THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: A lot to learn, on and off court for Cardinal women

Saying that a lot will be learned about the North Idaho College women’s basketball team by the time the team plays its home opener might be an understatement.

The level of play as the team transitions from the regionally-based Northwest Athletic Conference to the NJCAA after eight years.

New guidelines on recruiting, with the school able to offer more to its athletes in terms of housing and tuition.

And a lot of new faces.

AMONG THE nine new signees are three players from Spain and another from Australia to go along with returning leading scorers Solei Elletson (Billings, Mont.) and Lakeland High product Addie Kiefer. Kendall Pickford (Lake City High) transferred at the beginning of the spring semester from NAIA Arizona Christian. Sophomore Katie Blume (Cle Elum, Wash.) also returns.

“The reason I went after a lot of international kids was because, at the time, a lot of the local kids weren’t into NIC because of all the stuff we had going on,” second-year NIC women's basketball coach Nathan Covill said. “They really weren’t into NIC because of the accreditation situation, so our roster wasn’t very big going into July. When we went from the NWAC to the NJCAA, I knew I had the ability to give full-ride scholarships, so I started to call some connections and they were emailing players.”

But as things changed in June, when NIC was informed of its move back, some found other options.

“I had five players that were bigs, and was working with the school to see how much we could give them,” Covill said. “But, by the time we’d figured it out, they were gone. Most kids overseas have things taken care of by then, but that’s how I got the girls from Spain. I then reached out to another coach that I’d worked with that had just moved back to Australia and he got me connected to someone about Kalysta (Troman). She’d played on the same club team as someone I’d worked with at Montana, so it was neat to be able to bring her here as well.”

Among the international signings are freshmen Anna Serret (Barcelona), Iratxe Amorrortu (Canary Islands) and sophomore Diana Morale (Madrid) from Spain. NIC also added freshman guard Aaliyah Clemons (Pullayup, Wash.), sophomore guard Deniece Ryan (Albuquerque, N.M.), freshman guard Madison Williamson (Malta, Mont.), freshman wing Taylar Adams (Kennewick, Wash.) and sophomore forward Faye Davis (Redmond, Ore.).

NIC's athletic budget increased from $1.3 million to $2.6 million with the return to the Scenic West Athletic Conference.

As for continuing to recruit players outside the area, it’s not something Covill wants to do as often moving forward.

“I think there’s a lot of talent that is in this area here,” Covill said. “My goal is to recruit the best local talent and keep those kids home and some of those kids that are tweeners that don’t like the chances they’re getting out of high school. I’m going to have to stick to some other areas, and since I’ve got some connections in Europe, I'm going to continue to use that when I can.”

And those same Division I coaches can get some assistance from Covill as well.

“Being at the national level, it offers a lot of other opportunities,” Covill said. “If those schools can’t get a player in at the Division I level, I’m open for a one-year package deal. Some of those things are huge for us as well.”

In the NWAC, the season ends with the conference tournament. Being in the NJCAA offers the chance to compete for national titles.

“When you talk to recruits, families and coaches and tell them you’re a national JUCO, their ears automatically perk up,” Covill said. “No disrespect to the NWAC, but it’s completely different and the California system is completely different. There’s still a lot that I’m trying to figure out. But if people are familiar with this area, selling them on Coeur d’Alene isn’t that hard. When you talk about the region we play in, with Salt Lake and CSI (College of Southern Idaho), it allows me to recruit young ladies that want to play against the best JUCOS and the type of kids that can help us turn into those programs. And we want to compete for national titles.”

NIC WILL return to the Scenic West Athletic Conference this year in men's and women's basketball only. All other sports will return in the fall of 2024. The school was a member of the Scenic West from 1969 to 2016. Only wrestling remained in the NJCAA.

Other members of the Scenic West include Snow College, Utah State-Eastern and Colorado Northwestern and Southern Nevada. Since NIC's departure, Community Christian in California, Pacific Northwest Christian in Kennewick and Truckee Meadows have joined in the conference.

As for scholarships, NIC had eight for the women’s basketball program last year. This year, the Cardinals have 12.

“In the NWAC, we’d be able to pay 65% of tuition, but housing became a problem,” Covill said. “The biggest thing was you could recruit a local kid and convince them to pay a little bit of money. But a kid from Boise or Pocatello, they can’t afford to commute. Then housing was an issue. In the NJCAA, tuition is taken care of and housing isn’t an issue. Whether it’s the dorms, or off campus, they don’t have to worry about that. Now, you can offer tuition, books and board and if they want to live off campus — and we’re still working on what that looks like — they’d have something.”

IN JUNE, as the Cardinals' schedule shifted, both Covill and men’s basketball coach Corey Symons had to do a different form of recruiting — finding games.

“Our schedule was pretty much complete when we got removed from the NWAC,” Covill said. “What both Corey and I had to do was create a schedule that had 15 Division I JUCO opponents, but we didn’t have a conference at the time, so a lot of our games were going to be from the beginning of the season to Christmas. And within 72 hours, I’d had 22 games, 15 of them against Division I schools. But, because it was so late, a lot of them were on the road. We’ll be at CSI this first week for a tournament, then back there again the following week and we’ll end up playing CSI four times this year, but that’s OK. The schedule was created because we had to find games. When we got put back into the (Scenic West) conference, we had to go and cancel some games against NWAC schools and unfortunately had to piss some people off.”

NIC opens the season against the College of Southern Idaho on Nov. 2 in Twin Falls. The team’s home opener is Dec. 30 against Elite Prep of Seattle.

“We have some tough opponents and some where we can find out where we really stand,” Covill said. “We want to be playing our best at the end of the year. We’ll need to learn from the process, but we’ll be really road tested for sure. We were joking the other day that maybe we’ll be more nervous playing at home. But the schedule will give us the opportunity to win some and learn some.”

Only the top four teams in the Scenic West Conference advance to the Region 18 tournament March 15-16 at the home of the conference champion. Basketball teams in the SWAC are ....

“When the conference games come around, we’ll see where we’re at,” Covill said. “Our goal is to sneak into that 1-4 spot and get into the tournament. If we’re playing our best at the end of the season, we have a chance to do that.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.