In defense of Bellevue High School football parents

The Bellevue High School football program is in hot water for alleged conduct involving funneling students into a diploma mill so that they can play for the district.

A lot of folks are outraged by this.

And while everyone is piling on Bellevue High School, let me be the one to chill everyone out and give the perspective that we seem to be ignoring: that of the kid who is now eligible to play football and actually get into a great college and maybe even earn a multi-million dollar NFL career.

So here’s the basics: the Bellevue High School Wolverines, when it comes to football, are killing it. They’re one of the top prep teams in the entire country.

But, now we learn, courtesy of an investigation by The Seattle Times, they’ve allegedly used a very small private school to farm talent for their team.

Bellevue High School is public. So if you don’t live in the district, you can’t play for the team.

That’s pretty standard.

But there’s a bit of loophole: if a student attends a private school in Bellevue that doesn’t offer football, they can play for you.

The private school in question, The Academic Institute, is being called a diploma mill because they don’t meet state education standards. You basically pay about $1,700 a month for their tuition and you get your diploma.

So you’ve arguably got parents sending kids to this school so they can end up playing football for Bellevue.

As a result of all this, the Bellevue High School head football coach, Butch Goncharoff, has been suspended and the team is on probation as this whole situation is investigated.

According to the Times, the school reported two violations, including that the coach provided financial support to a player’s family.

Mike Colbrase heads up the state’s high school athletic organization and says they’re looking into it.

So, I guess I’ll be the one who defends the school and the parents who engaged in this, even if I’m a bit uncomfortable doing it.

But the fact is, if you’re apart of a winning team like the Bellevue High School Wolverines, you’ve just opened up doors for your kid that may never otherwise be open. If you’re willing to accept the risk associated with this, then I think we certainly shouldn’t be shocked.

So some kids are really great athletes &#8212 exceptional ones like the kinds that lead to careers that Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman, and Russell Wilson are having.

Sometimes, the kids with those exceptional gifts are not so exceptional at other things.

No matter how hard they try, they just can’t perform academically in a meaningful way.

They toil around, getting C’s for all the hard work they do, and they leave school without the sense of accomplishment. They don’t get a chance to get into a good college because they’re not standing out from the rest of the average kids applying to the University of Washington or Gonzaga.

If you’re a parent, you want what’s best for your kid and sometimes that means you sacrifice the high school education so that your kid has a shot at greatness.

And I know that’s hard for a lot of people to understand. It’s hard for me to come to terms with that because I don’t think there’s anything more important than a great education. But understand that if they do well with the Wolverines and earn that 12th state championship, all of a sudden, some great schools are looking to recruit these kids.

Suddenly, you find your kid being considered by a top tier school where not only do they leverage their athletic gifts to get into the NFL, but they also end up gaining access to a great college with great classes and great professors.

Now, is this a risk? Absolutely. You risk, for one, injury, which can be incredibly serious. You risk not getting anyone’s attention and all of a sudden you leave high school without any knowledge and no college prospects.

You can flame out in college and have the same thing happen to you.

This is risky. Is it worth the risk? Are we going to pretend that it’s never worth the risk for certain kids and certain families in certain situations? I think it would be foolish to assume that.

I think this is something the parents have to consider and they have to consider that with their kid. I’m not going to blame the parents because they’re doing what they think is best for their kid and they’re doing what many of you would actually do.

As for the coach? Obviously, I’m not going to endorse breaking rules or the law, but before I end up demonizing him too harshly, I’ll understand that when he wins championships, he does well by not just the school but by his players.

Now, maybe you still think what this guy did was bad, the parents ought to be shamed, and that it’s not worth the risk.

That’s fine. It’s OK to disagree with me. But I’ve heard and read nothing, but complaints and demonizing that didn’t quite seem to acknowledge the context of why this might be done. So at least disagree, having understood the other side.