a great thing going here and there's the old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

"The tough thing in our business is you strive to land that next job, but my philosophy is you've really got to be content in where you're at. I mean, obviously you want to move up in your career, but I love it here and order for me to leave, it's got to be something really good ... yeah, if somebody bangs on your door, you're always looking at the next opportunity, but NIC athletics is a great family. A lot of us have been here for many years, it's a great place to work."

SYMONS MET his wife, Nicole Nipp Symons, while they were playing basketball at Northwest University and were married in 1999. Nicole, a math teacher at Lakes Middle School in Coeur d'Alene, was born and raised in Coeur d'Alene, and played on state basketball title teams at Coeur d'Alene and Lake City. The couple have a daughter, Madison, 9, and a son, Caden, 7.

"I'd like to stay here forever, God willing," Nipp Symons said of living in Coeur d'Alene. "They travel a lot. They do everything, from game setup, get the uniforms, they work really hard. But it's a family effort, the kids love being here with their friends, they come to all of the games, they come here and hang out. We love it, it's his career but it's a family time, so it's fun ... but that's not really the life of a coach to stay at one place for a long period of time, so that time might come, but we'll deal with it then."

For now, Symons and his family will deal with having great success enjoying a familiar place.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, or via email at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @bourq25