Jared Phay
Head Coach
Phone (208) 769-5975
E-mail Jared_Phay@nic.edu
Office GYM-133
Jared Phay returns for his ninth season as the head coach of the Cardinals and looks to continue to build on his program’s success. Phay has enjoyed great success in his tenure at North Idaho College, being named Region 18 Coach of the Year three times. Phay has led the Cardinals to three Scenic West Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships, one as co-champions in the 2005-2006 season and outright conference championships during the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons in which his teams posted back-to-back 27-win seasons. The league titles in 2009 and 2010 are the first SWAC titles for NIC men’s basketball since the league’s creation in 1982. The consecutive conference championships are significant since the SWAC conference is considered the toughest junior college conference in the country. Phay led the 2010-2011 Cardinals to the first ever No. 1 national ranking in school history. Last season the Cardinals won 24 games making it the fifth consecutive year the Cardinals have won 20 plus games as well as been ranked in the top 15 in the country. Last season’s greatest accomplishment, however, came off the court as the Cardinals were one of only ten Men’s Basketball teams in the country to earn NJCAA Academic All-American status with a team GPA above a 3.0.
Prior to being named head coach at NIC, Phay was an assistant coach for two seasons at NIC under Hugh Watson, who recently retired from coaching. Before that, Phay was an assistant coach at Motlow State in Lynchburg, Tenn., where the team was nationally-ranked for most of the season and won the Tennessee junior college title with a 25-5 overall record. Before coaching at Motlow State, Phay was a graduate assistant coach at the University of Idaho under David Farrar. Phay began his coaching career at Falls Christian Academy, where he led his team to its first-ever state appearance in 1999.
Phay believes that the success of his program should be measured not only by wins and losses, but also by the character building of his team and the program has seen 13 out of 16 Sophomores graduate from NIC in the past two years.
Phay is a Post Falls, Idaho native and a graduate of North Idaho College. After attending NIC, Phay earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Idaho in physical education. He is married to Tamara Phay, who teaches first grade in the Central Valley School District and the two are proud parents of three children, Carson, Makenzie and Colton.
Corey Symons
Assistant Coach
Phone (208) 769-3352
E-mail Corey_Symons@nic.edu
Office GYM-131
Corey Symons enters his eighth season as an assistant coach. Symons was high school teammates with head men’s basketball coach Jared Phay at Falls Christian Academy in the early 1990s. Symons has been instrumental in the success of the NIC program and has become known as a great recruiter, being involved in the recruiting process for several highly touted student-athletes. Symons lives by the philosophy of “stay until the job is done” and implements his strong work ethic into the players that he coaches. Symons has played a major role in the recent success of the Cardinal program.
“Corey has been instrumental in our success and our conference titles; national recognition would not have happened without him,” Phay said. “I can’t express how valuable he is to our program and I am fortunate to have the best assistant coach in America!”
Prior to coaching at NIC, Symons was the assistant varsity coach at Post Falls High School from 1999 to 2003. Before that, he was the head coach at Bellevue Christian in Bellevue, Wash. Symons redshirted at NIC in 1993 and then went on to play at Blue Mountain Community College and Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash. Symons averaged 16 points per game in his final season and was team captain at Northwest University, where he graduated with a business degree.
Symons and his wife, Nicole, a junior high school teacher, reside in Coeur d’Alene and are the proud parents of 7-year-old daughter Madison and 5-year-old son Caden.
Thane Jackson
Assistant Coach
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Thane Jackson comes to the Cardinals from Gonzaga Prep where he was an assistant coach last season. Prior to coaching at Gonzaga Prep, Jackson was a graduate assistant at Portland State where former Cardinals Melvin Jones and Renado Parker were on the team. Jackson has worked summer basketball camps at Gonzaga, Davidson, Portland State, and for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. Jackson is from Eugene, Oregon and earned his Bachelor’s degree from Portland State and he is currently working on his Master’s degree from Gonzaga University in Sports Administration.
Ryan Sullivan
Manager
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Office
Shane Maland
Manager
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Office
Tim Davis
Manager
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Office
Michael Thompson
Student Assistant
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