L-C athletic director Noble resigns

Kathy Noble's duties as Lewis-Clark State College's athletic director lasted less than six months as the school announced Monday that Noble had resigned.

An official announcement will come today as LCSC president Dene Thomas has scheduled a 9 a.m. media conference.

Noble, who will not attend the press conference, couldn't be reached for comment Monday. She was not in her office, and a couple of athletic department employees said they were uncertain where she was at or how to reach her. Both believed she had left town.

While Thomas and LCSC officials deferred all questions until the press conference, two employees confirmed Noble resigned because of health reasons.

"I personally know her blood pressure was uncontrollable,'' said Renee Hofeldt, LCSC's coordinator of media relations and publications. "Unfortunately she came in at a really stressful time. I really liked her. She's a good person.''

Noble said last month that she's also had problems sleeping and regularly only gets 2-3 hours of sleep.

Thomas is expected to be in charge of the athletic department for the time being.

Noble, who was hired in August, replaced interim athletic director Gary Hunter, who was on the job two months. He replaced Dick Hannan, who came back to LCSC as athletic director for a year.

She walked into a tough situation as relations between the athletic department and the administration were somewhat strained over certain responsibilities and money from the NAIA World Series.

Shortly after she took the job, it became apparent the athletic department wasn't in very good financial shape. The Idaho Legislature then added to the problem by announcing as much as a 15 percent funding cut to education, which included the athletic department.

Expecting a big shortfall, Noble announced in early January L-C would drop its women's rodeo and men's and women's golf programs after this spring.

The cuts drew immediate ire from players and coaches from both programs, as well as other coaches in the athletic department, who never seemed to warm up to Noble.

The move also caught the Frontier Conference by surprise. Conference commissioner Ron Kennison said while the conference doesn't currently require a school to have certain sports to be a member, it likely will within two years and that would include golf. That means L-C would likely have to add the program within 18 months.

Also, shortly after announcing the cuts, which were expected to total around $80,000, there was a classified advertisement in the Tribune for an assistant athletic director whose duties included fund-raising. The job would pay around $35,000.

The ad, which drew more ire, was pulled after three days. While L-C was looking to replace Kathleen Burns, who worked for a year as a fund-raiser before moving away, she didn't have the title of assistant athletic director. Also, several were upset with the timing of the ad.

LCSC, however, currently has a hiring freeze, according to an athletic department official, which is why it hasn't began to look for a volleyball coach to replace Kip Yoshimura, who was hired by Gonzaga in late December.

How the hiring freeze will affect L-C's attempt to find a replacement for Noble is unknown.

Noble came to LCSC from Georgia Tech where she was senior associate athletic director. She graduated from Washington State University and served as associate commissioner for the Big Sky Conference, as well as associate athletic director at the University of Montana.

Today's media conference will be at 9 a.m. at room 143 of the Student Union Building.

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Sahlberg may be reached at bsahlber@lmtribune.com