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Trappers Coach, AD Expected to Join Staff At Idaho State
Northwest College athletic director and head men’s basketball coach Andy Ward has resigned from Northwest College. He is expected to join his former college coach Bill Evans as a member of the Idaho State University coaching staff.
Evans, who coached Ward as a player at Southern Utah University, was recently named the head coach at Idaho State University. A formal announcement about the rest of the Bengals’ coaching staff is expected later this week.
Ward has served as the head coach of the Northwest College men’s basketball program for the past five seasons. The team just wrapped up a 22-9 season last month and spent part of the year in the NJCAA top 20 poll.
Ward also served as the Trappers’ athletic director for approximately the last two years.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity to work with him,” Ward said of his former college coach, who recently served as an assistant at NCAA tournament qualifier Montana this past year. Evans also directed Southern Utah University to its only NCAA tournament appearance.
“To have an opportunity to work with him is special,” Ward said. “It’s the sort of opportunity that may or may not come along again.”
The move to a four-year school will be new for Ward, who, outside of one season as a student assistant at Southern Utah, has spent his career as an assistant coach and a head coach in the junior college ranks. In addition to five seasons at Northwest College, Ward also served as a head coach for five years at Eastern Wyoming.
In Ward’s absence, Trapper assistant men’s basketball coach Brian Erickson has been promoted to the role of interim men’s basketball coach. Erickson will serve in that capacity through the 2012-13 season.
“It’s a good move for the college,” Ward said. “I think Brian will do a great job and it allows the college to continue to do the recruiting we’ve been doing without guys wondering who the coach is going to be. It makes things a lot easier for the returning kids as well. It’s a very positive thing for Northwest and the men’s basketball program.”
Erickson has been with the Trappers’ program as an assistant coach for the last three years.
Erickson played for two seasons at Eastern Wyoming before moving on to play his final two years of college ball at Montana State University-Northern. While at Eastern, he was part of a team that finished eighth at the national tournament
Erickson has been in charge of recruiting and student-athlete skill and strength development while an assistant at Northwest College.
Ward notes that he’s proud to be leaving the Trappers’ program in good standing.
“It’s a tough decision to leave the program because it’s been wonderful here,” Ward said. “I think it’s a program that’s moving in the right direction and that has some good players, but this was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I think the program here at Northwest is on very solid footing.”
No announcement has been made regarding who will serve as the interim athletic director at Northwest College or how the school plans to go about filling that position. Ward’s final day on the NWC campus will be April 20.