As they did one year earlier on the same field, the North Idaho Cardinals softball team gathered for a photo with the championship banner of the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament on the dirt at the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex in Spokane.

Trying to get a reaction out of the team for the picture, one of the onlookers asked them, “Who’s No. 1?”

“Bellevue,” one of the players replied. “But we beat them.”

True and true.

Bellevue was seeded No. 1 for the recent NWAC tournament. NIC, the defending champions and the East Region champs, earned just a No. 4 seed — something that wasn’t lost on the players.

“People were underestimating us,” said Cardinals first baseman Bailey Cavanagh, a sophomore from Lake City High. “We came in as the fourth seed, and we showed ’em up. That (seeding) made us want to push and win even more.”

AS IT turned out, the seeding was nothing personal intended at NIC.

As Cardinals coach Don Don Williams explained, seeding was based on RPI in games vs. other NWAC teams only. NIC was ranked higher than fourth in the coaches’ poll, but that didn’t matter. Nor did NIC’s games in Florida in February have any impact on the Cards’ RPI. And Williams said NIC had some games rained out early this season that might have boosted its RPI.

But hey, you use motivation wherever you can find it.

“When we heard the rankings, we were a little frustrated, coming in as a (region) winner,” NIC star pitcher Madi Mott said. “After that day, we just worked harder at practice and that motivated us to be better. We wanted to win the whole thing to prove it.”

“I told ’em it doesn’t matter; you’ve got to beat ’em all to win it anyway,” said Williams, who started the NIC program in 1998.

THE BIGGER issue, as it turned out, was the natural transition from year to year — last year’s sophomores were gone, last year’s freshmen were now sophomore leaders, trying to incorporate the freshmen into the program.

“During our alumni game (last fall) the sophomores got their championship rings, and we (freshmen) just got to look at them all season,” said shortstop Sarah Williams, a freshman from Capital High in Boise. “It’s great to finally be able to experience that with them.”

It was a slower process this season.

Last year’s squad finished 50-3, winning its final 23 games.

This year’s team lost four of its six games on the Florida trip, and didn’t really find its groove until a mid-April trip to the Portland area ­— also about that time, NIC was able to practice outside on a regular basis.

“Definitely coming off a year like we had last year, having a target on our back, it definitely was harder, it definitely felt like a slow start for us,” sophomore center fielder Jori Kerr said. “We just trusted the process like Don Don always tells us to, and look where it got us.”

This year’s team finished 38-9-1 — not as impressive a mark as 50-3. But just like last year, the Cardinals finished strong, winning their final 17 games.

“Last year was pretty special, because it was the first,” Don Don Williams said. “This year was different. We started slow, and had adversity, we had a whole new infield, and it took a lot of time to get us firing on all cylinders. It took a lot of trust, getting my players to trust the process.”

MOTT, WHO has signed with NCAA Division II Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Fla., went 54-3 in her NIC career, including 25-2 with a 1.61 ERA this year.

From Gladstone, Ore., she’s the latest in a pipeline of pitchers and other players Williams has recruited from Oregon. Don Don grew up in Oregon, and played at Linfield College in McMinnville.

“There’s some good ballplayers down there in the Portland corridor, and we’ve got some connections down there with a pitching coach (Sue Oran),” Williams said. “And we’ve gotten about five or six of her pitchers to come up here.”

Mott was the NWAC tourney MVP both years.

“Don Don has taught me everything, on the field and off the field — to be a better person, to be a better player, to be a better student-athlete,” Mott said. “I love it up here (in Coeur d’Alene); I love it at NIC and I don’t want to leave, but I have to. Which sucks.”

Said Williams: “Madi is the fiercest competitor I have ever had in my program. She elevates everyone around her to compete, and win ballgames. She has a whatever-it-takes attitude. She whas just been huge for our program the last two years.”

So has Kerr, who hit a key home run in last year’s championship game, and caught the championship-winning out this year.

“Jori’s my best friend, we live together, so it was awesome that she made that last play,” Mott said. “We’re a little bit opposites. She’s such a hard worker, and I love that. I’m more serious and she’s more funny, and she kinda gets me out of my comfort zone. We just really balance each other out.”

TECHNICALLY, NIC never beat Bellevue this season, but that wasn’t the point. The teams would have met in the third round of the NWAC tourney, but Bellevue was upset by ninth-seeded Walla Walla. Bellevue went 2-2 in the tourney, ousted by 12th-seeded Clackamas.

Meanwhile, NIC went 5-0 in the tourney for the second straight year.

Of the 10 Cardinals who started the title game, seven were sophomores — Mott, Kerr, Cavanagh, second baseman Ashlyn Winn (signed with Idaho State), third baseman Devinne Amesquita, right fielder Emma Profili (signed with NCAA Division II Minot State) and catcher Taylor Anderson (signed with D-II Montana State-Billings).

One of the key returnees will be Sarah Williams, who hit two homers in the championship game.

“Sarah Williams came up big,” Don Don Williams said. “Offensively, she really found her swing, she produced some big runs for us all year, drove the ball deep, and then she started playing great defense the second half of the season. She’s a great kid.”

Finding a replacement in the circle for Mott is also huge, as a dominant pitcher makes everything else in fastpitch much easier.

“We’ve got some good kids coming in next year to build on the success of this year’s team,” Don Don Williams said.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.