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NIC volleyball begins new era

Sports

NIC volleyball begins new era

There’s a new face on campus at North Idaho College. Miles Kydd, former Eastern Washington University head volleyball coach, has been named the new NIC head volleyball coach.

Kydd was a member of the EWU volleyball coaching staff for nine years, including the last four as head coach. He spent four years as an assistant under Wade Benson until becoming head coach in January 2008.

Kydd resigned from EWU this past season for personal reasons, but has now found NIC to be a great opportunity and said he has high hopes for this coming season.

“I have great expectations for this program,” Kydd said. “With the success of NIC’s athletics in the past and recently I hope to be the best I can be for the school. The opportunity to compete for a national championship at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) level will be amazing.”

In four years, Kydd was 57-60 overall and 40-25 in the Big Sky Conference. In 2008, his first as head coach, Kydd was selected as the Big Sky Conference (BSC) Coach of the Year after leading the Eagles to a BSC regular-season title.

“We are fortunate to hire someone with Kydd’s coaching experience to join the NIC volleyball program,” said NIC athletics director Al Williams. “It’s valuable to bring in a coach with connections to the region for recruiting purposes, and also someone who has familiarity with our program. Kydd is an excellent teacher of the game and understands what it takes to be successful in our highly competitive conference. I believe Kydd can help NIC maintain our volleyball program at the level of success we have enjoyed amongst the NJCAA elite, and bring some continuity to the program.”

Kydd said his coaching style is more like a teacher in a classroom.

“I do a lot of reading about leadership, and I try to coach as a servant leader,” Kydd said. “My personal motto is to raise others up, so I expect the team to be great in the classroom and on the court. My demeanor is a little bit more laid back because I come from a teaching background.”

Kydd officially begins his position on the Cardinal athletic staff this week. He plans to retain current assistant coach Kelsey Stanley on his staff.

Beyond his coaching experience at EWU, Kydd has learned a lot from other coaches. While in his senior year at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada, Kydd earned some experience as an assistant volleyball coach.

“They didn’t have an assistant coach at the time so I asked the coach if he wanted help, and he said ‘maybe,’” Kydd said. “So I went to practice and did what he asked me to do and eventually that spring I traveled with the team to Europe.”

Kydd said he had the opportunity to meet and work with coach Doug Reimer of the University of British Columbia, and coach Mike Burchuk, who coached Canada in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ga.

“I was very blessed to be able to meet and work with coaches like these guys,” Kydd said. “The crazy thing is that all of these coaches came to the city where I was living at the time. It’s pretty rare to have probably the three top coaches in Canadian volleyball history come to where you are.”

Kydd replaces Kandice Gregorak, who resigned from the head coaching position in January for family reasons after leading the Cardinals to back-to-back NJCAA national tournament appearances. Gregorak was recently hired as an assistant volleyball coach at the University of Montana.

 

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