After 10 years on the bench as an assistant coach of the North Idaho College men's basketball team, Corey Symons will move one spot to the right.

Symons, 39, was officially announced as the new men's basketball coach at North Idaho College on Thursday.

"It's a great opportunity," Symons said. "I'm honored and thankful for (NIC) president Joe Dunlap and (NIC athletic director) Al (Williams) for giving me the chance. It's home and I'm a Cardinal at heart. It's a great opportunity for me and I'm excited about it."

Symons takes over for Jared Phay, who left NIC after posting a 221-94 record in 10 years to take the head coaching position at the College of Southern Idaho.

Symons played high school basketball at Falls Christian Academy in Post Falls and at Lakeland High, then moved on to NAIA Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash.

Symons and Phay played together at Falls Christian.

The first meeting between the longtime friends will be Dec. 13 in Twin Falls, with Phay's return to Coeur d'Alene scheduled for Jan. 17, 2015.

"It's going to be a little different coaching against him," Symons said. "I told Jared that I'm a fan of CSI for 362 days, but for those three days we play them, I'm not."

Symons had a chance to join Phay in Twin Falls.

"The crazy thing is, we're all excited for Jared," Symons said. "He's got a great opportunity and he wanted me to go down there with him. It was kind of tough to turn it down, but this is home and my kids have grown up in this (Christianson) gym. It was best for me career-wise to stay here and for my family. It was pretty tough to beat at the end of the day."

His interview for the coaching job came over a dinner with Williams during a trip to Florida with the NIC women's golf team for the NJCAA tournament.

"We were down there together helping the team out," Symons said. "One night, we went out to dinner and I told him where I saw the program heading and the future plans that I had."

Symons added that Thane Jackson, who has been an NIC assistant coach for the past two years, will remain on the staff and he'll look to add another part-time assistant in the coming weeks.

"We still need to go through the process, but we're going to keep Thane," Symons said. "Thane's done a great job over the last two years and has been vital in recruiting some kids. He had a chance to go with Jared, but chose to stay up here."

Symons, who has been interim coach since Phay was named CSI coach on April 29, and Jackson have been signing players since then. One of those signees is highly-touted Djuan Piper, a 6-foot-6 forward from Rainier Beach High in Seattle.

"He got recruited by everyone," Symons said. "He was a fifth-year high school kid, had some issues and came back to high school. With all that going on, he didn't qualify academically."

Before that, Piper had reportedly narrowed down his college choices to Washington, Gonzaga and Minnesota.

Through Garfield coach Ed Haskins, who was a teammate of Symons' at Northwest, a relationship developed between NIC and the coaches at Rainier Beach.

"He's a really good student and player," Symons said. "With all that other stuff going on, he didn't qualify academically, so once he realized he needed to go the junior college route, that's where our relationship came in. Those guys have had good careers both academically and basketball wise once they've gotten here."

Piper will join three of his former high school teammates - Will Dorsey, Jordon King and Fuquan Niles - in the NIC lineup next year.

"Dijuan and Will are really good friends," Symons said. "We've been over there a couple times to see him play and we're excited to have him here."

"Corey is known as a great recruiter, but he is also an experienced coach," NIC athletic director Al Williams said in a news release. "He has a good feel for the game as a former college player and he understands how to develop athletes. Corey is a hard worker and was instrumental in recruiting most of the current roster. He has earned the chance to guide our men's basketball program, and I believe he is ready for the challenge."

"It's nothing different from my everyday duties as an assistant coach," Symons said. "The only thing that will change is that I'm making the ultimate decisions. We're still busy recruiting and we're excited to get the guys here. We're looking forward to continuing the success and continuing to build on those traditions of Rolly Williams, Hugh Watson and coach Phay that they left here."