Report: Bellevue High School may suspend relationship with football booster club
May 28, 2016, 1:20 PM | Updated: 1:30 pm
Bellevue High School has responded to a controversial and disparaging investigation by challenging some allegations, but also changing some aspects of its football program.
The Seattle Times reports that high school officials recently sent a letter to the KingCo Conference saying it disagreed with some conclusions of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association investigation, however, there are some rules that it believes were broken. But the school is not proposing to forfeit any past titles or suspend any future games.
Related: The sad picture painted by the WAII investigation into Bellevue High School football
What the school is proposing is a temporary suspension of the relationship with its booster club which raises considerable funds for the football program. John Conners, president of the Bellevue Wolverines Football Club has publicly disagreed with the outcome of the investigation, and has said they plan to fight it as well as other outcomes.
One such outcome is what BHS refers to in its report to the KingCo Conference as “dealing with personnel matters internally,” according to the Times. Last week, the school district recommended to its board that it fire head coach Butch Goncharoff. In a followup investigation conducted by the district, it concludes that the coach violated policy by accepting excessive payments outside of the school year in relation to his position as coach.
The high school also told the KingCo Conference that it plans to impose new meetings and training programs, and it will review its policies in the wake of the investigation.
What BHS conveys it does not agree with are allegations that football staff, including coach Goncharoff, were a part of a practice to use a private school to shuffle players into — a school some describe as a diploma mill. BHS further states it does not agree that the coach or other staff coordinated tuition payments at the school for football players.
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