On Wednesday, North Idaho College women’s basketball coach Chris Carlson was enjoying life as a parent, cheering on his daughter Nina and her Idaho teammates in the Big Sky Conference Tournament in Boise.

Carlson’s day job was set to resume today at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Ore., in the quarterfinals of the Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament, but now, it won’t.

Due to spread of coronavirus, the NWAC Tournament was cancelled Thursday morning, along with the Big Sky Conference Tournament.

“We were in the lobby of the hotel and the Vandals just got onto the bus,” Carlson said. “Lizzy (Klinker) and Izzy (Isabelle Hadden), who both played fabulous last night and laid it all on the floor. And now, they’re just done. And I feel the same way.”

Carlson was scheduled to return to Coeur d’Alene early Thursday with his wife, Carey, but stayed in Boise after learning of NIC’s decision late Wednesday night not to send the team to Oregon.

“There was some communication between the administration and women’s basketball coaching staff,” NIC athletic director Bobby Lee said. “We were trying to do what was in the best interest of the student-athletes and staff and that’s where the decision came from.”

“Give the conference credit, they had the plan and both Carey and I were supposed to be on a 6:30 a.m. flight,” Carlson said. “I got a call from Bobby around midnight (Wednesday) and he told us as of right now, the tournament was going on, but NIC put the nix on us going. We didn’t bother getting on the plane at that point. It just became a domino effect after seeing all the big (conference) tournaments get cancelled.”

NIC, which finished 18-10, opened the NWAC Tournament with a 53-50 win over Lower Columbia College on March 6. Following that game, the NWAC Tournament was postponed for the remainder of the weekend and resumed briefly on Thursday before being cancelled later in the day.

Carlson, who announced late last month that this season would be his last at NIC, finished 356-158 in 16 seasons with the Cardinals.

The Cardinals won the 2011 NJCAA Championship.

NIC won the Scenic West Athletic Conference tournament championship in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and also won the regular season title in 2006, 2012 and 2013.

“I’m proud of the girls and the effort we put into the season,” Carlson said. “We were going to beat Umpqua in our next game. Our girls were ready and had worked so hard for that. But it’s done, in kind of an unusual way. But I couldn’t be happier with our kids. We got a playoff win, and they’re going to go on to do great things. But life kind of jumped out at us, and that’s always bigger than the ‘W’.”

NIC also cancelled the annual Idaho Statewide high school All-Star Basketball Games, which the school was scheduled to host Saturday at Rolly Williams Court.

“There wasn’t a lot of people that were concerned, but with what we saw in the Inland Northwest, getting people to travel on an airplane here, we had to think of what’s in the best interest of everyone involved,” Lee said. “We’re hoping that by doing this, it gives people enough notification to re-arrange travel plans so they’re not affected.”

NIC’s golf team was scheduled to open the season at the Lewis-Clark State Invitational on Monday and Tuesday, but the Warriors have postponed spring activities from March 14-29.